Nostalgia for communism | VPRO Documentary

The freed circus bears are a perfect metahor for the people in Eastern Europe. Just as the bears, they have never learned how to deal with the newly acquired freedom. And this explains the nostalgia for communism. This also goes for Roman Janiszek, who used to work in the coal mines of Poland. Miners were respected. They were the highest paid workers in Poland and were allowed to sit at the front of the church. But Europe wanted to phase out the coal industry and coal from other countries was also cheaper. Thanks to the free market, the mines were closed and thousands of miners lost their jobs and their prestige. The VPRO is touring Europe and European history. The series ’In Europe, History caught in the act’ picks up the thread where the previous one ended: in 1999. Optimism at the turn of the century gave way to fear and confusion following the attacks on the Twin Towers, the credit crisis, an increasing flow of refugees, and an increasingly troubled relationship with Russia. But can