Just as Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Yushchenko are firing angry letters back and forth at each other and Russia is refusing to send its ambassador to Ukraine, people in both countries are becoming more and more nostalgic for the socialist past.
I recently returned from Trikrata, a town of about 15,000 people in southern Ukraine that was home to a large quarry during the Soviet period. I spoke with the former workers of the quarry. While pointing out the barely visible remains of its grass-covered foundation, they said: “There were manufacturing facilities here in the Soviet days. A new cafeteria was built for the workers, and on the other side of the bank there used to be railroad tracks. But all the rails and crossties were stolen when the country switched to a market economy.”
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