Selected text
When I was a postgraduate student, I joined the Party. By that time I had fully gotten rid of my adolescent illusions in connection with the communist party and ideology. When, at the Twentieth Party Congress [44], Khrushchev [45] divulged Stalin’s cult of personality, it revealed to me the opportunities and horrors of totalitarianism. Nobody could ever be sure that the same things ‘only in a different view’ would not continue when Khrushchev or someone else was at power. There was no democracy in the USSR. The Party ruled and governed and everybody understood that.
I started criticizing the Soviet regime even more after the Twentieth Party Congress. The more I found out about the things happening in the USSR, the more I rejected that ideology. The more I pondered over and understood things about life, the more enlightened I got that the Soviet ideology didn’t match my ethics and morale. I joined the Party as I was aware that it was necessary to live prosperously and work in the Soviet Union. I understood that it would be easier for me to graduate and find a good job being a party member. I have always remained a Jew no matter whether it was good or bad for me.
I started criticizing the Soviet regime even more after the Twentieth Party Congress. The more I found out about the things happening in the USSR, the more I rejected that ideology. The more I pondered over and understood things about life, the more enlightened I got that the Soviet ideology didn’t match my ethics and morale. I joined the Party as I was aware that it was necessary to live prosperously and work in the Soviet Union. I understood that it would be easier for me to graduate and find a good job being a party member. I have always remained a Jew no matter whether it was good or bad for me.
Period
Location
Talinn
Estonia
Interview
Avi Dobrysh