The Day Frozen Pudding-Pops Destroyed Boris Yeltsin's Faith in Communism

Reaganite Republican ^ | 09 April 2015 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

After a September 1989 tour of Houston's Johnson Space Center, 

Boris Yeltsin -freshly elected to the new Soviet Politburo- made an impromptu visit to a typical American grocery store -'Randalls'- in Clear Lake, Texas,
to have himself a look around...


And more than anything he'd seen at the advanced NASA facility, what really blew Yeltsin away was the sheer variety of goods at the supermarket. The fact that such stores where to be found in just about any town in America was said to be beyond comprehension for the Soviet politician- the pictures tell a thousand words-

A mesmerized Yeltsin wandered the isles, marveled at price-scanning registers he had no idea even existed -while taking his free in-store samples of cheese, etc and remarking how if ordinary Russians knew about America's horn-of-plenty 'there would be a revolution'. He added that the Soviet Politburo -with their special import shops/privileges- and not even Gorbachev have access to such variety as the average American did.

Later a biographer wrote that subsequent to the grocery store visit, Yeltsin was actually shocked -and depressed- for a while about what he saw at Randall's that day- he just couldn't get the experience off his mind, especially when contrasted with the meagre offerings his 'potentially rich' USSR
-with it's contempt for the retail sector- could manage.

Historians say the experience at Randall's shattered his belief in communism once-and-for-all... two years later, he was the reform-minded president of a non-communist Russia.

As Reagan once said, if he could just have the opportunity meet with the average Ivan (and his family) and show them how Americans truly lived, and our actual standard of living -not what the USSR told them- he felt his point would be made, and perhaps the Cold War resolved.

Idealistic, yes- but when you hear that not even Boris Yeltsin had any clue as to how far behind their decrepit system truly was, it becomes apparent that Ronald Reagan -typically- knew what he was talking about... seems that's how it happened to Yeltsin.

[Regulator]

He didn’t think it up. It’s the oldest joke since the Bolsheviks stormed the palace.

“Under Capitalism, Man exploits Man. Under Communism, it’s the opposite!”

[jjotto]

It might have come from Karl Marx, who had a poor opinion of Russia and the premature implementation of socialism in an underdeveloped nation.

[DiogenesLamp]

Reagan was a Genius. I hope Cruz can be as clever.

[DiogenesLamp]

If we could only arrange to have leading libtards spend six months in North Korea . . . It is the purest form of communism on the planet.

If only we could arrange to make them stay there.

[alexander_busek]

A newly released global index finds that America falls short, along with other powerful countries, on what matters most: assuring a high quality of life for ordinary citizens.

It isn't the government's business to "ensure a high quality of life" (and who, pray tell, defines what is meant by "high quality?") for its citizens - rather, it should merely stay out of the way and allow the citizens to pursue the life they want.

Regards,

[Turbo Pig]

It isn't the government's business to "ensure a high quality of life" (and who, pray tell, defines what is meant by "high quality?") for its citizens - rather, it should merely stay out of the way and allow the citizens to pursue the life they want.

If you weren't on a list, before, you certainly are now.

[MaxMax]

Under Obama, U.S. personal freedom ranking slips below France

We now rank (21) in the world, Thanks Obama!

[MisterArtery]

I’ve retired and moved to the Texas hill country after 40 years in Houston. The only thing I miss is Randall’s.

[sparklite2]

While living in Canada in the seventies, I was friends with some Hungarians who had immigrated out of the USSR. They, in turn, had friends who had immigrated from communist Hungary only to voluntarily go back, even after having savored the western lifestyle.

Bear in mind that these unfortunates had been born and reared under communism. What terrified them was the possibility that having got a job in Canada, they might lose it. Having a guaranteed income in Hungary, even at the cost of losing personal freedom, overwhelmed the courage it evidently takes to live in a capitalist society.

[driftless2]

I read a similar story concerning a Russian jet pilot who defected to the U.S. in the seventies. After a period of time debriefing him, some gov. handlers took him on a tour of his new country.

One of the first places they took him to was a supermarket somewhere in Maryland. The Russky thought it was all a trick. There's no way an average grocery store could have the amount and variety of goods he saw in that grocery store.

It took subsequent trips to other grocery stores and clothing stores to convince the guy that they were for real and that like all the other Soviet citizens, he had been duped by his government.

[driftless2]

Many Russians in high gov. places knew the score. Members of the Soviet Union foreign embassies and high-ranking diplomats and their wives used a lot of their rubles on shopping trips to ritzy stores in large western cities.

Obviously, they couldn't relay that info and what life was really like outside the SU to the average soviet citizen.

[dfwgator]

One of the reasons Stalin sent a lot of former Red Army soldiers to the Gulags when they returned from the war was because they had a chance to see the West, and he was afraid they would talk about what they saw.

[driftless2]

I've heard similar stories concerning Israelis immigrants from Russia. The immigrants who had lived under a socialist system had the most difficult time adjusting to life in a free society.

In the SU, just about every major decision was made for them by other people. They didn't know how to do for themselves even for many simple things people in free countries take for granted.

That is one of the biggest sins of socialism....it infantilizes people.

[dfwgator]

Still a big problem in Germany 25 years after the Wall fell, the Osties are still having problems adjusting to living in a market economy.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“As Reagan once said, if he could just have the opportunity meet with the average Ivan (and his family) and show them how Americans truly lived, and our actual standard of living -not what the USSR told them- he felt his point would be made, and perhaps the Cold War resolved.”

Reagan got so much; so right.

He was actually helping to “get government off our backs”. He could articulate why big government was bad.
I really haven’t heard anyone else do that except for Sarah Palin.

Reagan was one of the very best Presidents we have ever had. The left’s hero FDR; in comparison; isn’t worthy to shine Reagan’s shoes.

Had Reagan been in charge during the 30’s; the Depression would have likely lasted only about 2 years.

[clearcarbon]

"And if the Leftists in this country get their way we will become the Soviet Union with plenty of shortages/rationing of healthcare, food, electricity, and everything else!"

[Paid_Russian_Troll]

‘It might have come from Karl Marx, who had a poor opinion of Russia and the premature implementation of socialism in an underdeveloped nation.’

This statement by Marx is totally wrong.
History proved that socialism might be a blessing for primitive societìes, but it is an absolute disaster for any developed nation.
For example, every somehow functional nation in the Middle East or North Africa with the exception of Israel (which is leftist to boot but calling it socialist at this point is still an exaggeration) is or was socialist.
On the other hand, in East Asia and the West socialist societies are the worst performers.
There are numerous understandable reasons to it.
The fact is that nanny state is not necessarily a bad evil thing and it is a question of human development. At some stage it might be productive, when run by somehow enlightened class over a mass of savages, but a government like than is prone to corruption for another obvious reason and at certain level of human development its cons starts to outweight any pros by large margin.
The problem is at that time the system is heavily entrenched into society and big government don’t want to give up because it ends benefits of a ruling class. Not to mention is creates hordes of dependants who would fight for this system to the end or at the very least would smear and laugh at any dissent. It would actually make a habit for mainstream society to smear any decent, which would further expand into non-political (primarily economic) issues. It is a great danger in an economy which is not already good at rewarding the best performers. They would effectively vanish as a class when they not only don’t have any material incentive to work harder but also ridiculed by their lazy underperforming comrades. At that point this system would be a burden for society, limiting it further development. You could see it in USSR where the system came to such a crisis in 1930s which was resolved by Great Terror and then WWII with German invasion and related loss of life and infrastructure has diminished the problem, kicking the society back to the level of 19th century.
Another time the society reached the level at which socialism become a liability was mid1970s and it began to rot and exploded in 1991.
You can see similar processes in Cuba and North Korea these days.

[Reaganite Republican]

I think Yeltsin was forced to appoint one of the former KGB clique or they would jail him for corruption along with a dozen or so oligarchs once they forced a coup

Yeltsin was a zombie by the late 90s, and he has no KGB background... imho it was forced upon him

[Freelance Warrior]

Pudding pops

Unlikely that was about them. The supermarket was probably the place where Yeltsin found Jack Daniels which he indulged so much afterwards.

[RedHeeler]

Good manners, perhaps? Please include the United States, on your next incursion, of explaining human idiocracy. You are well versed. Somehow