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Analysis: How the West lost the East-I
By Sam Vaknin
UPI Senior Business Correspondent
SKOPJE, Macedonia, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The Pew Research Center published last week a report titled "What the World Thinks in 2002." "The World", reduced to 44 countries and 38,000 interviewees, included 3,500 respondents from Central and East Europe: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. Uzbekistan stood in for the formerly Soviet Central Asia. The Times-Mirror 1991 survey, "The Pulse of Europe" was used as a benchmark. The Pew study shed considerable light on Eastern European opinion today, and how it has changed in the last decade.
With the implosion of communism in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, large swathes of Central and Eastern Europe found themselves devoid of an internal market, an economic sponsor, or a military umbrella. The countries of Central Europe -- from Slovenia to Hungary -- and the Baltic dismissed the communist phase of their past as a "historical accident" and vigorously proceeded to seek integration with Western Europe, notably Germany, much as they had done until the rise of Fascism in the 1930s. After 1989-91, the polities of Eastern Europe bitterly divided into the "nostalgics" or "reactionary" versus the "European," or "progressive." The first lot -- including Russia, Ukraine and Belarus -- sought to resurrect an economic incarnation of the former Soviet Union. The latter -- notably Poland -- reclassified themselves as "Central Europeans" and emulated the likes of the Czech republic and Hungary in a bid to curry favor with the European Union and the United States.
The Pew report reveals that the concerns of the citizens of Central and East Europe are varied but closely aligned with the global agenda. In this sense, the iron curtain has, indeed, lifted and total integration has been achieved despite massive economic disparities. The publics of the former Soviet Bloc place surprisingly great emphasis on the environment, for instance -- hitherto thought to be a preoccupation of their more affluent neighbors to the West.
Consider the war on terrorism.
People in Russia are vehemently opposed to the use of force to dislodge Saddam Hussein. They regard the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a greater threat to peace in the Middle East. They are convinced that the United States is bent on war in the Gulf to secure its oil sources. Europe is likely to pay the price, say the Russians, by becoming a target for international terrorism.
Yet, in a sweeping reversal of sentiment, Russians now regard the world as safer with a single superpower. In Uzbekistan, whose crumbling economy has enjoyed a fillip from the presence of 1,500 U.S. troops, support for America's military campaigns is understandably high.
Yet, the most startling and unambiguous revelation was the extent of anti-American groundswell everywhere: among America's NATO allies, in developing countries, Muslim nations and even in Eastern Europe where Americans, only a decade ago were perceived as much-adulated liberators. "People around the world embrace things American and, at the same time, decry U.S. influence on their societies. Similarly, pluralities in most of the nations surveyed complain about American unilateralism," expounds the report.
The image of the United States as a benign world power slipped in the space of 2 years in Slovakia (down 14 percent), in Poland (-7 percent), in the Czech Republic (-6 percent) and even in fervently pro-Western Bulgaria (-4 percent). On the other hand it rose sharply in Ukraine (up 10 percent) and, most astoundingly, in Russia (+24 percent, albeit from a very low base).
Still, rising anti-Americanism may have more to do with a nonspecific wave of gloom and dysphoria than with concrete American policies. "People who are less well off economically are more likely than those who are more financially secure to dislike the U.S.," says the report.
Only two-fifths of Czechs are satisfied with their own life or with the state of their nation. Three quarters are unhappy with the world at large. The figures are even way lower in Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine. Only Uzbeks are content, probably either for want of knowing better, or from fear of expressing negative sentiments to an outsider.
In Russia, less than one-fifth is at ease with their life, their country, or the world. Bulgaria takes the prize: a mere 8 percent of Bulgarians find their life gratifying. One in 25 Bulgarians is optimistic regarding his or her nation. One in eight approves of the world.
East Germans are far more pessimistic than the Wessies, their brethren in the western Lander. East European are exceedingly displeased with their income, though they find their family lives agreeable and, in the lands of vertiginous unemployment levels, their jobs appealing.
Nine in 10 Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Poles and Slovaks maintain a negative view of their national economies. In Russia, the figure is 83 percent and even in the Czech Republic it is 60 percent. Three-quarters of East Europeans surveyed -- including East Germans -- do not believe that economic conditions will improve.
"Will my kids go hungry? Will they be stuck with my debts? It looks bad and it can only get worse. I mean, you can hope it will get better but it does not look good," says a forlorn 69-year old Polish farmer.
Incredibly, these dismal figures reflect a rise in satisfaction throughout the region since the demise of communism in 1989-91. Significantly, the young are twice as hopeful than those older than 35. Between one-third (Bulgaria, Czech Republic) and one-half (Ukraine, Slovakia and Russia) of respondents of all age groups believe in a better future -- far outweighing the pessimists. Only in Poland are the majority of people anxious for the future of their children.
Still, "while Eastern Europeans feel their lives are better off since the collapse of communism, many say they have lost ground over the past five years. A majority of Bulgarians (55 percent) believes their lives are worse today, as do pluralities in Ukraine, the Slovak Republic and Poland. Again, Czechs are the exception -- 41 percent think they have made progress while 27 percent believe they have lost ground. Russians are divided on this point (37 percent say they have lost ground, 36 percent feel they have made progress)."
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