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Depends which part, but generally I disagree as being a teenager during those times. Imagine 2 generations who never experienced freedom of travel, freedom of s

Depends which part, but generally I disagree as being a teenager during those times. Imagine 2 generations who never experienced freedom of travel, freedom of speech or any other type of it we take for granted now. And suddenly you could travel. Sure, you most probably didn't have means for anything extravagant or frequent, but you still could actually travel, and nobody would shoot you like a rabid dog on the border or throw you into uranium mines for a decade or two to just die there. It was wild time, local mafias, few people dissolved in acid (but generally due to close association with mobsters). People progressively getting richer, not ending up rich but if you start very low any progress is massive. You could see it ie in car ownership - before car parks around were often half empty, but they were gradually filling up (and now they are overflowing). Of course there were losers, people who worked for decades in a factory in the middle of nowhere and it suddenly went bankrupt. Too stubborn/scared of change to move elsewhere, slide into alcoholism (if not there already) and long term unemployment. Transition from communism was universally messed up and just few ahole got obscenely rich. Smart people had endless possibilities, rest was still one foot in old regime which was just about coarsing, slacking or worse. Pretty awesome to experience, of course hindsight is required.

zirgs 4y ago
Tbh - USSR citizens could travel. Sure - their tourist groups had to have a KGB agent/informant attached, but it wasn't like North Korea. My grandpa visited Italy, Egypt, Cuba and India. I doubt that NK citizens can do it now unless they are high-ranking party members.
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  My parents were denied in late 80s even trip to former Yugoslavia, which was a neutral state (but you could escape from there to Austria). They really wanted to show their kiddo a nice sea, nothing more, for landlocked countries it was a very special experience. They were not dissidents or anything, both university educated (which was a rarity back then and people had to actually study hard unlike these days due to messed up incentives, but thats another topic). Heck, even travel to Poland which was neighbor and communist as much as us was very complicated and frequently denied. My father, after maybe 2 years of attempts to get approval for travel to Yugoslavia, ended up in dark lit room with just 1 guy from secret service sitting behind the desk. The guy just stared at him for 45 minutes straight, eye to eye, no word uttered. Absolute power and its projection. Of course, denied. That was former Czechoslovakia, Slovakia part. I've heard some people could travel a bit more, but generally there were reasons for that and they were not nice reasons. At least I can say I am proud of my parents for keeping their morals when there were strong motivations to betray them.

zirgs 4y ago

Tbh - USSR citizens could travel. Sure - their tourist groups had to have a KGB agent/informant attached, but it wasn't like North Korea. My grandpa visited Italy, Egypt, Cuba and India. I doubt that NK citizens can do it now unless they are high-ranking party members.

saiya-jin 4y ago
My parents were denied in late 80s even trip to former Yugoslavia, which was a neutral state (but you could escape from there to Austria). They really wanted to show their kiddo a nice sea, nothing more, for landlocked countries it was a very special experience. They were not dissidents or anything, both university educated (which was a rarity back then and people had to actually study hard unlike these days due to messed up incentives, but thats another topic). Heck, even travel to Poland which was neighbor and communist as much as us was very complicated and frequently denied. My father, after maybe 2 years of attempts to get approval for travel to Yugoslavia, ended up in dark lit room with just 1 guy from secret service sitting behind the desk. The guy just stared at him for 45 minutes straight, eye to eye, no word uttered. Absolute power and its projection. Of course, denied. That was former Czechoslovakia, Slovakia part. I've heard some people could travel a bit more, but generally there were reasons for that and they were not nice reasons. At least I can say I am proud of my parents for keeping their morals when there were strong motivations to betray them.