There is one good, though expensive, antidote for nostalgia for the times of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: visit Cuba. I've placed special emphasis on the word Socialist, since nostaligia for the Soviet Union is something quite different.
I've been wanting to visit Cuba for a long time: it is probably the last normal socialist state on Earth. China, with its development of multifaceted economics, or North Korea, the astounding kingdom of the Juche Idea - these are quite different matters entirely. Eventually an opportunity presented itself: I was invited to join a Russian delegation to participate in the Cuba book fair...
First of all I would like to mention two things I will ask you to remember as you read these notes: I came to Cuba with an open mind and strong feeling of fellowship for its people and government; and I left Cuba... also with an open mind and a feeling of fellowship; both for its people and for its government.
As for socialism, however - something many of you these days no longer remember - it is more complex...
One must of course remember that Cuba's next door neighbour is not the friendliest: the North-American United States, or simply the USA. Cuba survives in an embargo situation and under military threat from the world's most powerful and richest country. For two decades now it survives with the loss of its most powerful ally and defender - the USSR. It survives with practically no natural resources (not counting a tiny quantity of oil and precious metal), on tourism and human potential (40 thousand Cuban doctors work in Venezuela, in practice paying for the supply of oil). It survives frequent hurricanes (it is Cuba that was worst hit by the storms two years ago).
So - what does real socialism give people? And what can it not provide?
Socialism gave the Cubans that for which it was appreciated in the Soviet Union: equality and a certainty of tomorrow. You may live poorly, but that is how everyone lives, including the majority of civil servants; and you will not die of hunger. You will be paid a salary just sufficient to fill your goods entitlement - but you know it will be there. You can be certain that if you become ill, you will receive qualified, free medical assistance, and your children will be able to go to school where they will receive an excellent education.
All of this is an unambiguous good; even in our country much of the population would call it a decisive one. It exists. In reality.
But socialism does not - and in its classical form is unable ever to - provide the converse: inequality, and hope. By "inequality" I mean the right sort of inequality, that in Soviet times was described by the formula "to each according to his accomplishment". For socialism - while producing incredible results initially due to revolutionary zeal, universal participation, the romance of rebuilding the world - immediately strikes an invisible barrier: under socialism, it is impossible to be rich. A socialist state can hand out cars and housing to the leaders of the industry. It can pay bonuses, and name ships and trains after its heroes. But a socialist state can never allow one person to lack a car while another has a personal yacht and aeroplane; for that is the death of socialism.
For a society that survives by simple mechanical labour, such a scheme is quite workable. The divide between a poor and good ploughman or plumber really is not so great that one might earn just enough for a bottle while the other can buy his own "Gulfstream". A dozen or two generals, artists and professors can, in the end, be permitted slightly greater luxuries.
But as soon as one transitions to a modern society, the socialist scheme breaks down. Under socialism it is quite impossible to create Google and receive one's deserts: the mould will crack. One cannot build a factory producing Fords or BMWs and become a billionaire. Quite impossible!
Under socialism, it is possible to create the thermonuclear bomb and purchase a license for a "Lada".
Don't get me wrong, the thermonuclear bomb is also a thing the world needs. And the "Lada", strangely enough, is also a car. But the thermonuclear bomb (like the nuclear sumbarine, the spaceship or the airborne laser) is a one-off thing. It is built either with revolutionary zeal, or by maximal removal from the general equaliser to motivate the work. Everything that is placed on the assembly line, all that surrounds us in everyday life, requires a different stimulus: the capitalist one. It requires joblessness (no, not people dying from hunger, but people who live on benefits but strive for more). It requires extreme stimulus for those who then go on to generate ingenious ideas, who are capable of organising stable, scalable production. It requires an unpredictable future - one that contains fears and danger, but also hope and possibility. One cannot escape from it: capitalism, taking from socialism a series of social guarantees, far better matches human nature. To clarify: that does not make it better. It is merely more adequate (as in its own time socialism turned out to be more adequate than the thieving, shameless, human-hating capitalism of the XIX century).
Cuban socialism works. It really does.
In this impoverished country - where two currencies circulate (and even for the "convertible peso" there is not much one can buy), where the small amout of permissible private initiative - renting rooms to foreigners, making souvenirs, cooking pizza in the street - is so bureaucratised, so heavily regulated that few even attempt to try their hand at "business" - in two weeks in this country I saw such a number of happy, open, kindly faces that in Russia I would not have seen in a year (and being rich has nothing to do with it; I fear that even in Germany or France you would not see so many carefree smiles). What is the reason? - the warm climate, the Cuban character, pride in their independence? I suspect socialism plays its part. Equality and certainty.
But a country where, in order to buy the son a mobile telephone, the whole family "throws the house out through the window" - the cuban saying that implies an incredible application of effort - such a country cannot survive in a world where mobile telephones are upgraded once a year. One cannot live on romance alone if one is regularly visited by tourists covered in expensive photo- and videoequipment. One can show "Avatar" on state television, but those who are able to receive satellite soon realise that "Avatar" is not that science fictional after all...
I have a great deal of sympathy for the cuban social experiement. Their attempt to somehow retain a society built around social justice. But cuban children in their red pioneer ties see MP3 players in tourists' hands, and their eyes light up...
I remember how in another country - in the Soviet Union - I and my compatriots stared with bated breath at the first tape players, shiny cars and multicoloured wrappers in shop windows.
And I remember how that ended.
Socialism contains a fatal flaw after all, and that flaw is in the DNA.
People don't want what's good. They want the best.
And the best - unlike the decent average - is something socialism is not capable of providing.
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