My interest in communism was first sparked by the contrast of what our government led us to believe about Die Rooi Gewaar and what is now seen as a very legitimate part of our country, The South African Communist Party. I have read as many books on communism in Russia and in Red China as I can lay my hands on. The most tenacious behaviour that determined people’s lives under communist rule was the way in which the state turned family against family, neighbour against neighbour and colleague against colleague. It created a society of whisperers, people who were too afraid to think for themselves or to utter words that were not aligned with the party line. The collectivisation of farms and small holdings removed the individual’s belongings and took away his freedom to earn his own living. He had to give all he owned to the collective farm and then work it for the food for his table. Everything that was grown or farmed that was more than what could be consumed (and often was not enough for human survival) had to be given to the state. The state was the party and the party were those who were in power. Everyone lived from hand to mouth and dressed in hand down clothing or had to stand in queues for hours and hours in the hopes of buying just one loaf of bread or a small packet of sugar. Accommodation was extremely poor, more often than not with one family living per room of one house and sharing a kitchen and bathroom. The shops were empty of goods.
The only ones who had access to fully stocked shops where those who worked for the party. Their rewards were the ability to purchase anything from the special shops, to have holiday dachas and to eat the best and wear the most expensive clothing. Those outside the party had to work just to feed themselves. They would have to watch how they thought, had to be extremely careful of what they said and who overheard them for there was always someone around who was only too happy to take their names to the party police in exchange for some favour. To tell a joke or to say anything against the communist party would land you in a gulag if you were lucky or tortured and eventually executed. No one was safe to say how they felt. Generations grew up in this oppressed society, watching what they said and to whom.
The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union was not the end of the Communist era and their spies, intelligence personal or police. They all just evolved to match the new conditions of the new order in Russia. They are the dark partners who were not swept into the rubble of history. NATO has grossly underestimated the Soviet era shadow that continues to lie over Russia and their former states.
The liberation from communism in 1989-91 was exhilarating but the effects were only skin deep. The free markets that replaced the planned economy, the free media with state censorship and one-party rule with free elections were great changes. But these changes could not be matched by the change in the human beings that inhabit those systems. Millions of people grew up under communism and collaborated with it. The toxic legacy of secret police files, sordid secrets and compromises still smears public life. It provides scope for blackmailing the guilty while discrediting the innocent. Even those seen by the West as heroes, such as Poland’s former president Walesa, have come under a cloud of suspicion about past alliance. All the secret police files which have been buried create great possibilities for pressurising anyone born before 1970.
Daniel Treisman, an American academic, states that Russia is no more messily ruled than other middle-income countries such as Mexico or Turkey. Elections are rigged, media is manipulated, and there is high-level corruption and abuse of state power. Unfortunately these are not rare cases. Russia’s legal system sometimes works, especially in cases that do not involve the interests of the rich and powerful. NGO’s and charities can function only so long as they stay away from taboo areas such as Chechnya. Elections in some provinces sometimes still yield surprising results that annoy the country’s leaders.
The similarities of the collapse of apartheid and the collapse of communism are very evident to me. The collapse of apartheid has left us with a country no more messily ruled than Russia. And those who were educated in the communist countries who are now in power in South Africa are not averse to using the same tactics which they learned from the communists.
The WikiLeaks revelations that started in November 2010 exposed the concern of diplomats of the level of corruption in Russia and the fusion between business, crime and government. The spill over into the West caused the then Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, stated in a secret document that Russia was “an oligarchy run by the security services”.
When impeachment was looming for Mr Yeltsin’s family in 1999, he went to the ex-KGB (now FSB) for help. However, he had strong principles and did not want to muzzle the media and encouraged competition between the intelligence and security services. By contrast Mr Putin has given the FSB a near monopoly. The FSB was intended to be a kind of beefed up FBI, responsible for fighting organised crime and spy-catching. Those times are gone. The FSB is a sprawling empire, with capabilities ranging from electronic intelligence-gathering to controlling Russia borders and operations within and beyond them. Its instincts are xenophobic and authoritarian with massive doses of paranoia, ignorance, and nostalgia for the Soviet past.
Mr Putin was the FSB agency director up until 2000. His successor, Nikolai Patrushev, describes the security forces, whether explosive specialists or counter-espionage operational officers, as Russia’s new nobility, which is cause for concern.
During the Soviet era, the leadership had the best access to foreign goods, luxurious dachas and spacious accommodation. Now that there is no more need to pretend to be austere for party reasons, they can enjoy the best when, how and where they want it. Our own leadership too seem to have the same access to these enjoyable living arrangements and conditions.
J. Michael Waller, an expert on Russia, also believes that the former KGB has retained influence in Russia after the Soviet collapse and returned to power with Mr Putin in charge. Taking communism down is one thing, removing its structures is completely something else.
The Russian police and intelligence agencies are as incompetent, nepotistic, corrupt, wasteful and as blinkered as the state they serve. Given the amount of publicity our South African police have received lately, there seems little difference between the two countries.
In retrospect, the West has over-estimated the scale of the Kremlin’s retreat. What looked like a roll back from one point of view was a stay-behind operation from another. “Stay-behind operations were a staple of NATO planning during the early years of the Cold War, and envisaged well-organised networks of saboteurs and spies working to disrupt Soviet rule after an invasion of Western Europe, with access to secret arms caches. These included the notorious Operation Gladio, which degenerated into political mischief-making in Italy”. (Edward Lucas Spies, 2012, p 314).
Perhaps we should listen to those people in Russia who share our values and to help encourage them rather than demoralise them. In February 2011, the four leaders of the main opposition party, the Party of People’s Freedom, wrote an article berating the Western countries for their role in facilitating the misrule of Russia. “We urge Western leaders to discontinue their kisses-and-hugs “Realpolitick”, which has failed and to stop flirting with Russian rulers – behaviour that has not brought any benefits to the West and produces in Russia an impression that Putin’s system is a decent, one, like any other in the democratic world. It means the West should cease greeting Russian rulers as equals, providing them with legitimacy they clearly do not merit. It means the West should start exposing corrupt practices by the Russian establishment … should introduce targeted sanctions against the officials directly abusing the rights of their compatriots”. (Washington Post, 20 February 2011).
Given that Russia emerged from communist dictatorship only twenty odd years ago, the advocates of Russia suggest that we should be impressed that the country is so normal, rather than being depressed that it is no better. The temptation of many Westerners is therefore to accept the superficial image of normality and cooperation, without digging too deeply into the violent, thieving and distorted mind-set and personalities behind it – or the pervasive incompetence and partiality for dangerous short cuts.
Given that South Africa emerged from the National Party only eighteen odd years ago, the advocates of South Africa suggest that we should be impressed that the country is so normal. I suggest that we do not accept the superficial image of our country, but look at the persistent incompetence and penchant for short cuts.
When I see the hammer and sickle of the SA Communist Party, I am left with cold shivers that we too could become a society of whisperers.
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