Seven years ago , Derek Mansfield sat in a cafe on Khreshchatyk , next to the Maidan , in Kyiv . Taking notes he watched the crowds , and came to the conclusion that before him history was unfolding , a portent to war . His notes tell a tale of a recent history , of corrupted power , of leadership lost ... Derek ' s Notes From The
Road speak of Ukraine ...
To the now , and coffee in a café on a broad boulevard edged by five-storey high grey stone and brick , built with the skill and sweat of prisoners of war . A story is told that the city was blown up and destroyed in World War II ; it was blown up for certain , but the question remains as to who actually blew it . The invaders from the west or the friends of the invaded from further east ? I don ’ t know the answer to this question , but I do know this country ’ s history since this café was raised from the ruins . The more so as I have been here , on and off , for the past two decades .
Stay with me now ... Stay with me a while and I ’ ll try to explain the deaths of thousands of innocent people , the movement of millions more and the rape of the country for billions and billions and billions of dollars .
Almost thirty years ago in 1985 , Mr . Gorbachev , then President of the USSR , admitted that the economy was sliding downwards and living conditions had worsened ; he was the first Soviet leader to have said it . He launched a new policy , appropriating the word Glasnost , meaning openness and transparency . Two years later the laws promoting Perestroika , meaning restructuring , were enacted . These laws were introduced to strengthen the socialist economy by moving the responsibility for production from Ministries to state enterprises .
Ownership of the State enterprises was subsequently moved to and controlled by workers collectives . The change in law also permitted private ownership of businesses . None of these changes helped the economy ; in 1989 the USSR started to crumble from within . The Baltic countries , Poland , Ukraine and the nations of Central Asia slipped the yoke and became independent . By 1990 the Soviet economy was out of control ; the Berlin wall fell , and Germany was re-united . Throughout Russia and Ukraine the workers now owned shares in their previously state owned enterprises . But with the opening of international trade , consumer products from the West became available and those of the Soviet enterprise were no longer wanted . The currency fell drastically ; people lost a lifetime ’ s savings ; inflation bloomed . Factories could not pay staff ; they were given more shares in the company and product instead of money . The workers could not sell the product , they had no money . The factories gave away their land to the workers , so they could grow food . Most of the money in circulation was held or could be accessed by former members of the Communist Party and managers of State concerns . The workers , desperate for cash to live and having no clear understanding what to do with shares they ’ d been given , sold them for next to nothing . The era of the Oligarch
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