Where did the commies go?

by Grant Martin on

With September came the near fall of another Communitst leader, as Kim Jong Il, dictator over North Korea vanished from the limelight, joining his Cuban counterpart Fidel Castro in the murky depths of unknown, fiercely hidden ailments.

The realist in me knows that both leaders are gravely ill. Kim Jong Il is said to have suffered a stroke early this month and hasn’t since been seen in public — even for state celebrations. In a similar light, Castro, who seems to have largely recovered from last year’s digestive problems, has resigned from his official state role in Cuban politics and now stays largely out of the public eye — no doubt because he is still an aging, fragile man.

But the conspiracy theorist in my has broader, more hopeful aspirations. I think about these two ailing leaders and wonder if perhaps, Communism has taken a toll on them over these last years and if maybe they’ve finally thrown in the towel and headed out to the beach for some good old vaycay.

I see Kim Jong and Fidel sitting on chaise lounges in the Indonesian Archipelago somewhere, bare feet up and drinking out of coconuts while looking out at the setting sun over a crisp, white beach. And Kim Jong looks over, out of his massive blue blockers at Fidel as the Cuban puts down his latest Harry Potter book to take a pull off his strawberry daiquiri. And Kim says, “Hey buddy… we gave it a shot.”

Wherever you two are, know this: I would take two old school Communist evil doers over one rambunctious Latin American president any day of the week. May your countries be open and peaceful and prosperous without you.

Beijing forces vehicle traffic to halve, subways choke

by Grant Martin on

The great thing about running a communist state is that you can dream up and enforce any crazy rule you want — and the people can’t do anything about it.

China, scrambling to clean up its image as the Olympics draw closer, has been making changes to the landscape left and right — beautifying Beijing, planting flowers and cleaning up the streets.

This week, in an effort to clean up the chronically bad air conditions, the government decided to cut down on vehicle pollution by forcing half of the population to take public transportation. Odd and even ending license plates are now supposed to alternate days that they’re able to drive in the city — and violators are faced with a stiff fine.

As a result, half of the population that formerly commuted by automobile and motorcycle is now trying to cram into the city’s public transportation system. The resulting load on the subway system was recently so great that authorities had to shut down several lines to prevent the suffocating crowds — passengers were only allowed get off of the trains for a while. Perhaps the volumes are a bit larger than the Chinese had predicted.

What would happen to you if you were suddenly forced to take public transportation to work or class? Could you walk far enough to reach the bus or train stop and make it to your morning appointments? Would you let your government prevent you from driving every other day of the week?

Bolshoi in Russia: Lenin, Stalin and other marketing icons still alive and kicking

by Iva Skoch on

I have always wanted to see Russia. Growing up in a satellite communist country, with the Soviet Union–the occupying force–pitched as the Evil of all Evils, it took me a while before I thought I could honestly visit the country with an open mind. Nineteen years after the end of communism in Central Europe, to be exact.

Needless to say, I grew up imprinted with a lot of stereotypes about Russia and Russians: They are expanding. Unemotional. They are alcoholics. Xenophobes. And especially: the world would have been better off if Lenin was never born and the Tsar kept ruling Russia.

It’s scary how deeply those stereotypes get rooted when you are bombarded with them from early childhood. I am not saying that some sterotypes aren’t true about Russia today, but they are not exactly helpful when you want to have an open mind about a place. Of course, I really didn’t want to go to Russia just to confirm the stereotypes. I felt like Russia was the missing piece to my view of the world–primarily the political world–and understanding it would greatly help.

With that said, I do think that Russia would have been much better off had the Tsar stayed in power and the Communists never took over.

Soviet memorials


That’s why I was surprised to find so many Soviet plaques, statues and memorials throughout Moscow. Under communism, the Soviet Union was one of the major players in the world; one pole of the bipolar world we all grew up in; well, the older ones of us at least. Even after the Soviet Union split up, Muscovites didn’t feel the need to take down all the signs, the statues and memorials. That is very different behavior from the Czechs, for example. Czechs took all those things down so fast, you wouldn’t believe it. Too fast, some claimed (including Western tourists who expected it of us). After all, it is, and always will be, an important part of our history.

In Russia, Soviet memorials now coexist peacefully with the Tsar memorabilia. Proud displays of the times when Russia was a primary player in world affairs. The times it clearly misses.

Marx’s statue still dominates the square by Teatralnaya metro station. It says: “Workers of the world, unite.” Plaque’s commemorating Lenin are displayed on buildings everywhere. They get as ridiculous as stating that “Here in this building, V.I. Lenin had a speech at a conference in 1917.” Of course, there is the Lenin mausoleum and, next to it, a cemetery of most Russian leaders, including Stalin.

Russians have a conflicted opinion about Stalin. A friend mentioned that they still do not view him primarily as a mass murderer, like the rest of the world does. They view him as a hero, who won a major war for them: the Patriotic War, as they call World War II here.

The Sculpture Park, a lovely little park right next to the World’s ugliest statue I wrote about earlier, has an interesting collection of Soviet statues that were, perhaps, too ridiculous to keep in the streets. Behind a dominant statue of Stalin is a striking memorial to his victims and political prisoners (see photo).

Romanticizing the communist past


Soviet memorabilia is still a great business here. Stands selling anything from Russian fur hats to propaganda posters are still as popular as ever. Old Arbat, what used to be the heart of Moscow’s art community, is–sadly– filled with such stands. They provide an ironic backdrop to Starbucks, McDonald’s and other symbols of capitalism that now dominate the strip.

All of those souvenirs are, of course, not authentic, although they are certainly supposed to appear that way. They are mass-produced, probably somewhere in China, and sold to Western tourists wanting to appear retro chic. It honestly cracks me up to see all these 18-year old kids–kids, who never lived through the Cold War and to whom communism is merely a chapter in their history book–wearing Lenin T-shirts or at least a Che Guevara hat.

If there was such a thing as a “poser university”, wearing communism-romanticizing gear would have to be its graduation gown.

Infiltrating North Korea Part 19: A Final Word

by Neil Woodburn on


Infiltrating North Korea is a 19-part series exploring the world’s most reclusive nation and its bizarre, anachronistic way of life. To start reading at the beginning of the series, be sure to click here.

Although it was a short trip of only five days, my time in North Korea proved to be one of the most fascinating journeys I’ve ever taken.

This brief glimpse into the world’s most reclusive nation was a rare opportunity to go back in time and witness what the Soviet Union was like fifty years ago. Everything I’ve ever read about the former USSR was alive and well in the streets of Pyongyang; red banners hanging everywhere, blanket censorship, ubiquitous propaganda, very few automobiles, fantastic and accessible cultural arts, barely any crime, and a tightly controlled populace afraid to even fold a newspaper with an image of Kim Il Sung on the front for fear of doing something sacrilegious to the Great Leader’s image.

The North Koreans, however, have taken this concept of totalitarianism even further than the Soviets ever did. The Korean cult of personality, for example, requires that people not only wear a pin of Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il on their lapel every day, but also that they bow to any statue of the leaders they come across–and there are a lot of statues in North Korea. Not even Stalin nor Lenin were worshipped to such a degree.The North Koreans are also more paranoid about tourists than their Soviet predecessors; we weren’t allowed to speak to anyone during our time in North Korea, we were routinely prohibited from taking photographs, and we couldn’t wander about on our own. We saw only what the government wanted us to see and spoke only to those thoroughly vetted and officially approved to deal with tourists.

Knowing that my journey to North Korea was carefully regulated to reveal only the positive sides of this “socialist paradise” was extraordinarily frustrating. History is full of naïve international observers who were similarly distracted by smoke and mirror tactics, and then reported back to the civilized world about the excellent conditions they witnessed at various prisons, camps, and hellholes.


Totalitarian governments are very effective with their Potemkin villages and deceitful webs and I wanted to make sure I did not fall victim as well. I therefore read everything I could get my hands on before visiting the country. If you plan on going yourself, I highly recommend that you do the same, otherwise you will be won over by singing children, clean streets, well dressed citizens, and a fanatical devotion to socialism.

In fact, I will go so far as to say that it’s criminal to visit North Korea without educating yourself first. Mandatory reading starts with The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwan–the son of a privileged Pyongyang family who spent ten years of his life, starting at the age of nine, in a North Korean labor camp. Chol-Hwan is coincidently my age and it was therefore particularly poignant knowing that at the same time I was going to high school homecoming dances and football games in the 1980s, Chol-Hwan was being beaten, brainwashed, and forced to cut trees and dig holes in freezing temperatures without adequate clothing. And, he ate rats to survive.

This certainly raises a moral conundrum; should tourists pay exorbitant prices to visit this totalitarian nation knowing that their hard currency helps support the regime?

I scoffed at this originally because my experience in traveling has taught me that human interaction with supposed “enemies” is the very best diplomacy in the world. In addition, bringing an outside perspective to an imprisoned people can also be extraordinarily powerful. The whole reason East Germany was the first communist country to fall was because they had more access to the outside world than any other communist country–they saw what life was like on the other side of the Wall and they rebelled.


The problem with North Korea, however, is that the people remain isolated even in the presence of foreigners. We were never given a chance to speak or interact with a single person. My initial belief that I could make some type of impact, perhaps by simply giving a child a candy bar, turned out to be an absurd impossibility.

And, as a result, my presence did nothing more than slightly boost the government coffers and help Kim Jong Il purchase more of his beloved premium cognac while the rest of the country starves.

And so, I leave it up to you to decide on whether such a trip is appropriate or not (and if you’d like contact information for my travel agent, please email me). Despite my frustrations, however, I feel fortunate that I was able to go and I can only hope that my injection of hard currency into the Kim Jong Il regime has been negated by this fair and balanced account of my time spent in the Hermit Kingdom.

Yesterday: A Tale of Two Cities

Why Everyone Should Fly Aeroflot Once in Their Life

by Grant Martin on

Russia‘s national carrier, Aeroflot, has made a lot of progress in the last few years. Once abhorred by the general public as a “dangerous” carrier (although their record is no more tarnished than any domestic airline), a few new Airbus aircraft, superjets and an international advertising campaign have surged the company into the present. Now you too can enjoy the paltry legroom in coach, paper-thin seats and an indifferent, completely hostile ground crew.

But Aeroflot has one juicy perk that most other carriers don’t have: a delightful communist past. And though most of the crew and staff are tight lipped about the Soviet days, some of their aircraft ooze it.

Enter the Tupolev Tu-154.

The first time you see a Tu-154, your first thought is that you’re getting onto a Russian bomber. Perhaps because its got that glass nose cone, slightly reminiscent of the B-17 (think Memphis Belle) or the tri-engine superjet configuration– something about the design makes you think that you’re going to be flying through some heavy flak over the English Channel, need to strap your double seatbelt across your chest and put on your aviator goggles.

On the inside of the plane you’ll initially think that you’re on any old domestic carrier. Closer inspection to the finer details reveals the beauty though: tarnished metal air vents, operational ash trays that aren’t screwed shut and old worn upholstery make one wonder how long its been since this bird has had an overhaul.

Why does this make you want to fly Aeroflot? Because its a living piece of history. As you hear the three engines rev up on Pulkovo’s 10R runway and the aluminum starts to strain as the Tupolev gains speed, you think of how this ancient piece of machinery was once built. Through the cold war, through the end of the Gorbachev and the demise of the USSR, Russia was not too long ago a forlorn and desolate place. How much change in the communist landscape has this aircraft seen? How has the political climate matured as flight 54 flew back and forth between St. Petersburg and Moscow?

Landing in Sheremetyevo outside of Moscow, you see the IKEA just outside of the airport grounds and will soon be among the oil tycoons, their 7 dollar espressos and their sports cars now common in this cosmopolitan city. In the society that’s quickly leaving the dark days of Communism behind, its nice to have a brief look into what Russia once was. Strange that it’s from 30,000 feet.