XClose

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES)

Home
Menu

Double-edged sword: Persistent effects of Communism on life satisfaction

05 February 2021, 1:00 pm–2:30 pm

Cars parked

A CCSEE seminar with Dr Milena Nikolova (University of Groningen)

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

CCSEE

Location

Zoom

In this online seminar, the speaker examines the long-term consequences of connections to the communist regime for satisfaction in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU), how that depends on the type of connection and role under the regime and the post-Communism legacy in welfare and satisfaction. A Q&A session will follow.

The paper abstract:
Communism was a two-edged sword for those trusted by the former regime. Communist party members and their relatives enjoyed status, privileges, and connections. At the same time, secret police informants were coerced to work clandestinely and gather compromising materials about friends, colleagues, and neighbors. After the fall of Communism, CEE countries and the Baltics exposed informants and regime collaborators, while most of the FSU countries have not done so. Using the 2016 Life in Transition Survey, we examine the long-term consequences of connections to the communist regime for satisfaction in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU). In the FSU, we find that individuals with connections to the former Communist party are more satisfied, but those who themselves served as informants to the secret police or had relatives coerced to do that are less satisfied with their lives than those without such connections. The life satisfaction premium for being associated with the former Communist party is, on average, equivalent to monthly household income. At the same time, the costs of being an informant are equivalent to two monthly household incomes. The opposite holds in the CEE and Baltics. There, former Communist party connections negatively influence present-day life satisfaction, and this loss is equivalent to a third of monthly income, but secret service informant ties do not matter. We also empirically test channels that may explain those effects. The findings underscore that the Communist party connections have a persistent but differential effect on life satisfaction.

About the Speaker

Dr Milena Nikolova

at University of Groningen

More about Dr Milena Nikolova