Ever lived in a "Repressive" country?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am interested in people who, or who have relatives or friends who lived in what might be called authoritarian states. Nations ran by a dictator, one political party, a cult of personality, a great leader, Communism or Fascism.

A list of “repressive states” presently and from the recent past…

North Korea

Myanmar (or Burma)

Cuba

Iran (either under the Shah or under the Mullahs)

Gaza Strip

Afghanistan

Any Middle Eastern state that represses women and has repressive religious laws and medieval punishments like Saudi Arabia.

Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge.

Nazi Germany

The former USSR, especially under Stalin or afterwards.

Maoist China (1949-1976)

Iraq under Saddam Hussain (1975-2003)

Various right wing dictatorships in South America in the 1970’s. (Pinochet in Chile for example)

Vietnam right after 1975.

Laos right after 1975. (or now with the repression of the Hmong peoples.)

Any “Iron Curtain” nation…

East Germany/East Berlin.

Albania under Enver Hoxha.

Romania under Ceauchescu (that asshole who was stood up and shot with wife on XMas Day 1989)

Other nations like Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, or Mongolia under Communism.

2

I think I once knew someone who lived in Spain under Francisco Franco, but I haven’t seen them in ten years. They mentioned that there was as very very anti-Communist/anti Soviet sentiment among the common people, but otherwise didn’t share any strong experiences.

3

I think the citizens of many of these countries will be very surprised to learn that they live in repressive countries.

Many Arabs I know find London* to be boring, since the bloody place except for Bars and nightclubs closes at 8.
*Well yes not really there are places which remain open but the point is in most middle eastern countries all shops an d markets routinely remain open past 1 am.

4

The Chinese side of my family still live in china. My mother in law has a few english sentences like ‘i love chairman mao’ and ‘socialist construction.’ doesn’t help a lot now on her first visit to China.

I lived in China starting in 1985 when Deng Xiaoping was still paramount leader and most of the old style totalatarian systems were still firmly in place (work units, neighborhood commitees, strict travel restrictions, etc)

I also lived in Taiwan under martial law and under the regeim of Chiang jingkuo in the 1980’s

also depending on your viewpoint under the ‘iron heel’ of british colonialism in hong kong :wink:

5

Cuba for me.

6

Since the OP is looking for personal experiences, this is better suited for IMHO than GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

7

I liked in Panama for two years (1977-1979) during the dictatorship of Omar Torrijos. I also traveled to Panama frequently during the regime of Manuel Noriega between 1988 and 1989.

I traveled in Guatemala during the dictatorship of the late 1970s, and in Madagascar in 1985, and Zaire in 1993, when their governments were basically dictatorial.

8

I have not, but my mother in law moved to Canada from the USSR shortly after WW2, and so lived part of her life under Stalin.

She still quite clearly remembers various incidents of a Stalinist childhood. For example, as a kid she was given candies by the teacher (a rare treat) and told that, if she informed on her parents, she would get more.

Her father died (or at least, presumably died) the very first day of operation Barbarossa. He was a soldier on the frontier. None of his unit were ever heard from again.

After the war, they and their whole extended family were relocated to a farm vacated by ethnic Germans. Her relatives stayed there. Apparently, in the 80s, with liberalization on the way, the original owners of the farm - who had, after all, survived by fleeing to West Germany - returned for a visit. That must have been a bit awkward.

9

Lived during the '80s ( first 10 years of my life) in Cheausescu’s Romania.

10

I wonder if Mexico counts? Single party rule for 71 years, no real freedom of the press during that time, and even though there was no out and out oppression, it has a history of a corrupt police force and some human rights abuses, and of course organized electoral fraud is a kind of oppression.

11

Forgot to add the time I spent in Tibet in the 1980’s. That probably qualifies under the OP.

12

Lived for two years, back in the early thirties, under the ultimate dictator, Adolph Hitler. Of course, I was only three years old then so don’t remember too many details. I know the Gestapo didn’t bother us.

13

I had a second cousin (my mother’s cousin) who was stationed in Germany after WWII and brought home a German bride who had grown up in Nazi Germany. I wish now that I had asked her about it but I was a kid and I just didn’t think about it.

I do remember her talking about her and the other kids taunting a Nazi teacher they had in school.

I do remember a conversation where the possibility of some kind of fascist regime taking over the U.S. was discussed. I confidently asserted that that could never happen here. She looked at me quite sternly and told me that it was entirely possible.

During “detente” her sister, who lived in East Germany, was allowed to come here for a week to visit. She brought her daughter with her. They didn’t speak English so I didn’t hear any stories from them but I remember their eyes practically popping out of their heads at the grandeur of our modest working class row houses.

More recently, I dated a woman from mainland China. She told me that her brother and his wife had had a second child and got all kinds of grief because of it, including having their power cut off.

14

I had a great aunt who lived in Brazil during Getúlio Vargas’s Estado Novo. She taught at a private school during WWII. A few years earlier her sister spent her junior year of college abroad in Nazi Germany (& flew back on the Hindenburg).

15

I lived in Yugoslavia from 1986-1994. My main experience of repression was just how bad of jerks (term used because the better descriptive terms can only be used in the Pit) the police can be with little or no oversight. Bluntly stated, no organized crime boss or gang is quite the money sucker as a police department on the take.

16

My parents, and many of my other relatives.

My parents are both Holocaust survivors, so lived under Nazi occupation in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. (They were moved around by the Nazis.)

After the war my mother was in communist Hungary, my father in communist Hungary and East Germany.

They came to the U.S. in 1958.

17

My mother and her extended family lived in Germany during the entirety of the Third Reich (and before and afterwards, for that matter!) I’ve heard lots of stories.

My family and I lived in Saudi Arabia when I was around 10 or so. I enjoyed it, but I was a kid. Some of the adults didn’t care for it so much.

18

I have lived in Dubai off and on for 6 years. It is a dictatorship, but I feel safer walking the streets than when I am at my home in the USA. I have also traveled in Turkmenistan and North Korea among many other dictatorships.

19

My SIL grew up in the USSR. She had a very happy childhood, but with plenty of work. Also, the day of Chernobyl was a beautiful day and she spent the whole time outside, downwind.

20

Wow. Were you born a German citizen? If so, how did your family get out?