Elena Gorokhova explains in her memoirs that “The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know that they are lying, they know that we know that they are lying, but they continue to tell us we lie and we continue to pretend to believe them. The novel A Mountain of Crumbs depicts the despair, oppression and deception of life behind the Iron Curtain in the 70s and 80s. Many rights of citizens of the Soviet Union were violated and unrecognized. In the past, human rights did not exist, but the idea has evolved over time. It was at the end of World War II that the United Nations created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with the aim of saving future generations from devastating internal conflicts. Human rights are the rights that one has simply because one is a human being. There is no distinction between who can exercise and obtain their rights. Some of these self-evident rights include that all humans are born free with the promise of life, liberty, and security of person. The above rights must be protected and respected by everyone. However, the rights of communist nations in the USSR were not preserved. Specifically, the right to emigrate and move freely as one wishes, freedom of conscience, thought and religion and the ability to express oneself as one wishes. Essentially, people's rights were restricted inside the Iron Curtain, with many immediately revealing their voices and pleading for change, but instead they were met with armed forces ready to eliminate anyone to defend the status quo. Although there were not many changes in the socialist regime of the Soviet Union, there were many after World War II. The Big Three, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Prime Minister...... middle of paper .......org/history/1953-the-east-german -uprising>. “The Potsdam Conference. 1945. » US Departments of State; Historian's Office. Np, and Web. March 3, 2014. Ray, Rob and John S, eds. “1956: the Hungarian revolution. » Libcom. Np, and Web. March 13, 2014. .“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. Human rights. Np, and Web. March 11, 2014. “What are human rights and how do they work?” Mount Holyoke. Np, and Web. March 11, 2014. “The Yalta Con, 1945.” US Department of State. Np, and Web. March 12. 2014. .