[dkstories] Let's Do It Chapter 25

[old bob]

Wow

after reading chapter 25, I went back and red again all the chapters of the stay in the Soviet Union. As I already told somewhere else, I had the "chance" to participate "live" in 1990 and 1991 to the last efforts of the Soviet Union to restore its economy through introducing some "free enterprise" spirits without changing the political status. The experiences of Davey and Brian, as DK tells us, are so lively and "real" that I could think DK was there with me .

I was the leader of a group of Swiss, French and Belgian consultants whose mission was to reorganize the "GOSSNAB", the Konzern which distributed in the whole USSR all kind of "non-food" goods for private use and for small collectivities, from toilet-paper, soaps to bricks and cement.

Just an example to illustrate the difficulties we met :

Toilet-paper was a very "rare" item ! In the best restaurants in Moscow, you had to put it after "use" in a special basket near the "seat" for further use by less fortunate people, most the crew of the restaurants, and in other places in Russia, you had to bring with you your own paper! In whole USSR there were only two factories for the supply of toilet-paper, sold in one of the 350 Gossnab-distribution centers with always lack of stocks. One of these factories was near Kiew and I staid there a few weeks to understand why they couldn't delivery enough of the tons of paper they whould produce.

As DK said, 2 major problems were never solved :

The management ( the director was an incompetent party member) and the transportation (during my stay, about 150 loaded wagons remained immobilized on the factory due to the lack of locomotives). Another point was the poor salaries. The lower executives stole some of the production, bargained it against food and nobody cared.

I met several main executives in Moscow, St.-Petersburg and Kiew and made the same experiences as described in LDI. Everybody was first aware to "make money" and I never, never found a man who first cared about "the good of the nation". A few months later, Gossnab disappeared with the fall of USSR and the only interest of its former managers was to use our channels to put money outside the country in Swiss and American banks !

Edited August 25, 2007 by old bob

[Demetz]

Loved this chapter

[Altimexis]

Things are moving very fast now and I expect that it'll be very interesting to see how things evolve from here. Davey and Brian are truly in a position where they could alter history.

 

One thing I still don't understand is why Alexander Shevardnadze isn't still a threat. Even though the mad scientist has been killed (or at least so we think), he should still be coming back in time - indeed, he should be back already in this time frame. Unless Sean managed to block the frequency he used to come back in time - the same frequency I presume that Sean himself used to come back - the Alexander Shevardnadze Davey and Brian encounter should be one who knows of the fall of the Soviet Union and is intent on using knowledge of the future to prevent it. Dan, if you're reading this, could you please respond or address this in the story - it's a potentially significant plot hole.

 

Old Bob's recounting of his own experience is very interesting. It's hard for those of us in the West to imagine the underpinnings of a planned economy and the total lack of understanding of basic human nature. I visited Russia once in the early nineties, but my wife was there in the early eighties, and we both visited Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany before and after the fall of Communism.

 

It's amazing how differently the satellite states have done than Russia itself - I think there was much more of a tradition of capitalism there that was able to flourish afterwards. Poland under Communism was pretty much as Old Bob described Russia - no toilet paper in public restrooms, so you had to bring your own, among other things. But people used the churches as sanctuaries and openly protested what they saw as atrocities. In short, they never lost faith. After the fall, entrepreneurs were everywhere - not just the street hawkers, but people seeking their niche and selling what the people needed - the change was amazing.

 

In Russia itself, however, government management was replaced by oligarchs and the mafia - the only people who understood business were the prior middle managers and the former black marketeers, and they had no interest in the rule of law. The common citizenry did not fare so well. Factory workers were given stock in their largely obsolete factories. Most of them, seeing no value in their stock, sold it right away and used it to buy other things, such as property. Those that did want to become entrepreneurs could only survive with paid protection - usually from the mafia - often to the point that they were subsumed by organized crime.

 

Another good example of the lack of basic understanding can be found by going to visit a Russian citizen in their apartment. Typically, the building will be filthy and the hall lights burned out, but their own apartments will be spotless. In the West, no one would stand for this - the tenants would organize themselves and either force the management to clean things up and replace the lights, or they would do it themselves. In Russia there is a basic assumption that someone else will take care of it. No one is willing to lift a finger themselves unless they are paid for it, and no one is willing to take the initiative. This is the society that Davey and Brian are facing. If they can influence the Soviet leadership to change the way the Soviet Union disintegrates and to see that the factory workers and farm workers and tenants are taught how to organize themselves, the outcome might be very different - different enough to keep the US from making the mistakes it made.

[BeaStKid]

Awesome chapter yet again. Dan, you have done it again!!

 

I loved the way Davey and Brian handled the conversation at the party. And imagine getting front seat tickets to the fall of the Soviet Union!!

 

Great going!

 

The BeaStKid

[old bob]

Hey DK,

In your chapter 25, you wrote :

[Rad]

hey dan!

 

first of all, it's a good way out that the old man dies before all the lieas regarding davey are out , I guess it's kind of you to spare him the heartbreak. thanks! I'd hate to see him heartbroken

 

second, it is really interesting to see how all this economic stuff going to result. I hope you will seriously consider preserving the union. while in itself was not a good thing, it's probably better under someone like gorbachev than under putin. besides, like you have pointed out, the bitterness resulted from the way the union & it's economy collapse. if it can be preserved (like china) & changed into a more democratic one -not as democratic as western europe mind you, that is rather impossible from my p.o.v - than I believ it is for th better.

 

it would not be capitalistic, like china & it would not be too stalinist -like N.Korea. plus, I think the russians already given freedom of the press & expression, the basics of them of course. also, the satellites have almost gone now. so I will say that I'm support the preservation of the union & because I like davey & brian's handler the true communist, one of the good guys.

 

cheers!

 

Rad