The recent poll showed that the readers of this blog have an overwhelming preference for posts about the USSR. I’m very ready to satisfy this curiosity. If there is anything specific you want to know about the Soviet Union, Ukraine, or Russia, please leave your questions in the comment section of this post.
Remember that there are no stupid questions or questions that are too basic for me to answer. I will stick this post to the top of the blog for a while. Please scroll down for new posts.
Clarissa's Blog 
What was ‘shopping’ like in the USSR? 🙂
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I went to a CCCP conference once. It stood for contemporary conference … poetry. There’s also a KGB bar in New York where they have poetry readings. I guess my question is why you would have this and not, say, the Gestapo bar or the Stazi bar.
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Is there a cursive form of the Cyrillic alphabet?
Also, you’ve talked a bit about the schooling conditions in the USSR while you were growing up. I know you said you went to a fancy expensive school where they taught you English. What were the schools like for students whose parents couldn’t afford something like that? Is this in any way similar to the schooling situation now?
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\\ Is there a cursive form of the Cyrillic alphabet?
“Russian cursive “(Russian) hand-writing script”, is the handwritten form of the modern Russian Cyrillic script, used instead of the block letters seen in printed material.”
\\ What were the schools like for students whose parents couldn’t afford something like that?
I liked school both there and in Israel. Most of my teachers were good (in both countries). English was studied at a very low level, math was studied at a normal level.
Clarissa, am I right to guess schools in villages were much worse and remain so? (I lived in a small city, and studied at a big school.)
I also have relatives in Russia, who think schools are OK where they live. But, again, they live in a city.
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Ah, yes, schooling! Growing up in India we had a lot of translated soviet books on science and math (high school level). These books were very difficult for high school and yet the prefaces always told us how well soviet students did at science and math. Propaganda or reality?
Also, what did the soviet public think of India (if at all)? Growing up we also heard so many stories about our friendship with the Soviets – how they liked Bollywood movies and how Russian and Sanskrit had common roots.
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\\ Also, what did the soviet public think of India (if at all)?
I was born near the end of FSU, but will answer anyway. 🙂
Interesting, if Clarissa’s experience was similar.
May be, it’s only me, but I’ve heard nothing of India. I knew such country existed, but that’s all. For instance, I read translations of English and American writers, but never Indian ones.
Now I do remember something: In one of Bunin’s (famous Russian writer) short stories there was a rickshaw. I also read Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” but Kipling isn’t an Indian writer.
Haven’t heard about China, Japan or Africa either.
\\ Growing up in India we had a lot of translated soviet books on science and math (high school level). These books were very difficult for high school
I remember that my 7th grade math book was quite hard, with mathematical proofs.
In Israel, math is studied at a good level too, but in 7th grade (and later) there is less attention paid to proofs. (I am not fully sure about that since I haven’t studied at high school in FSU but in Israel.)
\\ the prefaces always told us how well soviet students did at science and math. Propaganda or reality?
Propaganda. What I don’t like in the Soviet and today’s education is that everybody has to study the same material in all subjects. In Israel students can study math and English at three levels, which lets everybody learn better and doesn’t hurt brighter students.
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Reader el is young. 🙂 So she doesn’t remember the Soviet India craze. I will write about it in the next post.
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Not a question but I thought you might be interested in this.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/russia-economy-gdp-v-spain-2014-12
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My grandfather was born in the US in 1928. I think. Someone in my family said that his parents and his older sister were driven out of Lithuania during one of Stalin’s purges some time before that (there’s a bit of a missing paper trail, so we don’t really know what went on and when it happened, but “chased out of the country by dogs” tends to come up in a lot of the stories). What went on in that region of the USSR in the 1920’s? Did Stalin conduct a purge there, or are peoples’ sense of time out of whack?
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The sense of time is really out of whack. Lithuania was independent from 1918-1940. Stalin consolidated power in the USSR in 1928 and the Great Terror was 1937-1938. There was, however, a lot of emigration from Lithuania in the 1920s, mostly Jews who went to South Africa because they could not get into the US. The Soviet Union was founded in December 1922 after the Civil War as it is called ended in Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. There was famine in 1921-1922 then a period of relative economic liberalism under the New Economic Policy and period of relative tolerance and support for non-Russian cultures under korenizatsiia from 1923-1928. In 1928 the collectivization of agriculture and industrialization began with the massive deportation of kulaks starting in 1930.
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What differences,have you observed in people and how they coped when the USSR fell? How was it different for people your and your sister’s age versus people who were much older or younger?
What did you do for fun as children?
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These are really great questions, people. I will be answering them in separate posts.
LOVE these questions.
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What kind of youth movements did you have? We were Little Drummers from age 7-10, and Roadbreakers from age 11-18. The uniform of Little Drummers was blue ties and white shirts, and Roadbreakers had red ties and white shirts. However I don’t know if these movements were only country-specific or the USSR had the same youth movements. High-school aged kids also had to go to the so-called socialist “building camps” on the summers and work for free for some good cause like picking fruits or something like that. In reality these “building camps” were rather about socializing and compared to today’s standards a quite moderate partying, as there weren’t any strict supervision (at least after 1968). Did young people like these movements and events? In my home country, Hungary there is still a strong feeling of nostalgia for them, however we definitely were the happiest barrack in the whole communist block, so I suspect it was a different experience for people in the USSR. Myself I can’t remember well, as I just began my career as a faithful Little Drummer when communism came to an end. Also, did you have to collect used newspaper as kids? Did you have savings stamps? What uniform did you have in school? We had very ugly dark blue synthetic overall coats which looked and served like doctors’ lab clothes, and we had to wear this thing above our regular clothes.
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This is about the USSR specifically– but more about your experience living in multiple countries. Is the racism in the United States particularly bad? I have travelled quite a bit but only lived in this country and it seems to me that –while other countries certainly have their problems when it comes to race relations– there is something particularly violent and institutionalized about American racism. For instance, I don’t read or hear about police officers in other (developed) countries who shoot or choke unarmed citizens. But perhaps it’s because I’m ill informed. But this is a long way of saying: what’s your experience of racism living in other countries?
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I started answering but the answer was too long. I scheduled it to appear in a separate post tomorrow.
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Thanks. I appreciate it. I don’t quite know why exactly. But there is something about the Michael Brown case that has really gotten to me. I find myself really thinking about it.
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I’m extremely shocked and traumatized by this case, especially because I live in this area. Many of my students could have easily been in Michael Brown’s place. I feel completely alien to everything around me because I just can’t figure out what is happening, why the reactions are so insane. It’s like I’m missing some enormous part of cultural knowledge that is preventing me from understanding what the hell is going on.
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Regarding American racism, I read yesterday an article on Israeli news site about a Jewish female engineer who married a Nigerian alien. What I found interesting is her assumption in the last paragraph which I quoted below. The article is in Hebrew, but it has their photos if you wish to look.
I do want to note something of importance: in Israel, the environment is hostile because he is not Jewish, not because he is black. People are against assimilation with non-Jews, especially in Israel. When Ethiopian Jews marry other non-black Jews, it is celebrated because “we are all one Jewish people, returning to our roots in Eretz Israel.” Had he been French or German, people would have been hostile too. Simply, they wouldn’t recognize the other partner as non-Jewish at the first sight, so he probably would’ve noticed the hostility less.
I suppose different societies have different problems / challenges with accepting the Other, and who is defined as Other is not always about race, even though this woman uses the term “racism.”
Last but not the least, I think she is racist herself – “as if to give me time to get used to it” – and projects it on the entire Israeli society: “for Israelis she will always be a black girl, African.” In Israel, if your mother is Jewish, you’re seen as Jewish, no question, regardless of color. “One drop rule” is USA kind of thing, not Israeli one.
A relevant excerpt from an interview:
How does the environment respond to your relationship ?
“It’s hard for people to see us together. We feel the energy of the hostile stares , but we have not encountered a real racist reactions . However I know mixed couples like us , they encountered responses such as spitting or a curse. ”
• Libby’s pregnancy was planned?
“At first I did not want , [but then decided that] I can not stop him from children , although I know it will not be easy . ”
In what way ?
” I gave birth to a black girl . At first she was quite white , but I notice that it begins to slowly darken , as if to give me time to get used to it . You can say till tomorrow she is mixed, but for Israelis she will always be a black girl , African . I I do not know how it will be and what kind of life she will have . She may do revolutions in this country . ”
” If I see that she was suffering too much , I will fight for her like a tigress . I have American citizenship and I’m sure it would be easier for us to live there , but I do not want to go . I just want to continue to live here in peace. ”
http://www.xnet.co.il/laisha/articles/0,14961,L-3107767,00.html?dcMaa=ynet&utm_source=ynet&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=go_main
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“I suppose different societies have different problems / challenges with accepting the Other, and who is defined as Other is not always about race, even though this woman uses the term “racism.””
– There is no theory under which black Americans are any sort of “Other” in the United States. They are definitely way more American than the proverbial apple pie.
““It’s hard for people to see us together. We feel the energy of the hostile stares , but we have not encountered a real racist reactions . However I know mixed couples like us , they encountered responses such as spitting or a curse. ”
– Fucking animals.
“in Israel, the environment is hostile because he is not Jewish, not because he is black. People are against assimilation with non-Jews, especially in Israel.”
– Fucking animals.
“” I gave birth to a black girl . At first she was quite white , but I notice that it begins to slowly darken , as if to give me time to get used to it .”
– With a mommy like that, somebody else’s racism will be the smallest of the girl’s problems.
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\\ “in Israel, the environment is hostile because he is not Jewish, not because he is black. People are against assimilation with non-Jews, especially in Israel.”
– Fucking animals.
Well, remember you wrote about two options for the Jews? You chose assimilation, Jews in Israel chose the other option.
I think hostility is so bad since Israeli Jews are still afraid of disappearing as a people, even though I think we are past that danger. Israelis read in papers about American Jews disappearing via assimilation, about whether Palestinians may become a majority if we leave in our hands X land with Y Palestinians, etc.
\\ – There is no theory under which black Americans are any sort of “Other” in the United States. They are definitely way more American than the proverbial apple pie.
History of slavery and the racism, which still survives from the “good old days,” make them the Other. What kind of theory do you need? I see it in reality.
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“Well, remember you wrote about two options for the Jews? You chose assimilation, Jews in Israel chose the other option.”
– Your “other option” is treating people like me like we are subhuman. I’m only responding in kind.
“History of slavery and the racism, which still survives from the “good old days,” make them the Other. What kind of theory do you need? I see it in reality.”
– This is a much more complex reality that can be seen from across the ocean. Americans are hugely welcoming, kind and open to the real Other that looks like me. The racism is so brutal precisely because black Americans are not the Other.
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\\ – Your “other option” is treating people like me like we are subhuman. I’m only responding in kind.
Not like subhuman, but like non-Jews.
Because Israelis fear assimilation leading to annihilation of the people, Israel is not a welcoming place for non-Jews.
I wonder whether Western countries, America and Canada are more welcoming for ethnic / religious minorities, or if it’s my idealization of their realities. Could you write a post about it, please? You promised a post about American racism, but my question is broader and doesn’t refer to race only.
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“– Your “other option” is treating people like me like we are subhuman. I’m only responding in kind.
Not like subhuman, but like non-Jews.”
– It’s very late here, so let’s not play word games. This is the quote you provided: ““It’s hard for people to see us together. We feel the energy of the hostile stares , but we have not encountered a real racist reactions . However I know mixed couples like us , they encountered responses such as spitting or a curse. ”” I was responding to that quote. Are you saying spitting at people is a normal reaction if those people are non-Jews?
“Because Israelis fear assimilation leading to annihilation of the people, Israel is not a welcoming place for non-Jews.”
– The fear of “assimilation” (i.e. letting people live and love whomever they do love in peace) makes it OK to spit at people?
“I wonder whether Western countries, America and Canada are more welcoming for ethnic / religious minorities”
– I’m an ethnic minority, both here and in Canada. Not a visible one but a very audible one because of the accent. Nobody is spitting on me.
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You mentioned before that tampons/pads and contraceptives outside of abortion weren’t a thing in the Soviet Union; what was puberty like for you and other young women in the Soviet Union if you didn’t have access to those resources?
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This is a great question but I’m not entirely sure how resilient people will be to the graphic descriptions of the inventive ways we handled menstruation in the absence of any hygienic means whatsoever. 🙂 Maybe other young girls found it easier with the help of their mothers. But I didn’t have the kind of mother who would be interested in giving assistance. So the means I used were pretty brutal.
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Yikes!
I have another question, on another topic. A while ago, I found a Soviet-era translation of a book called My Life as An Indian, by James Schultz, and I’ve found other Soviet era Russian language material, such as children’s books, which talk about Native Americans. I already know about the German fascination with Native Americans, but was there any particular Soviet interest in the индеец that you noticed?
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Yes, gosh, an enormous fascination, dating back well into the 19th century. My husband is still shocked that I detest Fenimore Cooper. I actually threw away my husband’s movies based on Fenimore Cooper. Do you know this author?
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\\ Are you saying spitting at people is a normal reaction if those people are non-Jews?
No! People who spit are freaks. And they are not numerous. For all I know, one person spit on one couple she knows, and we talk about it as if Israelis on the whole behave so.
Without connection to Israel, I would love to see a post comparing treatment of minorities in EU, USA and Canada. Are they accepted better in one place than the other? Do they face different forms of prejudice in different places?
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Context: Badtux wrote numerous posts about American racism, police brutality against blacks, etc.
In the last post, “The new Death Panels,” he also provided links to prove that:
“The question is, would it have made any difference if the victims had been white?
In a word: NO. Even off duty cops can beat anybody they wish without consequences and without even being identified. Indeed, prosecutors regularly rig grand jury proceedings so that cops aren’t indicted even in the few cases where police officers are actually identified and arrested for misconduct.”
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“Context: Badtux wrote numerous posts about American racism, police brutality against blacks, etc.
In the last post, “The new Death Panels,” he also provided links to prove that:”
– You know I believe that this guy is racist, right? I wrote about it before. And by the way, the linked post is the perfect example of an extremely negative father complex, in case people are looking for illustrations.
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“Yes, gosh, an enormous fascination, dating back well into the 19th century. My husband is still shocked that I detest Fenimore Cooper. I actually threw away my husband’s movies based on Fenimore Cooper. Do you know this author?”
Last of the Mohicans? Yes, unfortunately. The only people who get painted with a more sloppy and overly simpering portrayal than Native Americans in his work are women.
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“I’m missing some enormous part of cultural knowledge that is preventing me from understanding what the hell is going on.”
Well the only way to understand it in depth is to refocus from hispanic to African American studies (which would present certain problems)
To begin to understand things a little better, here are a couple of places to start (you already know some of this but I’m not sure which parts).
The Brown case is just as much about militarization of the police as it is about racism.
You’ve read the Autobiography of Malcom X (and your interpretation was very different from most people’s, check out the amazon reviews, they might surprise you and not in a nice way)
note: the following is completely oversimplified, I’m just trying to give a broad superficial overview
For about 30 years (roughly 1960-90) there was struggle in the black community between more assimilationist (Bill Cosby, Motown, MLK) and more separatist (Spike Lee, hip hop, Malcom X) factions. The separatists won and for about 20 years US blacks have mostly defined themselves mostly in negative terms – being black is not being white). This has created a large underclass without (and no hope of getting) the skills needed to succeed in a country with a white majority.
A similar case in Central Eastern Europe might be the Roma (gypsies) who fiercely maintain their core values – which guarantee that they won’t find any kind of educational success (the success which precedes all others) in the countries they live in.
The 1965 immigration act (and separate but related influx of undocumented workers from Mexico) had a devestating effect on the Black working class (as welfare did on the black family).
let the downvotes begin
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\\ A similar case in Central Eastern Europe might be the Roma (gypsies) who fiercely maintain their core values
Which values?
\\ The Brown case is just as much about militarization of the police as it is about racism.
I linked to Badtux’s post where he says exactly the same things and gives links to prove his point.
\\ let the downvotes begin
I gave an upvote, out of spite 🙂
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“Which values?”
Separateness from the gadje (non-gypsies) is the primary value. Also they (still) have elements of culture that date from their origins in India like ritual purity (as opposed to western ideas of hygene) and something like a caste system (life options for a gypsy within roma culture are heavily constrained by the family of birth).
I would also say that there is the question of …. situational ethics. Roma have different ideas of ethical behavior according to who they’re dealing with. You have one standard of honesty for (extended) family which is very high, a lower one for non-related roma and a lower one still for non-roma.
I’ve read articles on problems they have in school (mostly in Polish and probably behind paywalls now so no links)
Basically the modern school is built for post industrial revolution children and roma children are essentially pre-industrial. They have a lot more autonomy than non-roma kids (their parents leave them unattended in the middle of cities to beg or play music for hours or days at a time) and find the school experience an ordeal of boredom and irrationality that they can’t wait to get away from.
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“Well the only way to understand it in depth is to refocus from hispanic to African American studies (which would present certain problems)”
– I’m doing what I can in that direction. I have a reading list, and I’m going through it when I get a chance. For instance, the most recent thing I read was a collection of Harlem Renaissance poetry.
“A similar case in Central Eastern Europe might be the Roma (gypsies) who fiercely maintain their core values – which guarantee that they won’t find any kind of educational success (the success which precedes all others) in the countries they live in.”
– I’m not good with analogies.
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“I’m not good with analogies”
Large portions of the African American community have turned their backs on education and education is the step that any improvement depends upon.
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“Large portions of the African American community have turned their backs on education and education is the step that any improvement depends upon.”
– I’m reading this about 15 minutes after hearing our university’s president tell me to my face that we will have to eliminate academic programs and departments. Our university caters to a huge African-American population of this region. If they can’t come to us, they don’t have alternatives because we are the most affordable school in the area by far.
So who turned their backs on whom, exactly?
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The ones who get to your university are not the ones who’ve turned their backs on education of course.
But they’ll probably end up paying the price for the systemic dysfunction between whites and blacks in the US.
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Another tangential question:
I know you mentioned that you had much more of a culture shock going from Canada to the US than from Ukraine to Canada. I also vaguely know there was a lot of propaganda about the US, but I have no idea what people in the USSR thought of Canada beyond being an ally of the US.
When you immigrated from the Ukraine, what preconceptions about Canada from when you were a kid and young adult? How did your expectations differ from reality?
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When I was in Moscow many years ago during the cold war period, the food was generally pretty bad but the ice cream from the street carts was some of the best that I’ve had anywhere. How come?
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Actually. Soviet ice-cream is the only thing I miss about the USSR, so you are spot-on. 🙂 Curiously, ice-cream is the only thing that is eatable in Cuba. What is it with socialist regimes and ice-cream???
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My mother still buys Russian ice-cream in Israel. (It is imported.)
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This I know the answer to. During the Stalin era Mikoyan had US ice cream making technology and know how imported into the USSR. The Soviets did not change the recipes or way of making it afterwards. So basically the USSR had the old US style ice cream with real cream, real sugar, and real vanilla. While the US moved on to less tasty, but much cheaper artificial chemicals.
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“This I know the answer to. During the Stalin era Mikoyan had US ice cream making technology and know how imported into the USSR. The Soviets did not change the recipes or way of making it afterwards. So basically the USSR had the old US style ice cream with real cream, real sugar, and real vanilla. While the US moved on to less tasty, but much cheaper artificial chemicals.”
– Fascinating, thank you for telling us!
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“I feel completely alien to everything around me because I just can’t figure out what is happening (about the Ferguson riots), why the reactions are so insane. It’s like I’m missing some enormous part of cultural knowledge that is preventing me from understanding what the hell is going on.” – C.
A lot of Americans are in complete denial about racism and attribute the current situation to other root causes. Ben Carlson, a well known media pundit, attributes the riots in Ferguson to … (drum roll)…feminism.
“I think a lot of it really got started in the ’60s with the ‘me generation,’” he replied. “‘What’s in it for me?’ I hate to say it, but a lot of it had to do with the women’s lib movement. You know, ‘I’ve been taking care of my family, I’ve been doing that, what about me?’ You know, it really should be about us.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/12/01/ben_carson_suggests_feminists_are_partly_responsible_for_ferguson/
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“A lot of Americans are in complete denial about racism and attribute the current situation to other root causes. Ben Carlson, a well known media pundit, attributes the riots in Ferguson to … (drum roll)…feminism.”
– I heard about this but I refuse to find out what his argument actually is. There is a limit on how much insanity I can process on a given day.
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If somebody knows Russian, I want to recommend this video I’ve just found.
It’s about the National Idea Russian people have been searching for. For centuries.
It’s written as a poem which has been put on music and is very funny.
Вася Обломов – Национальная идея
I searched what the National Idea is (never heard the expression before) and found the explanation:
// Russia is a country in perpetual search of what is sometimes grandly called the National Idea. This quest harks back to the turmoil of the Middle Ages, when after the failure of Constantinople an influential Orthodox monk, Philotheus of Pskov, proclaimed Moscow ”the third Rome — and a fourth there will never be.” This dictum served as a national idea of sorts until Czar Nicholas I replaced it in the 19th century with the triad Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. […] Nicholas I’s formula proved so durable that it was adopted by the wily Communist ideologue named Joseph Stalin. He naturally modified the slogan, replacing Orthodoxy with Marxism and autocracy with the leader’s iron rule. (Nationality remained.)
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Now I have one more Indigenous question here: I’m reading a book right now from a professor at UBC about Indigenous Siberians at Soviet residential schools- Was there ever any common knowledge that the Soviet Union had these schools, and are there any mainstream discourses now within Russia about the impact of these schools, comparable to say, the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Or is it all brushed under the rug?
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Were Soviet people able to take baths and/or showers?
If a woman was about to give birth, how did she do so? Did she go to a hospital (and have to take public transportation to get there?) or was it done at home?
How were alcoholic beverages acquired?
Did Soviet apartments and living spaces have decent heating for the winter and any air conditioning?
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