Lost in Transition: Nostalgia and Communism
In the book, “Lost in Transition,” author Ghodsee shows the drastic changes in the lives
and societies of citizens in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. Due to biased Western
beliefs, communism is seen as unfair, controlling, and primitive to some. However, people in
Bulgaria as well as many other parts of Eastern Europe felt as though communism was a way of
structuring the ever-changing world around them. Though capitalism provided political and
social freedom, it also caused banks to collapse, inflation of goods and services, and a
widespread panic due to instability. Unsureness and chaos instills a sense of fear and anxiety
amongst humans, and this violent abrupt change caused adverse reactions amongst people. Crime
rates increased, people felt a sense of hopelessness, and the feeling of nostalgia became prevalent
as people began to remember the good days of stability. Ghodsee reports a survey conducted by
the PEW Research Center in the afterword that questioned overall happiness and success of
ordinary citizens of post-communist countries. In Bulgaria, the survey found that “62 percent of
Bulgarians said that they were economically worse off today than they were under communism”
(Ghodsee, 2011). This shows the overall affect of transitioning from communism to capitalism
and ripping the stability and routines away from the lives of those associated.
Nostalgia can be defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past,
typically for a period or place with happy personal associations” (“Nostalgia,” 2019). The
longing for communism in this book is directly linked to the happiness experienced within the
time frame. In the section “Coffee,” an elderly woman makes coffee for her husband and
reminisces about the better times of stability experienced during the communist control. Coffee
is used as a metaphor, as the woman has made the same coffee every day for her husband for
decades. It represents consistency, routine, and nostalgia for the elderly woman as it is the only
aspect of her life that hasn’t been corrupted by encouraging political freedom. Saddened by her
aging and the world around her, she states “I am just a remnant of my own existence, a residual
of my youth”(Ghodsee, 2011). She goes into a narrative of how the fall of communism has taken
her husband’s dreams of equality and peace and promoted financial instability, crime, and chaos.
As she brings the cup of coffee to her husband, he says “Just the way I like it” as he kisses her
wrinkled hands and takes a sip (Ghodsee, 2011). The message portrayed with this short section
was that regardless of the collapsing economy and violent changes around them, one can find
consistency in themselves and their households. The woman is nostalgic for communism and the
husband refuses to conform to the modern politically free society. However, the coffee plays the
role of a process and figure that has remained constant just like their routines with one another
regardless of what is outside the doors.
In the chapter “Kaloyan in Maine,” the man Kaloyan visited Ghodsee and asked to be a
guest speaker for the students as they were learning about women and communism. Kaloyan
talked about his life before the fall of communism, the happiness, his childhood, and the overall
nostalgic feeling gathered from reminiscing about the better times. He started by explaining to
the students with prior Western ideologies, that during the time of communism, they “were not
monsters…we were trying to find a way for people to get along together better” (Ghodsee,
2011). He explained further about how he studied just as they do, he lived a wonderful childhood
and then was shaken by the abrupt switch from communism to capitalism. When asked by a
student what he missed about communism, he stated “the chance to live the life that I spent my
childhood preparing for” (Ghodsee, 2011). Though many people may not understand unless they
live through it, what you experience as a child is often how you base your perceptions and
judgements of events and people later in life. As a child, Kaloyan experienced communism as
normalcy. He went to school, made friends, and grew up knowing what to expect every day. A
sense of stability and schedule was developed over time as Kaloyan grew out of childhood and
into a life of responsibilities and unsureness. With the drastic change of economic structure and
political power within his country, he experienced negativity compared to the better childhood
days. He became nostalgic for everything to make sense again, for everything to fall into place as
it did under the prior political structure. By preparing for a life based on the world around him, as
a child Kaloyan expected everything around him to stay the same and rather he would change
and fit into society. With uncertainty, financial instability, crime, and forced conformity to
modernized governmental structures, Kaloyan fell into nostalgia for the better times.
Overall, Ghodsee shows how nostalgia is a key experience in transitioning from
socialism to capitalism. Human nature rejects change as it upsets the natural balance of
individual and societal lives that we have become used to. Abruptly taking away the stability and
structure from the lives of its citizens and replacing it with chaos and uncertainty makes people
fall into a reminisce of the better times when life was predictable. Political freedom doesn’t
necessarily equal happiness but rather evokes a massive change within a country that people do
not agree with. Though more freedom is established, people see the outcomes of social relations
and interactions such as an increase in crime, financial separation and the formation of social
classes, and the sense of uneasiness felt amongst themselves.
References
Ghodsee, Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life After Communism. Duke University Press, 2011
Nostalgia. (2019). In Oxford online dictionary. Retrieved from
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/nostalgia