(A/E) — ffect

Reagan’s inflammatory speeches and massive military expenditures frightened the Soviet society from leader to peasant. Fear was the overarching concern, it covered everything and permeated into everyday life. Reliable, accurate information was hard to come by in either society. Propaganda was put to great and effective use in conveying the opposing side in the most disturbing light. Citizens on both sides genuinely thought that the end could come any moment. That nuclear war was just minutes away and they would have almost no warning nor was any preparation really going to help them. Though the press was more open in the United States propaganda was just as prevalent and not many journalistic sources covered cold war events from an unbiased standpoint. Both countries wanted to win and this included the journalists. Most Soviet citizens lived in the countryside working in jobs selected by the state living in state provided housing or in communal apartments furnished by the state in cities. Residences were communal, bland, and unappealing. Limited space and many people meant community areas such as bathrooms were areas of contention and conflict.  This lifestyle for the average Soviet citizen was vastly different from the consumerist America.  The state and communist party’s control over every aspect of life lent to much monotony, boredom, and inefficiency. The lack of markets based in supply and demand meant huge disparaties in consumer goods. Waiting in long lines to acquire basic goods was a common occurrence in Soviet society. The divergence of much needed resources to the military further increased hardships on the average citizen.

Soviet Apartments outside Novogrod

Sinks in a communal bathroom

1200 ship Voyenno-morskoy flot SSSR?

The Soviet Union and the United States had been involved in this international chess games for decades. The pattern of move and counter move was evident, Reagan and Gorbachev were no exception. Example: the Soviets would unveil a new missile. so the US would move more missiles or interceptors to western Europe. This type of behavior was typical of the state level of interaction at this stage. So it would be expected that the soviets would fashion some response to the massive military buildup by the United States and aggressive rhetoric that Reagan was using. Reagan’s rhetoric especially the ‘evil empire’ speech was seen as threatening by the Soviets. In response to the United States of America the soviet military, “Vladimir Slipchenko, then a member of the Soviet General Staff. said “The military, the armed forces . . . used this,” he added, “as a reason to begin a very intense preparation inside the military for a state of war.” Furthermore, “we started to run huge strategic exercises. . . . These were the first military exercises in which we really tested our mobilization. We didn’t just exercise the ground forces but also the strategic arms.”  The strategic arms of the soviet military included, the nuclear weapons component and air defense which were considered seperate from the Soviet Army.  The experience in the Soviet Union was at the least one of concern. Leaders and citizens if they could get the information heard the words of Reagan and were worried that World War Three was around the corner. Millions of soviet soliders participated in these mobilization excersise. Soviet military spending though remained constant. Gorbachev did not include more money in the budget to match the US. In fact toward the end of the 1980s the soviet military budget was shrinking.

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev: Time Magazine Cover March 25, 1985

Gorbachev served as an influential member of the politburo during the early 1980s before asuming the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1984. He then instituted a number of reform campaigns that ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Emma Goldman as portrayed in E.L Doctrow’s Ragtime serves as a rallying cry, a figure for those in America who advocate Anarchism, Socialism, Marxism, pretty much anything that isnt capitalism.  She fights and pushes her agenda to help the poor working man and others who have been downtrodden by the current system. She decrys how people are disregared by the system and left without housing food or means to survive. Yet her ideas are difficult to put into practice. The founders of the Soviet Union, good intentioned, as they may have been still created a system of social hierarchy despite the flowery rhetoric preaching equality and no class distinction. Without a clear model or good ideas to base such a society the creation of one on the fly is very difficult.