In Eastern Europe, during communist rule, a befuddled tourist found himself on a city bus without a ticket. As happens, the bus police boarded, demanding to see tickets.
The tourist, along with a few villainous looking individuals was escorted off the bus.
“The fine is 5 kopecks,” said the guard. “Plus 15 kopecks for infrastructure.”
The tourist queried, “You mean streets and schools and so on?” The guard nodded.
Handing over the obvious bribe, the tourist couldn’t help himself, adding facetiously, “Maybe even the Opera House?”
No, not the Opera House.
Fine paid, the tourist asked to buy another ticket for the next bus.
“OK. 5 kopecks for the ticket and another 15.”
“What! More infrastructure?”
“Yes” the guard responded, with a straight face, “for the Opera House.”
So, when you are being robbed, better to keep your mouth shut.
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While teaching in post-Soviet Riga, I asked my students to interview someone they knew who had worked in both systems, the communist and the capitalist. All interviewees, while expressing some nostalgia – yes ,some missed the camaraderie to be found in endless queues- avowed, they would never want to return to the communist way of working.
A joke from 1989 captures how it was: Two old Estonian men meet. First one: “Do you think we’ll ever be free?” Second one: “Maybe… but I’m not sure I’ll like it. What if I have to work?”
Authoritarian leadership, whether by the state or a theory X boss, leads to workers not only sharing bitter jokes about their misery, but doing only just enough to get by. Corruption, as the fable illustrates, was one way to get a little ahead of the ubiquitous poverty among all but the nomenklatura. There’s an old line from Soviet times which highlights the difference, under socialism, between those being led and those doing the leading: “We’ll pretend to work while you pretend to lead.”
The authoritarian boss stifles creativity by removing initiative. Yes, that kind of boss can force people to do something with a Kick in the Ass, (fear) but once the boss stops kicking, little gets done. And, those smarting from those indignities will do as little as possible and may resort to corruption or sabotage to get even.
*From the Encyclopedia Britannica:
“Ivan Andreyevich Krylov, (1768/69-1844) Russian writer of innocent-sounding fables that satirized contemporary social types in the guise of beasts. His command of colloquial idiom brought a note of realism to Russian classical literature. Many of his aphorisms have become part of everyday Russian speech.” See his The Inquisitive Man.
While under the Czar, Krylov came precipitously close to Siberian exile; under Staling he would have “disappeared”.
© Copyright John Lubans 2025