October 14th, 2025

The 13th of October is Thanksgiving here in Canada so there were no classes.

Today is about the “Pains of Democratization in the 1990s.” These socialism class posts are always so long because of how fucking thorough I am when writing my notes here, I need to document as much of the audacity as possible. I am sure you all appreciate it.

So the lecture began with a picture of Czechoslovakia with a famous guy waving to the crowd. He was a play write who was arrested under communism, he was elected by parliament, not the people. Is he a democratic leader? The governments that started shock therapy lost the next elections.

After that we moved on to Hungary and its first free elections. The Hungarian socialists receive less than 10% of the votes, she then showed a picture of the socialist kiss between Brezhnev and Honecker. My professor said they were always kissing for some reason and people laughed. I’d like to know more about the Fraternal Kiss, I wonder where it comes from.

Regarding the other parties during the Hungarian election, the right-wing nationalist coalition won over 50%. Enemies of communism seem to be winning everywhere, she then showed Yeltsin’s 1992 address at the US congress. He said it was a great honour to address the free-est nation (what a load of horseshit). He said “they” wanted the US and Russia to be enemies but he is leaving that in the past (yeah, that didn’t last). “We shall not allow it to rise again,” he said regarding the idol of communism. Man, Yeltsin sucks. Anyway, the communists in Hungary come back and change both their name and rhetoric. The phrase “empire strikes back” was uttered here.

So the return of the communists. In Lithuania, Sajudis won the first free elections in 1990, but in 1992 the communists were back under the name Democratic Labour Party, they held more than 50% of the seats. In Poland, Solidarity became unpopular as a result of the market reforms. The democratic left alliance is victorious in 1993 and got around 60% of the vote. Lithuania depended on Russia so cutting its ties with the USSR hit very hard.

Social democrats won 20% and solidarity lost although they won in Poland in 1989. The SocDems promise stability and economic growth, plus continued reform… hey openly discussed poverty and corrupting, they even talked about organized crime while other parties brushed these issues aside.

Why were the communists succeeding? People were tiered of the reforms and the communists were familiar. They hoped for the old social programs to be restored. In 1995 Solidarity was losing again and the Right-wing party came to the forefront.

The nationalists rear their ugly heads. From 1990-92 there were attempts to federalize Czechoslovakia. Economically, Czechoslovakia worked perfectly, but culturally the Slovaks felt less than. Federalization met fierce opposition from Slovakia. There were demonstrations in Bratislava, and the government was unable to deal with the opposition. In December of 1992 Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. By 1996, political murders and kidnapping became very normal in Slovakia. The parliament was controlled but the red-brown coalition (ex-communists and nationalists). It is interesting how solidarity was found between these two groups, apparently it was through their shared hatred for the Roma. The Roma had to flee due to this hatred that was government supported. Such a European trait.

The reforms led to a constitutional crisis in Russia, 1993. On September 22, Yeltsin dissolved parliament but the deputies did not leave the White House. This was not a democratic move. On October 3rd, demonstrators broke police lines. They wanted to impeach Yeltsin and proceeded to barricade themselves in the White House. Pro-Yeltsin people argue that parliament was aligned with organized crime groups, but there were genuine demonstrations. Many wanted reforms but many also wanted the reforms to slow down.

The army stormed the White House on Yeltsin’s orders. A state of emergency was declared and members were arrested. 1993 saw the new constitution approved and it gave the president enormous power. During this time the army became a very influential political force. They decide who rules, had they sided with the parliament of Russia maybe things would be different today. This laid the foundations for Putin. 1995 comes and Yeltsin is most likely going to lose. She then shows a book by Chrystia Freeland, the one with the Nazi grandfather, called “Sale of the Century.” She says that Freeland is a much better journalist than a foreign minister. I personally think she sucks at everything.

Next in the lecture was the 1995 loans for shares scheme. The economy is corrupt, the tax base is shrinking and there’s a fiscal deficit. People did not receive their salaries for months. The oligarchs proposed that they will lend the government 2 billion dollars for one year in exchange for shares in the wealthiest companies. By 1995 those companies were criminalized, the government had assets to sell but no money. The oligarchs were specially chosen for this scheme. The greatest Russian riches were in these companies. This was theoretically a loan but the government went bankrupt. Between November and December of 1995 there were rigged auctions. The results were that more than 1 billions dollars of state revenue, a strong alliance between the state and oligarchs was formed. They want to ensure that Yeltsin will win the next election. Yeltsin was able to pay back pensions and other things.

In 1996 there were the presidential elections. In the December 1995 Duma elections the Communist Party won, there was a huge propaganda campaign by the oligarchs talking about the dangers of communism. In January 1996 Yeltsin’s polling numbers were 3-6%. The oligarchs organized a campaign in support of Yeltsin. Posters were made to help him win, in 1996 Yeltsin was an embarrassment on the international scene as he was constantly drunk, like when he tried to conduct an orchestra while wasted. That’s hilarious.

There was American help. In declassified documents they show the extent of US meddling. Russian money was involved with Trump but only a few thousand. Nothing compared to Clinton’s millions for Yeltsin. Yeltsin begged for IMF loans for his campaign, she then quotes a conversation. Yeltsin asks for billions, “you complain about Russian interference?” She says. In 1999 Clinton asks who will win, Yeltsin says “Putin, of course.” At this time no one knows who Putin even is except Clinton. The US and Yeltsin did not allow the people to choose and it’s harder to have democratic elections.

We ended the class with the Chechen wars, or the start oof the wars. This was just an introduction. She showed us a map to illustrate the complexity of Russia. There are 20 autonomous republics, and only one of them wanted independence: Chechnya. I wonder why that is? Well the only part we got to learn in this lecture was about Chechnya’s culture and memory. It had/has a traditional untrue and Muridism (Sufi Islam) is the most dominant form of Islam in the region. In the 19th century Sufi leaders battle the Russian empire.

Then we briefly covered the Caucasian war (1817-1864) and Imam Shamil, who was the leader and a legend for fighting Tsarist forces well. There was no nationalism, they were righting for religion here. Even when Shamil was defeated the Russians treated him as an honourable prisoner.

Then there were the 1944 deportations of Chechen-Ingush people. 500,000 were deported and 25% of the population died. They were occupied by the Nazi so the Stalin government claimed Chechens were collaborators so when the region was liberated deportations were called for. This was an appalling choice. The entire population was deported. It was a tragedy that was never forgotten and never forgiven. The Chechens returned after Stalin’s death.

That is where my class ended. Not much commentary from students today but they will get chatty soon.