Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
During an event here at the Hoover Institution yesterday, I had an onstage conversation with former secretary of state and Hoover fellow Condoleezza Rice. Discussing Russia, Sec. Rice happened to make a comment that answered a question with which I've been struggling as I work on my book on the Cold War: How do you enable present-day Americans to understand--how can you make them see--what life was like inside the Soviet Union?
Sec. Rice's comment:
She first visited the Soviet Union as a grad student in 1979, Sec. Rice explained. "My first impression was that the Russians never looked at you. They walked along the Moscow streets looking down at their feet. This was a thoroughly cowed population. They remembered Stalin. The cloud of fear was real."
An entire nation of people afraid to look each other in the eye. That one image says it all, doesn't it?
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Jul '11
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
First of all, what a great lady she is!
Secondly, and to your point, some pictures of folks previously on the wrong side of the iron curtain on reverently bent knees kissing the soil of a free country.
Jul '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
"Son, what would You think of Me if I built a 10 foot wall topped with razor wire around the perimeter of Our property in order to keep those We wanted out?
"Compared with:
"Son, what would You think of Me if I built a 10 foot wall topped with razor wire around the perimeter of Our property in order to keep You in?"
Oct '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
I remember her saying that during your interview on UK, especially the contrast with today where people look you in the face and smile. We often talk about voting with your feet and maybe we have here another metric to use: eye contact.
Apr '12
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
For me the best sense of what life in the USSR must have been like came from a great novel, "Child 44."
Jun '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
The story I've heard repeatedly from various sources over the years, and from then-Soviet emigres themselves (the Silicon Valley has more than its fair share) was the first reaction upon setting foot into a supermarket in Downtown Anywhere, USA. They wept.
That prompts in me a bizarre mix of heartbreak (for what they had to endure) and uplift (that they finally made it to the free world) that's hard to describe.
Edited on April 25, 2012 at 8:04amRe: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
Here's a very mediocre quality photo I took at the event. Also, the full length Uncommon Knowledge interview Peter did with Secretary Rice a few months ago is here.
Aug '11
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
The Stasi Museums (former hdqts) in Berlin and Leipzig sent chills up my spine. My mother lost contact with our E. German relatives in that time, b/c the letters were so heavily censored there was nothing left to read, and letter writing became useless.
Sep '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
My apologies. Sinus medication has caused me to randomly post without much feel for context.
Edited on April 25, 2012 at 3:10amMar '11
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
Peter Robinson
An entire nation of people afraid to look each other in the eye. That one image says it all, doesn't it?
And worse, afraid to talk to each other for fear of accidentally saying what they really thought.
Mar '11
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
When my wife (who was 9 at the time) first entered a West German grocery store after the wall came down, every child was given 1 D Mark to buy a piece of candy. She was so overwhelmed it took her 45 min. to pick one out (she settled on a chocolate penguin).
What I wouldn't give to have seen the expression on her face.
May '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
I feel I do my best commenting via photos. I think stark photos would help people understand the Cold War. See examples here and here.
Oct '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
As a young boy I rode with my parents into East Berlin in the late 50's. That was before the wall. The difference between West and East was stark. West Berlin was a vibrant city rebuilding. Ruble was being cleared by men with machines. In East Berlin the ruble seemed more extensive, I witnessed old women carrying one brick of ruble at a time and dropping it into a wheelbarrow. The vaunted Stalin Allee was a facade. Looking down the side streets you could still see the devastation from the war. The difference between the two sides of the city was palpable even to a child.
Jun '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
I'm definitely concerned about how little people understand about Communism. As for Miss Rice, the only fan letter I ever wrote was to her.
May '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
Like Dave I had an experience with East Germany, not the USSR.
There was still visible rubble in East Berlin in 1977 when I visited as a teenager. I was so stunned I took a couple slides - and I only had 4 precious rolls of film for that trip. I remember the East German guide saying something about how hard it was to fix everything and, to this day, I remember thinking "1977 minus 1945 equals...you haven't finished cleaning up from WWII?! So much for your system, eh!"
In 1988, my father sang in a concert at the Schauspielhaus in East Berlin...it had just finally been restored.
Edited on April 25, 2012 at 3:57amMar '11
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
Mar '11
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
Oh, dear...
Edited on April 25, 2012 at 6:48amMar '11
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
David Williamson
Let's hope we don't have to experience it first hand, before we understand. We are perilously close.
Well, I already understand, coming from the UK, where it is much more benign (cameras everywhere, Twitter and Facebook monitored). As I am sure will be a fundamentally transformed US, when Mr Obama has more freedom in his second term.
Please pass that on to Vladimir.
Jun '10
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
Jimmy Carter has it right: Shooting people in the back as they flee the monsters who have taken over their country -- all the while proclaiming that they are doing everything for the people and doing it with power that reflects the people's power and expressing the will of the people. Stalin was so plugged into what people really wanted.
Some people really just wanted a lead slug in their backs. The evidence is all there -- they must have wanted that.
Jul '11
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
These pictures were given to my mom from an elderly Russian woman whose family had them hidden in their closet for decades in the USSR.
Sometimes they remind me of how blessed we are to be free and at other times I contemplate all those who were persecuted for refusing to disavow their faith.
Mar '12
Re: Condi Rice on the Soviet Union. "The Cloud of Fear Was Real."
I'm probably a little young to appreciate the emotions the Cold War stirred up, but I have my own brushes with communism. The Korean DMZ is an eery place. I can imagine it closely resembles East and West Berlin in some ways: Lookout towers with troops watching western tourist in binoculars; two armies facing off, ready to start a full-blown war at any moment; PA systems airing propaganda...
For the citizens on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , the Cold War never ended. I look forward to Peter's book.