Word: malia
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...them. Everyone--even the intellectuals--felt there had been a definite change for the better since the death of Stalin and the sudden departure of Beria. The simple and naive admit that the system was "bad." They felt on the whole that the injustices committed were "accidental," according to Malia. The more intelligent also admitted the system was bad, but they blamed Stalin...
Probably the basic reason for this feeling of relative satisfaction on the part of the majority of the Russians was the economic security, not the constant barrage of propaganda. Unemployment is virtually unknown, according to Malia, although there is a considerable degree of under-employment. What little unemployment there is exists in the large cities...
...also in these big cities where it is easiest to buy consumer goods. Malia, for instance, lost his pair of nail clippers in Kiev, and there was not even a pair of scissors in the biggest department store in town. And in Leningrad, he bought the last pair of gloves in the biggest department store there. Both these items were available in abundance in Moscow. Similarly, it is only the five or six largest cities in Russia which have television...
...people Malia met were very concerned with world communism. Their interest was limited to concern about another world war. Almost all felt that it was Russia which was following a peaceful policy, and not the United States. Some had reservations about the details of what their own government told them...
...Although Malia found that many people had listened to either the Voice of America or the BBC's foreign service, they were in general suspicious of them. Since they felt that the Voice greatly exaggerates the plight of the Russians--and this point they can check against their own experience--they tended to discount what it says about conditions outside of Russia as well. The simple and sophisticated people alike adopted the attitude that "Your radio lies, and so does ours." The BBC, while in this same general category, is more highly respected...