How did the Soviets/Eastern Europe react to the Jonestown Massacre?

by BeholderOfBehold

The Peoples Temple was a very pro-Soviet organisation, and many last testaments specifically requested their assets be transferred to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (whether or not this was under duress isn't the point).

So how did the Soviets react to the Jonestown Massacre? Did they get the bank assets from the victims?

nelliemcnervous

Someone actually asked a similar question earlier this year, and I responded based on the information I could find from the Czechoslovak media. Briefly: the followers of the People's Temple were basically described as poor fools who sought an escape from capitalist oppression and fell into the arms of a crazy murderer with suspicious links to the American government. Jones's sympathies for the Soviet Union were not mentioned. This story fit perfectly into the official Czechoslovak narrative about the capitalist/American way of life versus life under real existing socialism -- over here, ordinary, hard-working people can lead mostly comfortable lives in peace, but over there, there's no telling what kinds of insanity, exploitation, criminality, and danger you might be subjected to. Sure, it might look more prosperous and more exciting, but at what price?

Unfortunately, I can't provide any information about how Soviet authorities or the Soviet press reacted to Jonestown. I strongly suspect that the American-way-of-life theme would have been prominent there as well, especially since it draws from long-standing European ideas about American society that are by no means restricted to Czechoslovakia.