Life in the USSR

The officials were still rounding up people on Saturday and Sunday to perform “friendly labor” in order to help out our “new government,” which by now was beginning to take over all the businesses and factories—it was to become the “power” to all the poor. It was also a time when new rules were being issued against all religions and all believers. Most of the young people were being watched, and the children in school were being taught that there is no God. Most of the churches were closed, except for two or three of the big Orthodox churches, which remained open. But only a few of the older people attended the services. The schoolchildren were instructed to tell on their parents if they practiced religion at home. The people were watched closely, especially at Christmas and at Easter time. I remember Mama and Papa hiding our small Christmas tree in the pantry, and on Easter the colored eggs were not displayed but were kept hidden from the neighbors. It was also a time when many people of intellect and affluence were being picked up and would never be seen again by their families.

It was a time when we children were taught to be silent and not to tell—outside of our home—about our family background or anything that we knew about our families. We were instructed to never talk about anything that happened or was said in our own home. I remember so well that Mama and Papa would tell us that the “walls have ears” and that we should whisper and never talk loudly. I didn’t understand what they meant. I would imagine that our walls could hear us and that there was something very strange about our home and its walls. When I would want to talk, I would look at the walls and ask Mama if I should whisper or if I could speak out.

Source: The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister (2011) by Nonna Bannister.

It should be mentioned Nonna (the author) was describing her experience when Joseph Stalin was the leader. According to Henry Kissinger in his World Order book  Stalin “eliminated all of the other original revolutionary leaders in a decade of purges, and deployed a largely conscripted labor force to build up Russia’s industrial capacity.” A real nice guy. He did this to consolidate “socialism in one country.”

Also, according to Kissinger, Stalin also thought that the capitalist system inevitably produced wars; hence the end of World War II would at best be an armistice.

Franklin Roosevelt felt the USSR was ‘good guy’ who will respond properly and decently if you treat him right. Does that sound familiar? Apply that thinking to radical Islam. Then again most people back then thought this way about the USSR. After all they were America’s allies during WWII. Only a few like General George Patton didn’t trust the Soviet Union. He was proved right in the end.