The Moment A Russian Leader Realized Communism Sucks Monkeyballs

Chicks On the Right ^ | 2/21/2016 | Mockarena

[Beave Meister]

I had never heard about this story before, but a clever and competent reader shared it on our Facebook page, and I thought some of y’all might enjoy it too.

Back in 1989, card-carrying Communist and Politburo member in the Soviet Union Boris Yeltsin visited Johnson Space Center, and then took a tour of a grocery store in Clear Lake, Texas. According to a Houston Chronicle reporter, Yelstin was far more affected by the grocery store visit than he was the space center.

He apparently was stunned by the aisles and aisles of supermarket products, and told the other Russians in his entourage that if Russians saw what American grocery stores looked like, when in their homeland they had to wait in line for most everything, “there would be a revolution.”

[MUDDOG]

Yep. A great theme song with that topical reference.

[PA Engineer]

Back in 1986 I met a fellow resident (my wife) in neurology. He was a Jewish refusenik and finally was allowed to leave the USSR. He was a neurologist there and had to do the entire residency over again at age 40.

We had gone out for dinner and I was awed when we passed an ATM. He spent almost 15 minutes of a colloquy on KGB plots in his homeland. Why did he do that? The ATM machine. He was convinced when he first arrived that ATMs were KGB plots.

I can laugh about it now. Not so much then. Later he jokingly over dinner figured it was a capitalist plot to get you to spend your money.

[Kickass Conservative]

The look on his face in the Supermarket could only be matched by the President of Venezuela visiting the Factory that makes Toilet Paper for Costco.

[Crucial]

Amen to that. Life would be so much better. People would be healthier, work together more. The population would be more educated.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I understand that those who have nostalgic feelings for the Communist empire can visit grocery stores in Venezuela.

[fieldmarshaldj]

They should, but they live in such a fantasy world that they’d come back convinced if they implemented Socialism/Communism THEIR WAY, they’d make it “work.”

[Jimmy Valentine]

“There’s a holdup in the Bronx, Brooklyns broken out in fights, there’s a traffic jam in Harlem that’s backed up to Jackson Heights. There’s q Scout Troop short a child, Kruschev due at Idlewild, CR 54 where are you?” Ah, Tootie and Muldoon!

[PIF]

Don’t worry! President Bernie will set things right and queuing for groceries will become the newest ‘in thing.’ Millennials will finally have to wait for something.

[Chickensoup]

you are so right. I read that if we did not have 5 cities we would have the fourth lowest crime rate in the world. I cannot remember them all LA, Chicago, New Orleans, ...

[cuz_it_aint_their_money]

"There's a holdup in the Bronx, Brooklyns broken out in fights, there's a traffic jam in Harlem that's backed up to Jackson Heights. There's a Scout Troop short a child, Kruschev due at Idlewild, CAR 54 where are you?" Ah, Tootie and Muldoon!

Gee Thanks! By posting this, you have not only managed to make me feel very OLD but now I'll have that tune stuck in my head for the rest of the day!

[Dutch Boy]

I took that same tour in 1983. Saw the same.

[Egon]

Do you remember the AFRTS PSA announcements warning about the "Trabbis" on the autobahn? LOL!

I do!

I also remember the first time I saw one driving on there. The look on their faces as people zipped by them was priceless.

[Egon]

We should send all of our children, on turning 18 years of age, down to Venezuela to live for a month in one of their cities, and shop in their stores. Consider it a field trip; see what they learn.

I heartily agree.

I was never Liberally-inclined, and always understood the background and economics of socialism/communism. That trip to East Berlin was still an eye-opener for me. You MUST see it in person to fully appreciate the effects, and to instill it FOREVER into your brain.

[PeterPrinciple]

Sad to say there are many here that want more government involvement in food production with the result of fewer choices and higher prices.

They complain with their mouth full.........................

[ops33]

I was stationed in West Berlin from 84-88 and went into East Berlin many times. Never thought there could be so many different shades of gray.

[HereInTheHeartland]

This is a great thread. The kind of thing that drew me to FR way back.

[zzwhale]

socialism is nothing but a parasite that in America lives off capitalism, experiments with social programs that all fail, and is a grave disservice to humanity by offering the illusion of “caring” for fellow man, while in fact it destroys “fellow man”...
individualism and self reliance are the essence of humanity.... religion and moral values temper selfishness and charity is the mechanism, not stealing through taxation. Capitalism does not exist in the USA, rather a warped, crony kickback form of capitalism does, which gives the multinationals and big donors control of the government to the detriment of society... America would be totally different if lobbyists and largte donors and PACs were eliminated and a government pool of limited campaign funds were used... the USA election is bought .... the msot money wins ... the media is leftward biased and joe sixpack is ill informed... and the 2 party system is a failure.
the USSA has become much like pre 92 russia in as much as 45% of americans are now not paying any taxes and thus dont care, as long as they get the free stuff and can watch sports, tv and gorge themselves with excessive food and drink and drugs...

[AppyPappy]

The book “The Aquariums of Pyongyang” has the same story. When the defector reached South Korea, he spent days just wandering in the grocery stores.

We have a lot of foreign students here. The Africans like to bitch (yeah I said that) about how much Americans waste food. I finally responded “We got it to waste”. People who live in countries that purposefully starve their citizens don’t get to lecture me on how we live.

[OKSooner]

In 1994 when I was doing IS contracting I did some time at a nuclear reactor project located in south Texas... those familiar with the industry will know of what I speak... the nuke was located out about 20 miles from the nearest town, with mostly rice fields in between.

Without getting off on a tangent about the overall impression of the place, the monopolized food services at the place, as someone intimated to me, was contracted out to the low bidder. It was... bad. Which to Americans means marginally edible if you're hungry but nothing more. And monopolized, with no competition and no choice except bring your own.

So I'm in the place at lunchtime one day, and these very conspicuous looking dudes come in to go thru the line. Turns out they were non-English speakers - Russians. Russian engineers there to visit and to learn and/or exchange, whatever nuke people on exchange missions do.

These guys were in hog heaven. They stood at the line and had their plates piled up like that was their food for a week. One guy got industrial chicken, or whatever, and then I particularly recall, he's standing there, not able to speak a word of English, but pointing at the industrial hamburger patties swimming in broth waiting to be put in cheeseburgers, and motioning with his hand that he wanted that on top of all the other stuff he had on his plate.

The person behind the counter was kinda dumbfounded, but picked up on what he was getting at and said "like this?" picking a burger up with tongs and reaching it toward his plate.

"DA! DA!", the guy exclaimed.

I recall thinking to myself, this guy's got to go home to a place where something like this doesn't even exist.

[MasterGunner01]

The same thing happened to Viktor Belenko, the Russian MiG-25 pilot that defected to Japan in 1976. After he'd been thoroughly debriefed, he was allowed to travel where he wanted to go and see what he wanted. He was completely astonished by America's abundance of food and how cheaply he could eat. He visited mom and pop diners, and grocery stores or all kinds; he was simply overwhelmed by the bounty. He realized that everything he'd been told by the communists was lies. One of his biggest adjustments was getting used to CHOICE; n Russia there was no choice in anything. In America, you were faced by choices from the moment you got up to when you went to bed.