It's not remarkable to me. Many members of the intelligentsia who I knew in Romania, did not give a rat's ass for workers' rights or democracy. Being treated like minor royalty just gave them an infinite sense of entitlement: they wanted all the perks of living under socialism, all the added perks of being intellectuals, the ability to travel anywhere in the world and to complain about their bitter lot, and the ability to publish/display whatever their art happened to be.
Many of them were especially targeted by western grants to come and visit. Then they got the idea that they were hot stuff and that they would get tenured professorships if they emigrated. So some of them emigrated...and, boy, did they get the surprise of their lives! No jobs! Ha, ha, ha.
Joanna