Crossing the River

Today I read "Crossing the River" by Victor Grossman.

This autobiography tells how an American defected to East Germany during the Korean War. A very unusual story, indeed. He was brainwashed by his parents, intellectual Communists, both, in the 1930's and 1940's.

He tried to rationalize his penchant for suffering by saying that the cruel and unusual goings-on in the US actually provided a worse way for people to live, than the East Germans did. In the early 1950's, the McCarthy era was in full swing, the US had ousted the leader of Guatemala in a bloody affair, and instigated another shameful coup in Iran; there was the ugliness at Peekskill, there was still segregation; besides, the Soviets had helped defeat Germany. Comrade Stalin was a god, to the Communists.

The author argues that in 1960, the quality of life wasn't so bad in East Germany. Yes, there were severe food shortages, but everyone's medical care was paid for, and everyone had a job or was provided with necessities for survival, and assistance for finding a job, according to his own need. Of course, the people also spent needless hours every day manually washing clothes and dishes, lighting a fire in the pot-bellied stove, and patiently waiting for public transportation, or hoofing it, because they couldn't afford a car.

In the early 1960's, the East Germans kept trying to attack the integrity of the Federal Republic (of West Germany) (with good reason) by publicizing the fact that a large number of ex-Nazis (who had committed unspeakable war crimes) were working in civil service-- as judges, even(!) and in the West's armed forces. It was somewhat alarming that so many Nazis were helping Germany to re-arm, and becoming a pivotal force in NATO.

In the late '1980s, the East German leaders staged a few media incidents, trying to continue to isolate the "German Democratic Republic" (the misnomer that was East Germany) clinging to power, believing that only they could be keepers of the flame. The East Germans, like the Chinese, were into self-criticism circles. They had "tutors", who bullied doubters and discouraged free-thinkers, saying stuff like, "Are you questioning the collective judgment of experienced Marxist leaders, able to assess factors far better than any individual? Could you be more correct than they are?"

It was a traumatic time for the author when Krushchev revealed Stalin's crimes in the mid 1950's. But the author continued to rationalize that his adopted homeland was still a better place to live than imperialist America. It's an excellent book anyway.