WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY (KMOX Radio) -- Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a demonstration at Washington University against socialism was making some students uncomfortable.
Students cutting across the campus on a warm fall day heard the Soviet National Anthem in the breeze, coming from loud speakers inside a makeshift prison camp complete with a high-wire fence, blood-stained inmates and goose-stepping guards in Soviet-era uniforms.
Organizer Dirk Doebler of the conservative group Young Americans for Liberty says the goal was to show a "liberal-leaning" campus the ugly history of socialism.
"There are a lot of people who sympathize with socialist and communist ideas on campus, " Doebler said, "We are trying to show that socialism inevitably leads to communism, which inevitably leads to this, because any kind of large statist government can't allow dissenters."
Some students passing by objected, including some Russian-borne students, upset by images of their homeland.
One Russian-borne student tried to argue with another student who was portraying a Soviet-era guard, but the guard stayed in character, shouting non-sequiturs about how the prisoners were happy because they were "well fed" and being "re-educated."
"They are wearing Soviet uniforms," complained student Alec Ulmasov, "My grandparents and great grandparents were in the Russian Army and this is completely ridiculous."
Ulmasov, who says his parents came to the U-S when he was four to escape communism, also objected to the use of the Russian national anthem and Russian posters. "I don't see anything about socialism that still exists in the world like Chinese socialism. It specifically goes at Russian socialism."
Organizers say they were trying to pay tribute to the 150 to 200 Million people they say have been killed throughout history by socialist regimes. But some students accused the demonstrators of trying to slam the Obama Administration as it pushes for nationalized health care.
Others felt the message was edgy , but worthy of consideration. "I mean it's out there and it's really out of the box," said graduate student Katlin Hartsell, "But I think it's good that it really gets people thinking about what the actual implications of what socialism and communism mean."
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