Intergenerational Effects of Communist Repression in Eastern Europe

• In Event: Elite Behavior and Public Opinion in Eastern Europe

Abstract

How does this knowledge about past repression affect political attitudes and behavior in post-authoritarian contexts? Much of the existing literature on historical legacies assumes that the effect of repression will be strongest among the people who experienced it first-hand and then decay over time. However, some empirical evidence points to a different conclusion: that repression may actually have a greater effect on younger generations under certain circumstances.

Why might the effects of repression on politics become magnified even as the events themselves grow more distant? I investigate this question by studying the legacies of communist repression in central and eastern Europe, using cross-national survey data. I find that people who report that a family member suffered violence at the hands of communist authorities are more politically active across a number of dimensions. I then investigate the mechanisms underlying these findings, concentrating on how the effects of repression differ across generations and political contexts. I find that although knowledge about communist repression diminishes with the passage of time, it is precisely among these later generations that repression appears to have the greatest “mobilizing” effect.

From a theoretical perspective, this paper speaks to a topic that continues to puzzle scholars: why and how political violence committed long ago continues to exert a powerful effect on contemporary politics – but one that is uneven across time, space, and individuals. My research also has normative implications: by studying the way individuals living in post-authoritarian societies process the traumatic events of their past, we can understand how they develop the resilience to move forward and mobilize against new threats. The question of how memories of past repression mobilize people to engage in politics is particularly relevant in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, given that many people across central and eastern Europe have interpreted the ongoing war with an eye toward the past.

Author

• Isabelle DeSisto, Princeton University