So like a prison with life sentences! You could theoretically get out by a pardon -- but the only realistic way was to sneak out while hoping the guards missed, if they saw you...
The constant comparisons to a prison reflect the theoretical reality of leaving the country accurately, but poorly reflect the psychological perception of the issue by most citizens. The USSR was a vast, vast country, spanning 11 timezones horizontally as the Russian Federation does now. It contained 15 ethnically and culturally diverse republics, practically every far-northern, tundra, sub-tropical and tropical climactic region imaginable, and manifold examples of every kind of landscape and topography. In addition, travel to the Eastern European socialist republics was quite possible and routine for many people.
My point is, there was a lot to see inside the country. Were we technically "trapped" there? Absolutely. But to grok the actual significance of this, consider the single-digit percentage of Americans that hold foreign passports. Vanishingly few Americans have ever traveled outside the country, and a non-trivial number have never left their state or been beyond a neighbouring one.
So, while the fact that the borders were closed is important, and if that's your sole point, well, sure, but if you're likening it experientially to a prison, I think that's a little over the top. There were certain people who really wanted to leave and for whom that was undoubtably true. But as with most Americans, most Soviets were somewhere in the middle on that.
This is not an apologia or a whitewashing of the fact that our borders were closed, but an attempt to convey the human factor in a more nuanced, perceptive way.
>>The constant comparisons to a prison reflect the theoretical reality of leaving the country accurately, but poorly reflect the psychological perception of the issue by most citizens.
Of course, with information control from the cradle...
>>Vanishingly few Americans have ever traveled outside the country, and a non-trivial number have never left their state or been beyond a neighbouring one.
I thought Soviet didn't allow people to move to the place they wanted? Or was that just the big cities?
But sure, people traveled in the military service...? :-)
