|The first.to go was Poland,
Then % was the turn of
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East

Germany, and Romania.

' ‘Bulgaria is also experiencing
change as is Yugoslavia
although it was never under the
Soviet Union’s dominance,
Now the Baltic states of Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia — never
a willing part of the Soviet
Union are asserting
themselves and there's trouble
in the Soviet .Union’s southern
portions of Armenia and Azer-
baljan.

And now there are reports the
Soviel ‘communist party will
debate its future.

_. What's happening Is an end

in thange

to what was created as a result

‘of the Second World War when
the world was divided into the
Soviet Union and American
spheres of influence.

These countries now live in a

hew atmosphere in which na--

tional goals are being set within
a‘ framework of individual ex-

pression and freedom. There'll |

be elections this year featuring
new political parties and, of
course, new challenges and new
worries,

On this page are the opinions
and thoughts of local residents
who were once citizens of those
countries now undergoing
changes.

COURTESY STEVE PEJSKI.
syeecben gay, rey. oi Ik

Steve Pejski came out of
his village church in Poland
one day in 1942 to find it sur-
rounded by Germans.

Shipped off to work as a
slave labourer, that was the
last Pejski saw of his
homeland until he paid a visit
y. in 1975,

He's been back three times
since. and, as the only
member of -his “family to
come to the west, has been
sending money to help his
relatives. With each visit, Pe-
jski’s seen changes take
place...

“You had to keep your
mouth shut, who you could
trust,’ said Pejski in relating ©
the experience of a friend
who, on a visit to Poland in
1977, was arrested and ex-
pelled for speaking in public
about living conditions.

“You could write letters
back and forth but you had
to watch your language,
what you could say. Now,
it’s free, You can criticize
anything you want,”’ Pejski
added.

He also remembers the ex-
citement of the beginning of

- the 1980s when Solidarity, a
movement begun. by trade
unions, ..demanded’ more
freedom and what happened

_ declared. .

‘Solidarity was good.
People suffered, but now
they live with hope. - Before
there was no hope,” said Pe-
jski.

He added that the Catholic
church kept the ‘freedom
movement alive in the 1980s
with priests organizing secret
mestings. ‘‘The priests gave
their. lives, for the: people..;
They had underground |

- meetings and criticized Com.”
munism.”” ~

. Another local: Polish im-
migrant — Alice Ziemianski
— says she believes reform Is
coming to ‘eastern Europe
because* communist’ leaders
simply. have no other alter-
native.”

oo “Gorbachev wouldn't be

‘TV doing this if he wasn't forced
._ to,” she said, ay think he'sin
: rouble.

‘GRAVE OF Father Jerzy Popieluszko, killed by members of
the Polish secret police, served as a rallying point for those
opposing the country’s Communist government. PHOTO

- ible. “The Germanys were

when. martial law was -

reform is essential. ‘They

” maunists.””

-. “T always dreamed there. 7
“she said, “And I wish I was -

able to.
freely ~

Steve Pejski

But although Ziemianski
fears unrest in parts of the
Soviet Union, threaten Gor-
bachev, she says it means the
Soviets will concentrate on
their own problems,

When the Berlin Wall was
opened, she said she felt ter-

divided for a reason," she
said. ‘But [ have to admit I
am very surprised they would
have allowed these changes.”
So far the change has been
positive, but she says she re-
mains skeptical,
Political reform is fine, she _
said, but successful economic

are talking perestroika, but
there still isn't food in the
stores,’’ she said. ‘And there
are still line-ups — there are ~
always line-ups in Poland,”’
Her first reaction to Polish
labour leader Lech Walesa’s
‘support of reforms promised |
by the government was one
of dismay. “I thought he was. -
selling out to the com-

But Jooking back, ‘the :
change is coming better than .

she expected, she said. “It | ~

‘will take time and maybe
foreign investment, but: I
think it can be done.” -

would someday be change,”
_ there now or maybe go there’ .

‘in May. Warsaw is beautiful:
in May.” 0. -

Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 7, 1990 — Page AS -

Meat A ah es Rt Be

“eed tm

East.
Germany

WY

Poland:

USSR

Baltic States
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania

It’s been a long wait

Architect Alex Inselberg has
been waiting for quite some
time for the changes now going
on in Eastern Europe. |

He was born in Latvia, a tiny
State that along with Lithuania
and Estonia make up the three
Baltic republics that were ab-
sorbed by the Soviet Union half
a century ago but are now
demanding independence.

Inselberg fought with the
Germans against th: Soviets
during the Second Worid War.

That occurred after a secret

- Russian-German agreement

divided eastern Europe at the
start of the war, leaving the
Baltic states under Russian rule.

Inselberg left Latvia rather
than live under Russian rule and

was drafted into the German ar-
my.

He never returned to his Lat-
vian homeland, but always
hoped to see his people regain
their independence, something
which only existed in the years
between the two world wars,

“We are living in great times,
there can be no doubt,”’ he said,
“But Pm very much afraid for
the future, If things go wrong
there could still be a bloodbath
throughout all of eastern
Europe,’*

Describing Gorbachev as a
‘great man,’? Inselberg said the

- Future could rest on his survival

as Soviet leader.
“I hope nothing happens to
him — to Gorby, Because if the

Stalinists ever come back it will
be terrible. It will be a terrible
civil war,”

People are demanding too
much, too quickly, he said, and
the stunning pace of reform is
threatening to return power to
the hard-liners.

“The people should listen to
Gorbachev and try to work with
him,” he said; ‘“He has the trust
of the western world. They
should not destroy what he has
started to build. I just. hope
Gorbachev is strong enough.”'

Fixing the ruined economies
of eastern Europe won’t be
nearly as easy as clearing out
communism, he said,

And because the Latvian
capital — Riga — is the only

Alex Inselberg

year-round ice-free port the
Soviet Union has on the Baltic
coast, Inselberg said he still
doubts they would give it up.

Degree of caution

Milan Oskoryp remains un-
convinced of the depth and
amount of change going on in
his native Czechoslovakia, 2’

Oskoryp, who left with his

wife and son in 1984, wonders

why the elite — the few people
at the top who adopted com-
munism — would give up their
power, authority and privileges.
‘*They weren’t Communists

that’s nonsense,”’ said
Oskoryp in adding that people
who did join Czechoslovakia’s
communist party did so for per-
sonal or family gain. ‘Now
they are giving it up — that’s
funny. It’s hard to understand
that.”

And, he says it’s difficult to

understand what is going on in
the various countries getting rid
of their. communist. govern-
ment$ if a person isn’t living as
the events occur. “The clack
stops when you leave,’’
Oskoryp said in pointing at his
watch.

Although Oskoryp and_ his
family lived well, he is willing to
argue that overall economic
conditions have played a role in
the demand for change. Free
enterprise drives the western
economy and that philosophy
was lacking in the communist
countries, Oskoryp added.

“You couldn't get materials
to make what you wanted,’’
said Oskoryp of his job as a

remains

supervisor of a specialized steel
fabrication shop attached to a
state co-operative, .

Oskoryp is more forceful in
discussing why he left, saying it
was a combination ‘of many
aspects, all leading to dictating
how a person lived and what
they did,

“Day after day, itis a build
up of smail things. You feel, all
the time, control. They try, or
tried, to evoke in you fear of the
west,"’ he said.

Oskoryp had tried for years
to come to Canada. His final
decision was made when he was
strip-searched while crossing the
border into Hungary on a vaca-
tion tour.

Milan Oskoryp

“At that instant — it was so
humiliating — I knew ] wasn’t
coming back.”

Freedom now takes hold

In 1956 Laszlo Kutenics fired
his captured Russian machine
gun at the local police building
in Budapest,

That was during Hungary’s
first attempt at freedom but it
was crushed when Russian
tanks rolled in, Kutenics was

. captured, but escaped and made

his way to Austria,

Kutenics and his wife Isabella
— who ieft Hungary on a

- 30-day visitor’s visa in 1972 and

never returned — went back
again last September.
The couple had been back to

Hungary a few times before,
but say it was never like this,

Getting approval to enter the

country — normally a lengthy

‘tions were fined,

application process that takes
months — took them just five
minutes at the border.

“Before you just read what
they wanted you to know —
now the newspapers print
everything,’ Isabella said.

Under the old regime, people
who didn't vote in national elec-
she recalls.
“They just gave me the
envelope and told me to put it in
that box. Of course it didn’t
matter, because there was only
one name on the ballot
anyway.”

That will be different this
May when Hungarians go to the
polls in their first multi-party
elections in more than 50 years.

But Isabella warns reform

could be coming too fast. The
people are not ready for all
these changes after being brain-
washed for so many years, Since
last spring it’s just been one
thing after another.”

She mainly worries about
whether the country’s economy
can be fixed.

Laszlo said he wants a
Swedish-style democratic-
socialist government evolve,

Despite the economic trouble,
the peaple have tasted freedom
and want more, he said,

Experimentation with private
enterprise is making the country
and its workers more produc-
tive, Laszlo says.

‘‘Before they weren’t en-
couraged to be efficient. Now

: Laszlo Kutenics

there is an incentive and some
Hungarians are working at
three or four jobs onthe side,”’

Grabbing at a chance

Born in Romania, Emil
Klukas spent his childhood
years during the Second World
War and just after in
Czechoslovakia, Poland and

- East Germany before moving to

West Germany. He came to

~ Canada in 1951,

That experience which expos-

ed him to life first under Nazi |

and then under Soviet rule

+ makes him all the more happy

now that things are changing in
Bastern Europe.

“How hard the people lived,

. How bad it was with food and

everything. People can only

«take #0 much. They see a chance

and they act on it,”” said Kiukas
“who, while. born in Romania, is

4

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of German descent.

He adniired the way Roma-
nians defeated their dictator,
Nicolae Ceausescu,

“The courage to go against
the impossible. That was
something,’ he said. “‘Not once

. did I think that could happen. I

gave up completely of ever, ever
secing it. There was nothing, I
couldn't sce anything | and just
like that, It happen

“T knew, in Bast Germany,
sooner or later they would do
something, The East Germans
had to give in to the police, the
secret police, It was very strict.
Even in school, we felt it,”
Klukas added. ;

“To me (coming under Soviet

naetm

“ domination) it was the same

thing as the Nazis. It was pro-
paganda. People turned right
away,” he said.

Klukas is also skeptical of the

-reasons why Soviet leader

Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the
changes to take place,

“T don't think it did it out of
the goodness of his heart. His
motives are not that pure. I
think. it was driven by
economics, Communism didn't
work, doesn’t work. There is
not. initiative, You don’t see
that your. work can produce
anything,’® he said. ©

And now that old govern-
ments are being replaced by new
ones, the shift serves as a lesson

4

Caer

Emil Klukas

for all people, said Klukas. -

“The stronger the . -Opposi- °
‘tion, the -better.: the ,
government,’ he said. : oe

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