How Many Communist Countries Have You Visited?

I was in Hong Kong a few months prior to the handover. I’m not sure if that counts; it was, after all, ceded to the UK in perpetuity and therefore wasn’t Chinese territory until the handover.

Russia is communist?

I didn’t count it-- I was there pre-1999, and it never occurred to me to include pre-return HK in the group of communist countries. It was close to Free* Market Heaven.

Not in the strictest sense, but it seemed like everyone had their fingers in at least 5 different business, and were working on their 6th.

How communist is China currently, anyways? To me their political system seems more like some sort of totalitarian one-party capitalism than communism these days but I haven’t been there.

Well, one party totalitarianism is the hallmark of a communist system. They certainly aren’t a capitalist system, as the party controls pretty much everything and manipulates heavily their markets. They have a pretty thin veneer of capitalism on what is still basically a command economy. I’d say they are a mixed or hybrid economy, with some aspects of Capitalism and some of basically a managed command economy.

Try some thought experiments:

  1. Supposing Sweden had been ruled by Idi Amin. Would you reform the ills by sweeping away socialism, or throwing out the despot?

  2. What if the USSR had a two-party system, both of them firmly communist, but with a mechanism for voting the corrupt out of office? Just as the USA has two parties, both solidly free-market with no real doctrinal opposition, just an electoral reality check. Might communism have been OK, then?

  3. How long did it take Lech Walesa to overcome the resistance of the Polish communist government to his labor reform? How many brutal decades of murderous violence did it take for coal miners to organize in “free” America?

I lived in China for five years, and visited Viet Nam for five days. A hard call on the Czech Republic part of Czechoslovakia that I visited in 1992.

By 1992, the Czech people had pretty much thrown off the remnants of communism completely. Businesses were thriving and people were running B&Bs out of their apartments. Three of us were there for a job around that time, staying for a month in an apartment, and found the place to be pretty much wide open, especially compared to when I was there in the late 80s.

That’s the only one on my list.

While communist? I believe only Poland about three times before the wall came down (I’m guessing 1977, 1981, and 1986. Something like that. I only remember the last two trips.)

Used to be, just like most of the countries in the OP.

All the ones in the OP are currently communist, or the names given are while they were communist (East Germany, Czechoslovakia), and he has a note about Nicaragua in the 80s. It looks to me like he’s asking about countries visited while communist. (If not, you can add about another dozen and change countries for me.)

Just Cuba for a couple of weeks in 1978.

One. The US in 1953-54. Watched the McCarthy hearings. Many, many Communists. Very sad.

Considering I’ve only set foot in 5 countries it shouldn’t be very surprising that none of the soil I’ve stepped in has been communist in its history unless you count the brief period when the Republicans controlled Madrid and that was 70 years before I visited.

I also lived in Portugal for two years, which was communist at one time, just not when I was there. I don’t think that meets the OP criteria.

I think the fact that he wrote “East Germany”, means he was there when it was, well, East Germany. It is now Eastern Germany. Also, Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist as a country anymore either. You saying “Russia” is as if the OP had said “The Czech Republic”.

If I asked you how many Spanish Speaking countries you’ve visited, would you list California? :slight_smile: It’s neither a country, nor is it Spanish speaking (except on construction sites, in LA, and in most restaurants. :wink: )

In 1977, I lived in the USSR for a year, which is technically only one country, but FTR, I lived in Moscow for nearly a year, and visited, for about 4-5 days per, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, and Estonia. They were all really beautiful, and in Uzbekistan, and Georgia, especially, the food was delicious, especially after the lousy food in Moscow. I grew an inch and a half while I was there (I was 10), but I didn’t gain any weight.

I also had a two hour stopover in East Germany on the way to the USSR.

After Moscow, we went to Poland for a week, and Czechoslovakia for three weeks, where I met family. I was in both Prague and Bratislava (as well as many smaller towns).

In 1985, I returned to Europe. I went to Czechoslovakia again, and visited family again. Lots and lots of family. I was in both the future Czech Republic, and the future Republic of Slovakia, again.

Tally that how you will.

I think my parents, between them, may have visited just about every Communist country except Cuba. My father was in China, and Korea, and several smaller Asian countries, and my mother was in Hungary and Yugoslavia. I think they were both in Romania, but not together. My father studied Soviet politics, and my mother studied Slavic languages.

Georgian food is quite incredible. I’ve been to Moscow three times, but after the iron curtain had been lifted, and even though I actually enjoy Russian food, we made sure to eat as much as we could at the Georgian restaurants. It must have been even better to have it in its home country. Now, Uzbekistan I’ve been to, and the food there was delicious, but I just remember a lot of kebabs and plov (pilaf), which I kind of have a reference for. Georgian food was like nothing else I ever tasted.

Did you try the pecan pie or the peach cobbler?

Yes, I was really asking about visiting communist countries while they’re communist. For instance, I was in East Germany and Czechoslovakia back in Cold War days. But I’m enjoying the stories, so we can keep it loose.