Abstract
The transition from Communism in Eastern Europe was based on the reconstruction of moral and institutional frameworks. Society's basic rules had been transformed beyond recognition by the Communist regimes’ attempts to create a New Man, which had generated corruption, indifference and scepticism amongst the region's citizens. The reinstatement of respect for human rights and religious freedoms, and the recreation of functional, trustworthy state structures were necessary for these countries. The battles against ingrained corruption, bureaucratic indolence and reckless spending have shaped the new Eastern European states, with a clear influence on everything from the parties they elect to power to their responses to the economic crisis.
Keywords
Introduction
Making the transition from Communism to liberty is not easy. Lech Wałtȩesa has observed that everybody knows how to make fish soup, but that nobody knows how to change the soup back into fish. This is the task of such a transition. It is easy to transform the social structure and the economy, but it is very hard to transform the people. However, such a transformation is necessary for the transition to be a success; the people need to be given a new heart and new feelings. This has always been a difficult task. There are many problems on this journey; I will highlight just few of them.
A history of destruction
The first step to be taken after the end of Communism was the building of a new society, and this had to be achieved without the assistance of a functioning civil society. One of the most important aims of the Communist system was the destruction of the former organisation of society and civil society, and full subordination of the relations between individuals and their activities to the control of the Communist Party. The first step towards achieving this was to destroy the people's memories. The famous thesis by George Orwell, in which the future is controlled by controlling the past, was continually applied in the Soviet system. Everything that reminded people of the independent Estonia had to be wiped from their memory, eliminating even the possibility of a world different from the Soviet reality from generations of memories.
The assault on collective memory
The assault on collective memory began with the elimination of the dead. Under Communism the majority of the historical and cultural monuments in Estonia were blown up or utilised as scrap metal. Almost every memorial to the War of Independence of 1918–1920 was destroyed or liquidated. Between 1940 and 1950, 95 monuments to the War of Independence, 12 monuments to military leaders in the War of Independence, 18 memorials to War of Independence battlefields, 2 monuments to the victims of the attempted rebellion on 1 December 1924 and 7 unfinished memorial structures were destroyed by order of the Estonian Communist Party (ECP). In addition, several monuments to events in the more distant past, which were too ‘Western’ for the Soviet system and incompatible with the Soviet treatment of history, were also liquidated. Thus, the monuments to the founder of the University of Tartu, Gustav II Adolf, to the leader of the national movement, Villem Reiman, in Tartu and to Martin Luther in Keila were destroyed. The annihilation of the nation's memory also included the almost complete destruction of the collections of several museums and the destruction of books published in independent Estonia.
The assault on free activity
By depriving the nation of its memory, the Communists hoped to destroy its capacity for free activity. The same purpose was served by the demolition of Estonian civil society, which commenced in the summer of 1940, primarily through the complete prohibition of the freedom of association and the systematic destruction of the forms of joint activity that had developed over time. Societies, associations and clubs were liquidated, and the houses and assets that they had acquired through private donations and subscriptions were taken away from them or nationalised. According to the available data, 521 organisations were liquidated in this manner, but it is likely that the number was considerably larger. The local central committee's draft resolution concerning the organisation of informal education from the first year of occupation has been preserved in the party archives. It reads, To liquidate the existing … associations (educational, temperance, childcare, library, singing and dancing, engineering, self-education, training, school maintenance, language learning, women's, farmers’, art, etc. associations and societies) and their unions …. The foundations established for the construction and maintenance of community centres shall also be liquidated’ (Laar 2004). In addition, liquidation extended to the cultural autonomy organisations of the indigenous national minorities in Estonia, which served as unique examples of the protection of minorities and their human rights in Europe at that time. Their assets were nationalised. As a result of the Soviet occupation, the activities of the Jewish organisations and schools that had been permitted in the Republic of Estonia were also terminated.
The assault on freedom of religion
The assault on freedom of activity was accompanied by an assault on freedom of religion. The Communist system considered the church to be one of its main enemies, as it was almost the only institution that existed to some extent outside of the Soviet system and preached on issues which could not be completely censored or controlled. The gospel of Jesus Christ was in such severe conflict with the moral code of the builders of Communism that it was impossible to reconcile the two. Therefore, immediately after Estonia's occupation, considerable pressure was put on the church. After the annexation of Estonia, laws concerning religion and the church, which had applied in the Soviet Union since 1929, came into force in Estonia; under them, the church as a religious and national institution was to be liquidated. The Christian faith, which contradicted the official atheist ideology, had to be wiped out. The assets of the church–-land, buildings and religious installations–-were nationalised. Congregations were no longer allowed to collect subscriptions, leaving voluntary donations as the churches’ only form of income.
According to Bishop Konrad Veem, 5 deans and 11 pastors were deported from the Lutheran Church in 1941. In the same year, the Metropolitan Aleksander of the Orthodox Church of Estonia was removed from office and the church subordinated to Moscow. Bishop Joann Bulin, one dean, eight priests and three deacons of the Orthodox Church were imprisoned and deported. Four priests and one deacon were sent to Russia. Dean Johannes Kraav from Võru County, two priests and one theologian were murdered. The Roman Catholic leader, Monsignor Eduard Profittlich, and one priest out of the five Catholic clergymen in Estonia were deported. The free congregations suffered losses too. For example, the Methodist Bishop Priikask from Kuressaare was also arrested and deported in 1941.
The most difficult times, however, were yet to come. After Estonia was reoccupied in 1944, all of the restrictions that had been abolished during the German occupation were immediately imposed anew and the pressure on the churches became stronger than before. Several Lutheran pastors were arrested. While several Orthodox churches remained empty and services were discontinued, the Lutheran Church nevertheless managed to assert itself, despite the fact that the post-war authorities only allowed congregations to meet where there was a clergyman in place. Many buildings were expropriated from the church and turned into community centres and gymnasiums; the Mihkli Church in Tallinn was even turned into a wrestling hall.
Naturally, the recovery of the Lutheran Church did not please the Communist authorities. On 20 September 1947, Moscow ordered Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR) Security Minister Boris Kumm to considerably increase the efficiency of the measures against the Lutheran Church. A total of 22 Lutheran pastors were arrested in the period 1944–1953. This renewed vigour also gave rise to a new anti-religion campaign, mainly organised by the Communist Party. On 7 July 1954, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) adopted a regulation concerning ‘major inadequacies in scientific–atheist training and the measures to improve it’ (Laar 2004), a version of which concerning Estonia was adopted by the Central Committee Office of the ECP on 17 August 1954. However, these regulations were obviously not very successful since, according to guidelines issued by Moscow, the Central Committee Office of the ECP had to discuss ‘the measures for improving anti-religion work’ on 17 March 1959 and adopt another resolution. A note appended to the resolution, written by a J. Undusk, reveals that although certain successes had been achieved in the anti-faith fight in the preceding years, people were not yet aware of the changes. The document highlighted the deficiencies in the work of the Soviet institutions. For example, in 1958, the commercial authorities in Tallinn had permitted the selling of spruce before Christmas, when it should only have been permitted after Christmas. Also, the directors of several holdings had allowed their employees to use their cars to go to church. The resolution decided to continue to put pressure on the church while making efforts to separate young people from the church through other measures. For instance, ‘The ESSR Ministry of Education was assigned the task of ordering the departments of education and school principals to prohibit the excursions of pupils to acting churches, cathedrals and abbeys’ (Vahtre 1998). The cultural and educational associations were ordered ‘to carefully prepare and organise particularly interesting events during religious holidays, in order to draw young and middle-aged people away from church services’ (Vahtre 1998). Summer festivals were to replace confirmations and magnificent New Year celebrations were to replace Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, schoolteachers waited at the church doors and jotted down the names of their pupils who were attending, sometimes forcefully pulling them away from their parents. Efforts were made to turn the church into a pariah, the joining of which would destroy young people's futures and careers. Joining the church, or even having a church wedding, when it became public might result in expulsion from higher educational institutions, as demonstrated by the dismissal of Illar Hallaste from the University of Tartu in 1980.
The problems of corruption
By weakening the influence of the church, the Communist system also weakened society's morals, rendering alcoholism, theft and so on more permissible. The impact of these negative consequences is still apparent, decades after the end of Communism. This created huge problems during the return to normal society.
The most dangerous disease inherited from Communism was corruption. The Communist society was fully corrupt. It was so corrupt that people did not even understand how corrupt it was. For the people, stealing from the government was not a crime but an act of resistance. People would say, ‘They do not pay us and so we do not work.’ Taking something from a collective farm, bringing it home and giving it to your own animals was perfectly natural. Clearly, it is not possible to build a new society on the basis of such an attitude. Corruption is very dangerous and even those who have had no contact with Communism can quickly become corrupt when exposed to it. This leads to an ineffective economy and ineffective leadership. Individuals do not know where they stand and work does not give the expected results. The result of this is an ineffective state. Combating corruption does not rely on cultural factors. Many people have tried to explain away corruption as something that is linked to cultural background and traditions. For example, some have said that Georgia is a corrupt country, and because of its traditions there is nothing that can be done about it. This is not true, as the experience of fighting against corruption there has proved. In terms of the battle against corruption, Estonia has had the most success among Central and Eastern European transition countries. However, neighbouring Latvia, which shares a cultural background with Estonia, is at the same time one of most corrupt countries according to Transparency International (Laar 2002). How has this happened? There are several rules essential to the avoidance of corruption:
First, one must not become corrupted; even the smallest step in this direction is too far. Once this mistake has been made, it has been made forever and one's reputation is ruined.
Second, do not allow staff to become corrupted. It is not necessary to punish people for every mistake they make, because everybody makes mistakes. However, every act of corruption must be punished.
Third, remove all situations in which people can become corrupted. This generally means abolishing most of the controls and regulations and allowing people to live as they wish. Introduce only those measures which can be enforced. For example, in Georgia the system of car control was corrupt and there was a tradition of bribery. The Georgian government abolished the system, thus ending the corruption. The same was true of the customs service. This approach requires many changes to the regulations, and mainly their abolition, but it is worth it.
Fourth, fight crime. From the very first years of its independence, Estonia was very tough on money launderers and on the enforcement of banking regulations. When it was discovered that several banks were under the control of the Russian mafia, the banks were forced into bankruptcy by the government. The banks were not allowed to be privatised, but were instead ousted from the economy. The message was clear: do not come to Estonia with dirty money. The Latvian approach was different. The authorities there wished for it to become the Switzerland of the Baltic. When Russian criminals wanted to put their money into bank accounts, Latvia was ready to welcome them. Estonia warned Latvia that dirty money could bring dangerous people: first the banks would be under the control of criminals; then, through privatisation, the economy would be controlled by them; and finally, the criminals would gain control of the political system. The Latvian authorities laughed at such a suggestion and claimed that Estonia was jealous. Unfortunately for Latvia, these predictions have become reality.
Fifth, reduce the number of bureaucrats but increase their salaries. Create a working public service. This is a huge challenge for every transition country, and many of them have failed to achieve this step.
Only when these five points have been completed can a country reach the next level by taking classical measures against corruption. Public declarations by state officials and politicians will effectively control money laundering and ensure compliance with anti-corruption laws. Providing a good government e-service also helps. Many things can be checked through the use of e-government, for example, tax information and other data, which cannot be hidden when it is submitted electronically. All of these approaches must be continually reviewed and policies adjusted as necessary.
Another hangover from the Communist past is people's low productivity. In some ways Communism was quite a comfortable system–-one did not have to think or take responsibility. Individuals were told what to do and what not to do. Activity was a sin. People were taught not to intervene and not to be active, thus guaranteeing themselves comfortable life. This all changed during the transition. The new society demanded new qualities from people. To be successful in the new era required greater participation and involvement in decisions. Thus, everything had to change–-people had to take responsibility for themselves, for their families and for the future. This was not easy. Some managed while others did not. Those that failed blamed everybody else and became embittered. This created opposition to the new powers, including among some of the former dissidents and freedom fighters.
Lessons learned: never again
There are also several important lessons to be learned from Communism. I shall mention just three.
First, there is mistrust of the government: people learned from Communism not to trust large, strong governments. They had been betrayed so many times that they did not expect any good to come of the new non-Communist government. In some ways this made the transition easier–-people knew that nobody would help them and that they must look after themselves. As this meant that there was no expectation to help people, this was a winning strategy. In the countries of the West, people are used to trusting the government to intervene in their lives, at least in some areas. This has made it difficult for Western governments to undertake any kind of reform–-once privileges have been given, it is impossible to withdraw them. In the eyes of the former Communist governments, the politicians in the West who mistrusted government interference, such as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, shared a common ground with those living under Communism. Reagan joked about the government's view of the economy–-‘If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.'–-and observed: ‘The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.’ These Western politicians did not want to see more government interference in day-to-day life.
Second, people from former Communist countries know that one can spend only the money one has. They have all seen how the Communist system failed: the money had gone and yet people continued to spend. This was what caused the total breakdown of the system, and what followed was hunger and misery. People in former Communist countries have seen it all, and they do not want to see a repeat of it. As a result, they are quite careful about taking out loans and living on credit. They do not believe in having high debts because they have seen with their own eyes what happens when you have to repay them. Thus, they have followed the economic policies of many Western countries with amazement, especially regarding how the rules have been broken. And, as they were used to the real statistics being obscured, they were not surprised when the collapse came. Now they are suddenly in a position to help countries that had been significantly richer than they–-largely due to those countries living for decades on loans and falsifying their economic statistics. For many in Central-Eastern Europe the economic collapse was perhaps not desirable, but quite just. Central-Eastern European countries have managed successfully during the current economic crisis, and when we compare their situations with those of Greece, Spain or Portugal, the differences can be seen immediately.
Third and finally, the slogan ‘better dead than Red’ still applies in former Communist countries. The people there have seen Communism so close at hand that they are sated. As a result, Communists have only been elected back into power in a few countries, and when this has happened it has been due to their firm promises that they are no longer Communists. Of course they are–-once a Communist, always a Communist. They are corrupt, lie and destroy the economies as they did before, but now they are not re-elected. Centre-right parties are in power in most Central and Eastern European countries. The people in former Communist countries also mistrust Western European leftist politicians because they remember too well how closely these people cooperated with the Soviet Union and how they tried to undermine the Western initiatives that enabled the West to win the Cold War. Central-Eastern Europeans also remember the protests about American missiles in Europe, which actually saved Europe from a Soviet attack. Those in the former Soviet Union knew that the Soviets were planning such an attack using weapons of mass destruction as the weapons of first strike. The result of this is that most of the Central-Eastern European countries support those politicians who are members of the European People's Party, as this party has always stood up for human rights and fought against totalitarianism.
Conclusion
These are just some of the points that need to be understood regarding the politics in former Communist countries. The people in these countries have experienced something that the people in Western Europe have not–-Communism. It is not possible to understand it; it can only be experienced and we have had to do this for decades. And we can only say, ‘Never again, please.’
Footnotes