by Seth Ferris, New Eastern Outlook:

Few nowadays remember how the fall of the Eastern Bloc actually played out in real time. In the West, the perception was that the system was so tightly controlled that it was impregnable. As long as Westerners heard the old slogans, it convinced them Communism was alive and well, and as evil as ever, as they saw it.

In the actual Communist countries the perception was different. No matter how all-pervasive The Party was, the more people heard the slogans the less they believed in them. Even active Communists didn’t believe much of what they were saying, and knew it was all about gaining and keeping power rather than helping the people, who they were not in the same universe as, let alone on the same planet.