My perestroika - different countries, same change

       The movie we started watching today in class might have a very different meaning for me, a child born in barely democratic Romania, just 2 years after the fall of the communist regime, than it has for most people in our class. Watching the images and listening to the stories of the people in the movie seems like I am listening to citizen of Romania, who are, for some reason, speaking in Russian. The manifestations and the pioneers, the songs and poems about peace, they could maybe be described as universal among the communist states. ( The video in this post is from the last celebration of communist rule in Romania in 1989, its anniversary was on the 23rd of August and the Romanian revolution started 4 months later,in December 1989).
        I think the thing that impressed me the most were the pioneers. The way they talk is hauntingly similar to the way the Romanian kids praised the glorified leader a little bit over 20 years ago. Even their voices are similar. And while some people found it funny, for me it was slightly terrifying, understanding how powerful the cult of personality was in all the communist countries. This unity in how kids were forced to show their approval of communism and their strong belief in its values really impressed me in a way that I never thought it would.
        The innocent children we saw in the movie are not just random kids, who show up in the video because they happened to be around when public television was taking interviews. They were carefully selected, based on their parents' involvement in communist activities, if these parents were effective and loyal members of society,preserving the values of communism and fostering them in their kids, so that the   offspring would become responsible members of the communist society.
        I haven't lived during the communist rule in my country, but I have been exposed to aspects of it and the way the Russian people talk about it is familiar to me. The way the interiors of their houses look like, even the social commentaries on class and income feel as if taken from a Romanian documentary about the democratization of my country. I relate to it in a very strong way. However, I can imagine that the American perspective on all of these issues is different. How does it make you feel when you see how fascinating wearing a T-shirt with USA written on it is for some people? Can you understand how cool the UCLA logo must have been ( I bet most people in Russia don't know what UCLA is even today...)? How does their perspective on the west make you feel?
         All in all, I think the things I am most curious about are: how do you feel about communism and about this movie? Can you put yourself in this situation? Do you resonate with the characters? Can you imagine how life was like either during the communist rule or at the time when the movie was made?
Also: how do you feel about their way of living? Is it in any way similar to anything you/ your parents/ your grandparents might have experienced?