Constantine Pleshakov, an assistant professor of Russian Studies at Mount Holyoke College, spoke about his life as an intellectual in the former Soviet Union. "Traditionally, my generation ... used to blame a lot on the communists and the communist regime," he said. "I have a hypothesis that communism is kind of a tool that just brings out the worst in every nation,"
"My parents were bourgeois intellectuals and I was considered a son of a class enemy," said Senior Lecturer in Asian Languages and Civilizations Hua Lan, who comes from China.
"My parents were among the millions of intellectuals who wholeheartedly supported the revolution," Lan said. "Not a single family was left unscathed by the cultural revolution."
Professor of Spanish Antonio Benitez-Rojo talked about being separated from his wife for 11 years because he could not leave Cuba.
"At that time, it was very difficult to leave Cuba, almost impossible," he said. "For me it was terrible because, being a writer, the chance for me to be able to leave the country was virtually impossible." Benitez-Rojo defected 11 years after his wife did, eventually meeting up with her in Germany before moving to America.
Professor of German Ute Brandes talked about the confusion she faced growing up in East Germany. Brandes was the daughter of one of six independent lawyers in the country, and because of this, her home discussions were more open than those she could have in public, she said.
"The greatest trouble I had as a kid was this double speak," she said.
Professor of Political Science Pavel Machala spoke about his life as a student leader in Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring of 1968 and his emigration to the Untied States shortly after the Warsaw Pact invasion.
"I really never lived under communism," said Machala. "I was promised to live under communism, but I left before then. I come from a generation that did not experience the so-called totalitarian face of communism."
"Life Under Communism" was organized by the Foreign Policy Forum.