So I was surprised to find out that roughly half of Europe used to be controlled by Communist governments for several decades.
Countries in Europe like Poland that we think of today as being Democratic weren’t always that way.
Even Germany was divided for several decades prior. And many countries which are today part of Nato and the EU were then Russian aligned.
But what amazes me the most is how it all happened so quickly.
Countries across Europe which were communist run for decades began to all defect from communism at once.
And I’m just curious why that is.
To think Europe was so much different when my parents were growing up.
To think people were afraid of nuclear war breaking out.
To think that Russia had clear plans of wanting to take over all of Europe.
Anyways now I’m a bit more understanding of where my Grandfather’s animosity towards Russia comes from.
For the better part of several decades they had been a threat to world peace.
And so that is why he still views them with such skepticism today.
So even though I’d always just seen Russia as another country on the map, I’d been failing to realize the very real danger it used to present in the past.
In school we were taught about the ideological struggle between Communism and Capitalism, but we were never taught to see Communism for the true evil that it was.
We were taught to see the Soviet Union merely as just foreign rivals we were competing against, instead of a very real danger to our ways of life.
So it is for this reason I ask why isn’t the collapse of the Soviet Union more celebrated? Why aren’t there days of remembrance for us to recall the triumph of American liberty over fascism?
Countries in Europe like Poland that we think of today as being Democratic weren’t always that way.
Even Germany was divided for several decades prior. And many countries which are today part of Nato and the EU were then Russian aligned.
But what amazes me the most is how it all happened so quickly.
Countries across Europe which were communist run for decades began to all defect from communism at once.
And I’m just curious why that is.
To think Europe was so much different when my parents were growing up.
To think people were afraid of nuclear war breaking out.
To think that Russia had clear plans of wanting to take over all of Europe.
Anyways now I’m a bit more understanding of where my Grandfather’s animosity towards Russia comes from.
For the better part of several decades they had been a threat to world peace.
And so that is why he still views them with such skepticism today.
So even though I’d always just seen Russia as another country on the map, I’d been failing to realize the very real danger it used to present in the past.
In school we were taught about the ideological struggle between Communism and Capitalism, but we were never taught to see Communism for the true evil that it was.
We were taught to see the Soviet Union merely as just foreign rivals we were competing against, instead of a very real danger to our ways of life.
So it is for this reason I ask why isn’t the collapse of the Soviet Union more celebrated? Why aren’t there days of remembrance for us to recall the triumph of American liberty over fascism?
