In the summer of 1986, my wife and I went on vacation to Scandinavia that included a week-long visit with some friends in Helsinki, Finland. Several days of that visit included a trip into what was then the Soviet Union, staying in the city of Saint Petersburg (then called Leningrad).
Traveling as the only Americans as part of a Finnish tour group, we were accorded “special” considerations that included having our passports held until our departure from the country and a hotel room assignment in an otherwise deserted wing of the building, well separated from the rest of the group.
While the architecture throughout the city was beautiful, much like other cities in Europe, the fact that this one was in a communist country was obvious. There were no signs of commercialism to be found anywhere—no signs, no franchises or shopping centers, no variety of automobiles.
It is hard to imagine living in a country where freedom as we know it does not exist—where you are severely restricted in every area of life, 
even to the point where even leaving is forbidden. This fact became very real to us when we were leaving the U.S.S.R. and headed back to Helsinki on a Soviet train.
The region the train line traversed was then solidly forested, with the exception of what was about a half mile wide clear-cut strip of land on the Soviet side, just prior to the border with Finland. The train stopped dead-center in this strip and was soon surrounded on all sides by Soviet soldiers with machine guns. Soldiers boarded the train and for the next hour or so, proceeded to search every square inch of that train, looking for possible defectors.
We were ordered to wait outside our compartment as two soldiers interrogated the two men who shared it with us. As we waited outside in the aisleway with our friends, Eva And Jari, and knowing that I am prone to making ‘wise cracks,’ Jari became quite serious and cautioned me, “Don’t joke with these guys Eric—this is real and they are serious.” As we stood there listing to the interrogation, we could also hear the banging and clanging of soldiers beneath the train, using mallets to dislodge anyone who might be hiding in the train’s undercarriage.
There isn’t room here to tell of all the other differences we noticed between a communist country and what we are familiar with, here in the U.S., but suffice it to say that there is not a gnat’s whisker of a chance that I would ever want to trade places. The fact was, millions of people were living in bondage in Soviet Russia, and it is still that way in many communist countries today—especially North Korea.
That said, in looking at all that has changed in the world since 1986, fortunately, it appears as though freedom and capitalism are steadily transforming the world for the better. Let’s all hope the recent news about a possible “breakthrough” with Kim Jong Un bears fruit, leading to freedom for the people of North Korea.
Photos right:
Top: Outside the train station in Vyborg, USSR, soon after crossing the border. Note the ubiquitous image of Lenin, the Soviet idea of “advertising.”
Center: My wife, Peggy (right) with our friends, Eeva and Jari, waiting in the train aisle as Soviet soldiers search our compartment.
Bottom: The “clearcut” zone at the Soviet border. Note the guard tower in the background.
Leave a Reply