Selected text
In 1947 Soviet authorities began to oppress those who had relatives abroad [27], especially in capitalist countries. Those who corresponded with their relatives abroad were in the KGB records [28]. This was dangerous and might have resulted in being fired from work or even imprisonment for ridiculous charges of espionage.
I understood that they wanted to shield people from receiving information from abroad since the Soviet propaganda was constantly telling us that Soviet people had a better life and a better care from the state. They wrote in newspapers about capitalist countries that capitalists were squeezing workers out and threw them out into the streets, when they had no strength to go on. Of course, if correspondence had been allowed, Soviet citizens might have understood that this was not true.
My brother didn’t write me and I didn’t mention having relatives abroad. Even my daughters didn’t know about Frantisek. Of course, I would have corresponded with my brother, had I known where he was, but I didn’t even know that he was in Australia. I thought he lived in Czechoslovakia.
I understood that they wanted to shield people from receiving information from abroad since the Soviet propaganda was constantly telling us that Soviet people had a better life and a better care from the state. They wrote in newspapers about capitalist countries that capitalists were squeezing workers out and threw them out into the streets, when they had no strength to go on. Of course, if correspondence had been allowed, Soviet citizens might have understood that this was not true.
My brother didn’t write me and I didn’t mention having relatives abroad. Even my daughters didn’t know about Frantisek. Of course, I would have corresponded with my brother, had I known where he was, but I didn’t even know that he was in Australia. I thought he lived in Czechoslovakia.
Period
Location
Uzhgorod
Ukraine
Interview
Stepan Neuman