When we were kids, we used to talk about life in “scary” places like Russia. “You can’t even say anything critical there,” we’d exclaim, “or the government will throw you in jail!”

It seemed like such a frightening, faraway idea, a country where merely speaking could bring on government persecution.

Years later, in 1986, I went to Russia on assignment and witnessed this life firsthand. I had a translator who warned me not to speak English to her when we were in public. On a train, she rolled her eyes in the direction of a man, and later whispered to me, “KGB.” More: Mitch Albom: The bell that tolls for Charlie Kirk's death rings loudest with our youths

I also traveled extensively in East Germany, then part of the Communist bloc, where people refused to engage in conversation about pol

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