THe Legacy of Communism in Russia

Essay by ladderman301University, Master's December 2004

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THE LEGACY OF COMMUNISM IN RUSSIA

Ever since the fall of communism in Russia in 1989, the past has constantly come back to haunt or influence the present. Matthew Brzezinsk, the author of, Casino Moscow, writes about his experiences about going back to the Soviet Union and observing all that goes on today in the 'free' country of the former Soviet Union. There is still widespread corruption, just as there was back in the cold war days. Mayors still went about hanging up their pictures everywhere just as former leaders had. (Brzezinsk 153) The legacy of yesterday is now creating a legacy of today.

The legacy of Chernobyl also still lives within Russia near the city of Kiev. Vehicles that go in are still not allowed to go out and people are still being decontaminated. Everyone that was able to get close enough still had to wear cheap hand-me-down protective suits and masks for their safety.

The town of Pripyat, the worker's town was abandoned and looked like a ghost town.

The transportation systems in smaller urban areas had not yet been brought up to date with even the lowest forms of good technology. Train rides through the mountains meant hours upon hours of frigid temperatures. Flying was even more of an adventure. Most of the fleet of planes were bought from other companies and worked when they wanted too. Brzezinsk talks about how people cheered loudly when a landing was made without the plane falling out of the sky.

There are also many internal issues that Russia has to deal with regarding the legacy that communism has left. First, when the Soviet Union collapsed, it was not an industrial society. They had developed some industrial infrastructure such as factories and railroads, but they had not developed the whole industrial...