about life in the USSR and to compare it with life in the so-called “ free ” capitalist world — both to the young people in my native country who do not know what socialism was like and to the people abroad most of whom believe lies about it which they are told since childhood . That ’ s how another childhood dream of mine became a reality — I became a writer .
The results were very unexpected , in the sense that I did not even dream for my book to receive such big resonance , so many positive reactions , from people of all generations and from different countries and backgrounds . The book is freely available on the internet in Russian . It is also being translated and is already translated into several other languages . One of the most precious reactions for me is the reaction of my compatriots from my own generation and older : I was touched to tears when many of them came to thank me “ for telling the truth for all of us ”, “ for finally saying loud what we all feel ”, as they have told me .
Of course , a very important aspect of my book is also searching the answer to the burning question of how did this all happen , why did we allow it to happen to our country and to ourselves , what went wrong . I tried to describe this process as honest as I could too .
These days I am happy to see that the interest for socialism is growing strongly and rapidly among our young people . They have no personal experience of socialism and they grew up with so many lies about it . But the more lies they seem to hear , the bigger their interest to inquire about socialist reality becomes . Stalin ’ s popularity is also growing among all Russians , but particularly fast among young
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Russians . They are eager to know more and more about socialism , and I think my book came out at the right time . I could feel it when I met future journalists , students from Vladivostok . Soviet people have a different set of norms and values than those which are being imposed on our youth today . We were brought up to support those who are in need ; we take other people ’ s feelings into consideration and always try to take into account how our actions will affect others . We were also brought up in a spirit where “ noncompromising ” was a positive quality ( as a person who stands up by his or her principles ). Money or fame means nothing for us , feeling as we still do that we live to contribute to the society and to change the world for better . So , when we hear how the current “ leaders ” answer the question of what is the most important thing in life with statements like , “ One has to live for one ’ s family ” ( instead of putting one ’ s country first !) or even worse , “ Just life itself ”, we can only despise them .
There is one post-Soviet song that described precisely and beautifully what went wrong with us during the perestroika years :
We attempted to see the sunrise
With our backs to the rising sun .
But we will not repeat the same mistakes again . It is our duty as Soviet people to support all those peoples of the world who have chosen the socialist path and have remained loyal to it . We can mention countries like Cuba and Venezuela . But in particular , I would like to mention our comrades in the DPRK2 who are being so strong and staunch in face of the imperialist threats today and who are being so enormously demonised by the capitalist media , even more than the USSR was . We have to tell the world the truth about the DPRK just as much as about the Soviet Union . They are at the frontline of defending socialism today and I would like to pay tribute to them for being such great inspiration and source of strength for all those in the 2 Democratic People ’ s Republic of Korea 5 world who stand up to the imperialist domination . When I visited Moscow the last few times , I always came to the statue of the Soviet war heroine Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya inside “ Partizanskaya ” metro station — also in order to seek strength and inspiration . I spoke with her in my mind . She was 18 when she was executed by the Nazis — in 1941 when it seemed that the USSR was on the losing side in the war , and she could not get her strength from our victories at the front . Yet , she remained strongly believing that the victory will inevitably be ours and she urged others to fight the enemy , not just sit and wait .
This is what we came to realize as a result of perestroika and the destruction of our socialist achievements , of all the capitalist barbarity we were plunged in : we cannot afford to “ just sit and wait ” till somebody defends or restores socialism for us . This is something all of us have to do ourselves , no matter how small or big our contribution will be . We just have to do our very best and overcome ourselves to make even the impossible possible , looking up at the heroes of the past and at those who defend socialism and those who fight for it today .
I would like to thank sincerely our comrades especially from the Philippines for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today . I am very proud to be your friend and comrade , and your struggle is one of the great sources of inspiration for all of us who came here .
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