Postcard

Make peace not war

The theologian Friedrich Schorlemmer was a member of the East German civil rights movement and an initiator of the event "Swords to Ploughshares". The event became a sign of hope for the pro-democracy movement.

We had to flee without our children

Leaving her children behind when the youngest one was less than a year old, Katalin and her husband risked their lives escaping over the Hungarian–Rumanian border, with the help of passers who knew the best ways around the Rumanian border guards and their

All Solidarnosc people wore beards

The radiologist Maciej Jasinski secretly set up an illegal printing office in his family flat in the Polish city of Bytom, to support Solidarność. Since the martial law had been proclaimed in 1981...

You’re in the army now!

The electrician Heiko Klöß, from Magdeburg, was part of the last generation that served as soldiers in the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic.

I wanted Jazz and music

Music teacher Elena Bogas, now living in Berlin, was born in Siberia, in a so-called difficult region, that had long been influenced by Russian immigration.

The Ideology was in me

Dmitriy Dostoevskiy is a great grandson of the famous Russian writer. His background is not at all common for someone descended from an honourable family.

In the zoo, we had some sort of freedom

Alexandre was born in Moscow in 1958. From 1976 to 1992 he worked at the Moscow Zoo, taking care of elephants, fulfilling his childhood dream.

Don't know if she was CIA, but she sure was good looking

Vitaliy was born in 1958 in Alma-Aty (Kazahstan), in a well-off Soviet family.

Chernobyl. Alive for now...

Born in 1949, in 1986 Vladimir was mobilized to Liquidation service in Chernobyl for half a year as a doctor liable for military service.

Free Ride to the USSR

Uwe Wirthwein grew up in southern Thuringia in Behrungen, just a few meters away from the heavily guarded German-German border. Due to the course of the border, two-thirds of the village was surrounded by the East German "anti-fascist protective wall".

Alcohol - A nation's mass suicide

Penzin is a Russian artist. During the Soviet time Viktor Penzin set up his lubok studio in Moscow.

I wanna hold your hand...

Nikolai Vasin was one of the most known fans of the Beatles in the USSR and played an important role in the underground pop and rock soviet culture.

Our village was always the best

Ludmila was born in a small village in the Ukraine, worked in a collective farm during all her life and got a prestigious position of the Administration Secretary.

I still keep my Komsomol card

Ida Sheck comes from a high-ranking Soviet family (“nomenklatura” in other words). Both engineers, she and her husband Ruben (who was also a member of the Party) held key administrative positions within the Soviet system, which guaranteed numerous benefit

The Arms race was a good stimulus

In 1978 Andrey Fomin graduated from Leningrad University of Airspace Instrumentation and joined the Army for two years of mandatory military service.

My parents names were complicated..

Both parents of Solmaz come from Azerbaijan. Her father left the republic at the age of 18 to study in the Polytechnic Institute of Leningad and always wanted to come back.

My pioneer dreams

Since childhood Polina was a member of communist youth organizations, like the Children of October and Pioneers. She sincerely believed in Pioneers’ ideology and dreamt of fighting for her country against the Western enemies.

Nothing was said about Afghanistan...

The son of a Soviet officer, Alexandre was sent to military school at age 17. By that time, the Afghan War had already been going on for two years, yet very few people were aware of it yet. Alexandre found out about it by accident, but he soon understood

To make a career go and build power stations

Leonid Stepanov was born in Moscow in a well-off Soviet family. His father was a proactive member of the party and young Leonid was also dedicated to communist community work projects, being one of the leaders of his university's Komsomol group.

Censors came a few hours before openings...

A truly independent and eccentric artist, Ion Grigorescu is well-known for a series of artistic experiments undertook in the 1970s employing formats like photography, video, and performance.

A medal = a radio player

Ivan Patzaichin is a Rumanian sprint canoeist of Lipovan origin who competed from the late 1960s to the mid-80s and won seven Olympic medals. At the time sportsmen were not entitled to significant cash prizes. Ivan felt lucky to win a video player and sav

I got physical against them

Vladimír Hučín had continual conflicts with the communist authorities since his early youth. He had long hair, listened to Western rock music and dreamt of freedom. In the 1970s and 80s, he became increasingly radical: he distributed leaflets criticizing

The most cheerful barrack

Zsuzsi Sebestyén (maiden name Lendvai Zsuzsanna) is an Hungarian choir member.

It was wonderful from space

Bertalan Frakas was the first Hungarian cosmonaut. In 1972 he graduated from the Krasnodar Aviation Institute in the USSR and joined the Hungarian Air Force.

The Pope gave us hope

Dentist Halina Ciberowska and her husband Janusz, a renowned scientist, enjoyed a certain freedom of movement in the People‘s Republic of Poland, so in 1979, they were able to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary in Japan.

Our picture of USSR was wrong

Humor is the best protection

In the late 1980s, at the age of just 13, Michal Kaščák became a star as the lead singer of the alternative band "Bez Ladu A Skladu". The five boys sang ironic texts that criticized the system, and while they found favour with audiences, they met with dis

No contraception, no abortion...

Under the Soviet regime Ioana Anton and her family lived a peaceful "normal" life in Romania.

Free love but no flat

Jànos Tardos, a Hungarian journalist, was born in a Jewish family. Both his parents were active Communists in the 1940s. When Janos’s father was arrested, it affected Janos deeply, and disillusioned him about Communist ideals.

Sportmen were a higher class...

Toomas Tõniste is a retired sailor and a politician from Estonia. Born in Tallin in 1967, he competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1988.