Think ICT

I found another biography on my shelf while trying to pare down my collection. How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, written by journalist Slavenka Drakulic, tells us what women’s lives were like living in Eastern Europe before and after the Berlin Wall came down. It helped me understand that things didn’t magically become wonderful for women as the political landscape changed. In fact, this short passage from the book might give you an idea:

“The big midtown auditorium at CUNY was almost filled. I was to give a paper on the same subject: women in Eastern Europe. But before I started my speech, I took out one sanitary napkin and one Tampax and, holding them high in the air, I showed them to the audience. ‘I have just come from Bulgaria,’ I said, ‘and believe me, women there don’t have either napkins or Tampa’s — they never had them, in fact. Nor do women in Poland, or Czechoslovakia, much less in the Soviet Union or Romania. This I hold as one of the proofs of why communism failed, because in the seventy years of its existence it couldn’t fulfill the basic needs of half the population.’

There is so much more information in the book. Now that I’ve skimmed the book again for this post, I realize I’m hesitant to give the book away! It’s so good with lots of careful, insightful reflections on the day to day lived experiences of the author and many others she knew in Eastern Europe.

As someone who cares deeply about the plight of others, there was much in this book that made me feel so sad. At the same time, I know that people are very resilient in the face of hardships, especially when they have supportive community around them.

I acquired this book while I was reading several other books about recent history in Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe. Since my background is Hungarian, I always find such books fascinating.