Michael
I was interested enough as a young man to go and visit these countries (on my 'thumb' sometimes) to see for myself rather than get my information from the media and the politicians - I found a very different situation than the one being painted at home
The most educational trip was when me an d a mate set out for a beer festival, couldn't get lifts and ended up on Prague on the day the Russians opened up the borders after the invasion
We were taken in by a group of students who found us accommodation and fed us for over a week
They took us with them on their trips to the local park where the Russians were billeted and we watched while they argued with the soldiers
We came away with the impression - not of a nation demanding a return to the good old days of Capitalism, but one demanding that the Government clean up their act and live up to the promises of their ideal - a 'Velvet Revolution'
That aim was never achieved and Czechoslovakia reverted to 'freedom'
I always wanted to fo back to the beautiful city of Prague, but was put off when a workmate described his visit when he was in Wenceslas Square and was approached by a young teenager who thrust her hand in his pocket, began fondling him and asked him for money - some freedom !

I went with friends to Yugoslavia and saw a reasonably comfortable, open society wheer hitch-hikers wrer encouraged by the Government who gave bonuses to truck drivers for giving lifts to hitchers
We all know what happened to Yugoslavia when the "yoke of communism" was lifted

I went to Russia - Moscow, Leningrad and Minsk - in Leningrad we were taken to the big central park and shown (with pride) the displays of photographs of the thousands of citizens who were hanged during "The Patriotic War" for opposing the Nazis
In Moscow, we were taken to an extermination camp that had been used to murder many thousands of Jews, trades Unionists, communists and Gypsies - the young fellers who took us there were as angry about what hasd happened as if it had happened last week
Can anyone truthfully say that 'Free Russia' is a better place for being allowed to open a McDonalds in Red Square ?

The Hungary I visited now has a neo-facist government now that it has been 'freed'

Sorry - I think those who talk about these places being 'freed' have some explaining to do
Their 'freedom seems to be based on introducing a class divided, unequal society with the former dreams and ideals removed
Jim