ABSTRACT
Autocratic regimes are good at teaching people to wait. Like it or not, their subjects must accept their dominance for the indefinite future. Communist rulers emphasized the need for subjects to be patient while waiting for the achievement of pure Communism. Like preachers of a millenarian religion, they preached the doctrine of chairos, the unknown moment in time when the patience of believers will be rewarded and God’s (that is, the Party’s) will is realized. Subjects of such regimes needed patience, whether they were waiting for the regime’s promises to be fulfilled or for it to collapse.
