Published 5 September 1991 in The Carolinian (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro), p. 7
Russians learn the meaning of svoboda
by James M. Wallace
Columnist
I did my two years at the front of the Cold War stationed sixty miles from the inter-German border. Many a Sunday morning I would lie in my bunk after dawn thinking how good it was to still be alive which meant that no Hind attack helicopters had come over the Spessart Mountains and no T-72 main battle tanks had come rolling down Bundesstrasse 8 to kill me.
As I was completing my enlistment here in the States, the Berlin Wall fell. The reunification of Germany, the liberation of eastern Europe, and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact followed.
None of this prepared me for the response of the Russian people to the recent failed hard-liner coup.
I incredulously watched as the people of Moscow rallied around the Russian Parliament and constructed barricades against the expected military crackdown. When the coup's armor finally came, the people stood defiantly, refusing to return to the horror of the Soviet past.
The sight of Russians willing to die for freedom moved me to the verge of tears of joy. These weren't the people I was prepared to kill or be killed by in the defense of freedom; these were people like me who were ready to sacrifice everything for freedom.
Svoboda is Russian for freedom. Under the oppression of Soviet communism, the word was meaningless. In the darkest hours of the coup, three young men gave their lives for freedom, for svoboda.
As Thomas Jefferson noted, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." The courage and the sacrifice of the Russian patriots who manned the barricades breathed new life into svoboda. Svoboda now had meaning, and the Russians learned that meaning.
Fortified by the nourishment of svoboda, the people forced the inevitable collapse of the coup. Under the intoxication of svoboda, the people abolished the Soviet communist party which had oppressed them for too long.
After 74 wretched years, the tragic lie of Marxism-Leninism was destroyed in what was the Soviet Union.
No government rules without the consent, whether explicit or implicit, of the governed.
The coup leaders ignored this lesson of history and were forcefully rebuked by the people. Liberated from the domination and exploitation of the communist party elite, the people are now responsible for creating the political, social, and economic institutions which will respond to their needs.
The process will be arduous, fraught with difficulty, and perhaps even perilous. But a people who endured Stalin's Reign of Terror (37 million dead) and Hitler and Stalin's "gift" of World War II (20 million dead) should be capable of attaining this most desirable goal.
The tide of history is with human freedom, human dignity, and the undeniable truth that human beings are at their best when they are free to act in their own enlightened self-interest. These concepts have been central in the American experience. We Americans tend to take freedom for granted as it is all we have ever known. As we celebrate the new birth of freedom in the former Soviet Empire, let us also reaffirm the freedom we have long cherished.
Original unedited column as submitted to The Carolinian (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
The Russians Learn the Meaning of Svoboda
by James M. Wallace
I did my two years at the front of the Cold War stationed sixty miles from the inter-German border. Many a Sunday morning I would lie in my bunk after dawn thinking how good it was to still be alive which meant that no Hind attack helicopters had come over the Spessart Mountains and no T-72 main battle tanks had come rolling down Bundesstrasse 8 to kill me.
As I was completing my enlistment here in the States, the Berlin Wall fell. The reunification of Germany, the liberation of eastern Europe, and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact followed.
None of this prepared me for the response of the Russian people to the recent failed hard-liner coup.
I incredulously watched as the people of Moscow rallied around the Russian Parliament and constructed barricades against the expected military crackdown. When the coup's armor finally came, the people stood defiantly, refusing to return to the horror of the Soviet past.
The sight of Russians willing to die for freedom moved me to the verge of tears of joy. These weren't the people I was prepared to kill or be killed by in the defense of freedom; these were people like me who were ready to sacrifice everything for freedom.
Svoboda is Russian for freedom. Under the oppression of Soviet communism, the word was meaningless. In the darkest hours of the coup, three young men gave their lives for freedom, for svoboda.
As Thomas Jefferson noted, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." The courage and the sacrifice of the Russian patriots who manned the barricades breathed new life into svoboda. Svoboda now had meaning, and the Russians learned that meaning.
Fortified by the nourishment of svoboda, the people forced the inevitable collapse of the coup. Under the intoxication of svoboda, the people abolished the Soviet communist party which had oppressed them for too long.
After 74 wretched years, the tragic lie of Marxism-Leninism was destroyed in what was the Soviet Union.
No government rules without the consent, whether explicit or implicit, of the governed.
The coup leaders ignored this lesson of history and were forcefully rebuked by the people. Liberated from the domination and exploitation of the communist party elite, the people are now rightfully responsible for creating the political, social, and economic institutions which will respond to their needs.
The process will be arduous, fraught with difficulty, and perhaps even perilous. But a people who endured Stalin's Terror (37 million dead) and Hitler and Stalin's "gift" of World War II (20 million dead) should be capable of attaining this most desirable goal.
The tide of history is with human freedom, human dignity, and the undeniable truth that human beings are at their best when they are free to act in their own enlightened self-interest. These concepts have been central in the American experience. We Americans tend to take freedom for granted as it is all we have ever known. As we celebrate the new birth of freedom in the former Soviet Empire, let us also reaffirm the freedom we have long cherished.
