The Cold War is a better phase for mankind than a hot war where two antagonistic camps struggle to destroy each other. The Cold War lasted for about 50 years and all the other aspects of society developed in the period, including technology, culture and the living standards. The Cold War ended because everyone realized what the Soviet power actually was, the permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan stated in a public debate titled “Lessons of Cold War”.
According to the expert, the population remembered the year 1962, when the riot of Novocherkassk workers occurred, and the 1980s, when the food program was adopted in developed socialism. The fact that a superpower adopts a food program shows what kind of state this is. “Later, there was the Perestroika – a revisionist policy. In 1988, at the 19th party conference, there was adopted the Resolution on the necessity of democratizing Soviet society, which led to the annulment of Article 6 of the Constitution, which said that the Communist party was a liaison between society and God – the managing and directing force of society. Multipartitism in the ex-Soviet republics and Russia appeared later and led to the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, the Communist bloc, and the Cold War ended this way,” stated Igor Boțan.
He noted that former political opponents in Russia now say that they are no longer rivals as they realized that the monarchists and the communists should not struggle between them and should have a global view centering on the fact that Russia is actually a chain of imperial rings and is now at the fourth stage when Putin wants to restore the glory lost in the Cold War to Russia.
According to the expert, Moldovan society remains divided also according to geopolitical criteria and this means that an extended segment of citizens regret the dissolution of the Soviet Union. However, the number of those who have this regret decreased suddenly as the generations change and the young generations that travelled through the whole world don’t have recollections of what was there in the Soviet Union.
After the Soviet Union fell apart, the Communists returned to power as the people were nostalgic for the Soviet past, but namely the Communists signed the decree on the integration into the EU and this shows that despite their sympathy with the former Soviet Union, this can no longer be restored.
Igor Boțan doesn’t believe that wide sections of the population inquiry about the Cold War, but the discussed issue is important for particular social segments as the necessary conclusions are not drawn if particular things are omitted.
According to the expert, the economic competition, struggle for markets, technological advancement were the methods by which the U.S. extended its greatness and power of attraction, while the Soviet Union did it by state coups and totalitarian regimes.
Igor Boțan reminded that after World War II ended, the Soviet Union and the U.S. were allies and owing to the common efforts could beat an absolute evil, the Nazism. But being allies, they were unable to develop relations of partnership to help each other: the U.S. that shared ideologies suitable for developing capitalism, and the Soviet Union that promoted communism.
The public debate entitled “Lessons of Cold War” was the 21st installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
