(Introduction: The author, a cousin of Canada Free Press writer Lee Cary, holds an undergraduate degree in Russian Area Studies, and a Master's degree in Russian, Eastern European Studies, and International Business. He was a U.S. Army Counterintelligence Officer who traveled extensively throughout Russia on short trips in-and-out, observing the country and its people. He spent much more time in Russia than has Bernie Sanders. Today he lives in Kansas and owns his own financial services business. What follows is his description of a place, one Bernie has long referred to with fawning admiration, he witnessed during Cary's time in Russia as an American student.)
From 1971-1976, Bernie Sanders helped found Vermont's Liberty Union Party(LUP)--a socialist political organization. About that time, Bernie decided to simultaneously run for governor and senator. His platform included a demand that the government takeover the medical industry, privately owned electric utilities, and the oil industry.
Sanders promoted the Leninist concept of the State seizing the wealth and assets of billionaires
Sanders suggested that these takeovers happen without compensating the banks or persons who owned the operations.
Also, he promoted the Leninist concept of the State seizing the wealth and assets of billionaires and redistributing their wealth to the people.
What follows is a description of Bernie's beloved Russia that I experienced shortly after its collapse.
In the Summer of 1993, I studied at the Gorny Institute in St Petersburg, Russia. I was one of about forty college students. The group included students from Kansas University, Ohio University, New York University, and Georgetown University.
We had access to hot water four days during the summer term. When the State owns the utilities, and needs to do maintenance on the water system, it shuts off the hot water. There were no personal water heaters in the apartments. The city water facility produced all the hot water and supplied it through a series of pipes running throughout the city, arriving at each faucet. Unless it was shut off.
We were warned of the shortage of hot water before arriving in Petersburg. I and one of my roommates bought chaikas, little plug-in tea kettles.
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Socialism is the step that comes before Communism. Marx declared that you can't move from Capitalism to Communism without going through Socialism first
We used our chaikas to fill the bathtub with about an inch of hot water--or four chaikas worth. That was our bath water. We did the same for laundry. We generally did not bathe more than twice a week. Many Russians could not take a real bath throughout the summer.
Before leaving America, we were told to take our own laundry detergent, since detergent would be hard to find, if at all. On laundry day, it was the chaika hot water routine, plus Tide detergent mixed in with a broom handle. Then you rinsed in cold water, of course, and hung things up to dry.
We were also told to bring a clothes line as our dryer. Jeans took days to dry thoroughly. So, after one week, they weren't washed again. After a few weeks of this routine, our washables were limited to sox and underwear. My clothes, at the end of the study abroad program, were so dinghy I threw them away.
This is what happens when the government is in charge. They have total control. You are at their mercy. You wear drab clothes and smell bad.
In time, I witnessed first-hand the broken, corrupt system in the Soviet Union, and later in post-Soviet Russia. Stores with nothing to buy. Filthy, worn-down apartments (no houses), very few cars, drably dressed citizens with dour faces. No freedom, and less hope.
Socialism is the step that comes before Communism. Marx declared that you can't move from Capitalism to Communism without going through Socialism first.
I call today's political socialists--Communists in training. They are enemies of freedom-loving people everywhere.
Dan Cary, holds an undergraduate degree in Russian Area Studies, and a Master’s degree in Russian, Eastern European Studies, and International Business. He was a U.S. Army Counterintelligence Officer who traveled extensively throughout Russia on short trips in-and-out, observing the country and its people. Today he lives in Kansas and owns his own financial services business.
(Introduction: The author, a cousin of Canada Free Press writer Lee Cary, holds an undergraduate degree in Russian Area Studies, and a Master's degree in Russian, Eastern European Studies, and International Business. He was a U.S. Army Counterintelligence Officer who traveled extensively throughout Russia on short trips in-and-out, observing the country and its people. He spent much more time in Russia than has Bernie Sanders. Today he lives in Kansas and owns his own financial services business. What follows is his description of a place, one Bernie has long referred to with fawning admiration, he witnessed during Cary's time in Russia as an American student.)
From 1971-1976, Bernie Sanders helped found Vermont's Liberty Union Party (LUP)--a socialist political organization. About that time, Bernie decided to simultaneously run for governor and senator. His platform included a demand that the government takeover the medical industry, privately owned electric utilities, and the oil industry.
