{"id":15661,"date":"2017-07-06T12:16:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T16:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=15661"},"modified":"2017-07-06T12:16:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T16:16:56","slug":"how-do-you-rebuild-a-society-where-people-informed-on-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/06\/how-do-you-rebuild-a-society-where-people-informed-on-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you rebuild a society where people informed on each other?"},"content":{"rendered":"

To reduce the risk of Jihad in the West, people advocate a society where citizens inform on each other and\/or where government surveillance is ubiquitous. Has that been tried before? What does it feel like and how do you rebuild a society afterwards? This is addressed in\u00a0Nobel laureate\u00a0Svetlana Alexievich’s\u00a0Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are some relevant passages:<\/p>\n

A regular communal apartment\u2026 Five families live there\u2014twenty-seven people in total. Sharing one kitchen and one bathroom. Two of the neighbors are friends: One of them has a five-year-old daughter and the other one is single with no kids. In communal apartments, people were always spying on one another, listening in on each other\u2019s conversations. The people with ten-square-meter rooms envied the ones with twenty-five. Life\u2026 that\u2019s just how it is\u2026 And then, one night, a Black Maria\u2014a police van\u2014shows up\u2026 They arrest the woman with the five-year-old daughter. Before they take her away, she has a chance to cry out to her friend, \u201cIf I don\u2019t come back, please look after my little girl. Don\u2019t let them take her to an orphanage.\u201d So that\u2019s what happened. The neighbor took the child in, and the building administration gave her a second room\u2026 The girl started calling her Mama\u2026 Mama Anya\u2026 Seventeen years went by\u2026 And seventeen years later, the real mother returned. She kissed her friend\u2019s hands and feet in gratitude. If this were a fairy tale, this is where the story would end, but in real life, the ending was very different. Without a \u201chappily ever after.\u201d When Gorbachev came to power, after they unsealed the archives, they asked the former camp inmate whether she wanted to see her file. She did. So she went down to look at it, opened the folder\u2026 and the very first page was an informant\u2019s report. Familiar handwriting\u2026 It was her neighbor\u2019s, Mama Anya\u2019s\u2026 She\u2019d been the one who\u2019d informed on her\u2026 Do you understand any of this? I don\u2019t. And that woman couldn\u2019t, either. She went home and hanged herself.<\/p>\n

I remember my father\u2019s words: \u201cIt\u2019s possible to survive the camps, but you can\u2019t survive other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

First they arrested my wife. She went to the theater and didn\u2019t come back. I got home from work and found my son sleeping on a little rug in the hall next to the cat. He\u2019d waited and waited for Mama until he finally fell asleep. My wife worked at a shoe factory. She was a Red engineer. \u201cSomething strange is going on,\u201d she\u2019d told me. \u201cThey\u2019ve taken all my friends. For some kind of treason\u2026\u201d \u201cYou and I are innocent, so no one is coming for us.\u201d I was sure of it. Absolutely positive\u2026 Sincerely! I was a Leninist, then a Stalinist. Until 1937, I was a Stalinist. I believed everything Stalin said and did. Yes\u2026 The greatest, the most brilliant leader of all eras and peoples. Even after Bukharin, Tukhachevsky, and Blyukher* 14 were all pronounced enemies of the people, I still believed him. It seems stupid now, but I thought that Stalin was being deceived, that traitors had made their way to the top. The Party would sort it all out. But then they arrested my wife, an honest and dedicated Party warrior. Three days later, they came for me\u2026<\/p>\n

The search ended toward morning. They ordered me to pack my bags. The nanny woke my son. Before I left, I managed to whisper to him, \u201cDon\u2019t tell anyone about your mother and father.\u201d That\u2019s how he survived.<\/p>\n

I spent almost a year in prison. I was preparing for my trial. For the penal colony. I was surprised, I wondered why they were dragging their feet. As far as I can tell, there was no rhyme or reason to it. Thousands of cases\u2026 Chaos\u2026 A year later, a new investigator summoned me. My case was being reviewed. And then they released me, dismissing all charges. So it had been a mistake after all. The Party believed me!<\/p>\n

I found my son living with strangers, the nanny had taken him out to the country. He\u2019d started stuttering and was afraid of the dark. The two of us began a new life together. I tried to get any news I could about my wife. At the same time, I applied to get reinstated in the Party. I wanted my Party membership card back. New Year\u2019s Eve\u2026 We\u2019d decorated a tree. My son and I were expecting guests. The doorbell rang. I opened the door. A poorly dressed woman stood on the threshold. \u201cI\u2019ve come to send greetings from your wife.\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s alive!\u201d \u201cShe was alive a year ago. I used to work with her in a pigsty. We\u2019d steal frozen potatoes from the pigs, and thanks to that, we didn\u2019t starve to death. I have no idea whether or not she\u2019s still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

I came home twice wounded, with three decorations and medals. They called me into the district Party committee, \u201cUnfortunately, we will not be able to return your wife to you. She\u2019s died. But you can have your honor back\u2026\u201d And they handed me back my Party membership card. And I was happy! I was so happy\u2026 [I tell him that I will never understand that\u2014never. He loses his temper.] You can\u2019t judge us according to logic. You accountants! You have to understand! You can only judge us according to the laws of religion. Faith! Our faith will make you jealous! What greatness do you have in your life? You have nothing. Just comfort. Anything for a full belly\u2026 Those stomachs of yours\u2026 Stuff your face and fill your house with tchotchkes. But I\u2026 my generation\u2026 We built everything you have. The factories, the dams, the electric power stations. What have you ever built? And we were the ones who defeated Hitler.<\/p>\n

And the ones sentencing them and guarding them were the people, too\u2014not foreign workers, not people brought in from outside\u2014they were the very same people. Our own men. Kin. Today, you see everybody putting on the striped uniform. Now, everyone\u2019s the victim and Stalin alone is to blame. But think about it\u2026 it\u2019s simple arithmetic\u2026 Millions of inmates had to be surveilled, arrested, interrogated, transported, and shot for minor transgressions. Someone had to do all this\u2026 and they found millions of people who were willing to\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I didn’t quote the truly painful stuff, so if you can stomach that you should read\u00a0Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets<\/a>\u00a0…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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