Initial Arrival 26

Day 3
30 September 1956
Yakutsk, Siberia, USSR

“Well, here men and women are equal. And people have the right to have a job. It is in the constitution.”

“I don't think it is.”

“The Soviet constitution.”

“Oh, right.”

“We are a modern state. We do have a constitution which governs the state. You know this, right?”

“Right, we aren't home. I need to be careful about my expectation of references.” Jennifer turned her mind back into her thoughts, closing her eyes as she continued to explain. “In the US, it is rare for people to acknowledge positive rights as required. Food, housing, health care, … internal inequalities within the system aren't acknowledged in capitalist mentality. But socialist philosophy has commonly showed all the inherent, non-obvious inequalities and power structures. It would make sense to include the positive rights when constructing a communist state.”

Jennifer paused, thought, before she continued, “Well, I guess the concept of a Soviet constitution had been mentioned. I had always been taught that the Soviet Union was a totalitarian state. A dictatorship. There is one person put in charge and he controlled everything. This is how communism is defined in the US. I guess they mentioned a constitution with rights, but … these rights were second to the state's wishes. To state security.”