Why I Left Utopia | 5 Minute Videos

Konstantin Kisin grew up in a progressive paradise. Childcare, health services, and college were free. No one fought over race, religion, or class. Where was this utopia? And why was he so eager to leave it?

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I grew up in a progressive paradise.

The gap between the haves and have-nots was practically non-existent.

The literacy rate was almost 100%.

Healthcare was universal and free.

No one fought over race, religion, or class.

Maternity leave was generous. Childcare was free. There were no limits on abortion.

So where was this paradise? No, it wasn’t Norway, Sweden, or Finland.

It was the Soviet Union.

Everything I just described was true, and yet, life in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR, was a living hell.

Yes, income inequality barely existed, but that was because everyone was equally poor. Appliances, consumer products, and fresh food were scarce. If you wanted a car, good luck. You’d be on a waiting list for ten years.

Yes, women were “emancipated.” But they spent most of their time waiting in line for hours for food to feed their children. Disposable diapers were unheard of, as were vacuum cleaners. A dishwasher? Are you kidding?

Healthcare was free—in theory. But you could only get decent and timely treatment if you had influence, connections, and cash to pay bribes.

Everyone was educated, but there were strings attached: if you went to college, the government decided what your career would be and where you would live.

Racial and ethnic strife was limited, yes. But only because the government ruled by fear and terror, imprisoning millions of people—“enemies of the state”—in a vast network of concentration camps known as gulags.

These “enemies” included my great-grandparents, who met in one of these gulags. Every morning, guards would randomly select three prisoners and throw them into the icy waters of a nearby lake, to drown in front of the whole camp.

New York Times reporter Walter Duranty, a Stalin apologist, once wrote, ”You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”

But in the Soviet Union, there were no omelets, only broken lives, broken dreams, broken bodies.