I asked if things were better now that the Soviet Union was gone.
"No!" He was surprisingly vehement. "Before, it was better. There was order. The Communists, they kept everything in control. There was no crime, for example. Now, everyone is going crazy, the young people especially. It's not safe to walk on the street. It's like now in Iraq. Before, Saddam made a dictatorship and it was order, people could live their lives. Now, it's a mess. It's like a dog-excuse me, it's an example-it's just like if you have a dog, and you keep him chained up all the time in your yard, and then one day the
...more
