Izhevsk
Comrade Tatiana & Communism
Former KGB Building in Izhevsk
December 2, 2003
I’m the teaching assistant for the lead English teacher at School #27, Tatiana Macarovna.
She insists I call her Tatiana, but my Russian training demands I call her Tatiana
Macarovna in order to show respect. Her English is flawless and her accent very
mild, she is about 50 years old, has dark red dyed hair, is married (she wears her
very plain gold wedding ring on her right hand), and is very stern in her beliefs
and actions.
I like her a lot, we disagree on nearly every issue, but she’s very kind, giving,
and willing to hear out my side of every argument. She told me today that she was
the secretary of the communist party in school #27 and she hates Mikhail Gorbachov
for Perestroika (most people here either hates him or feels he was a weak leader,
because he couldn’t hold the country together); I believe this is a good starting
point for our disagreements.
Back to class… Tatiana Macarovna brought me Russian ice cream and Russian chocolate
because I told her I’ve never had either (this is one of the many reasons I really
like her).
What really surprises me is that pro-communist feelings are common throughout most
of the population in Izhevsk including many of my adult students as young as 19
or 20. Nearly everyone I’ve talked to hates Gorbachov, while the rest only laugh
when they hear his name. This city is still very much in love with communism and
it shows everywhere in the city; the main streets are Soviet Street, Union Street
(on which I live), Karl Marx Street, Lenin Street and, one of the few exceptions,
Pushkin Street.
December 3, 2003
My night class with the adult students was interesting today and Tatiana Macarovna’s
pro-Soviet feelings encouraged me to steer the conversation in that direction. Everyone
under 18 was either pro-Russia or had no opinion saying “politics don’t interest
me” while everyone over 18, except one girl, was pro-Soviet Union. They said the
Soviet Union was better because it was stable, they had a certain and positive future,
the army was glorious, and everyone always had food and housing. Although they couldn’t
travel in the past, now they can’t afford to, so that freedom doesn’t matter. In
the U.S.S.R. they may have been naïve (their words, not mine), believing their lives
were the best in the world, but they had job stability and hope.
They all agreed the greatest time in Russian history was immediately following WWII:
they were victorious, had plenty of food, and had a certain future-a great one.
In addition, everyone was one because they all joined Konsomol (for ages 14-28)
and Pioneer (ages 9-14), making friends as they worked as one. One girl said her
parents can’t comprehend how she has friends without such organizations today.
A goal of the Bolsheviks was to create a new government and more importantly a new
type of person, the ideal Soviet man or woman. This person was formed through education
and culture, today the people of Russia are the children of that system, of that
program; they maintain that mentality, knowing its fabrications, yet still yearning
for the days of naivety and hope. I disagree with and will fight communism to the
death, but these Russians wish it back; with the knowledge of truth, they still
seek out the world of lies. I however believe this says more about the growing disparity
in the socio-economic classes and core Russian ideals then the political stance
of modern Russians.
To solidify the Russian ideal and I suppose why communism did work in Russia was
simply put by one girl. She said that there is the Russian way and the European
way, the Russian way is as a team: since a man can’t built a house by himself he
has his friends and neighbors join him to build it, the European way is to try to
build it by one’s self only buying more and more from stores to help him build it.
While not a perfect analogy, her point was that communist ideals go hand in hand
with the Russian mentality and culture, that’s why it worked.
Although these students argued in favor of communism, they also seemed disappointed
at the leadership of Brezhnev and Khrushchev, a time which “was terrible” because
these two leaders tried to be like the west and sold their forests and oil for pennies
(or if I may… kopecks). The people had little food and life was not as good as communism
demands life to be. The only highlight was when they beat the Americans in the space
race in April of 1961 when Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit.
Life under Stalin is still considered the greatest time in Russian history and most
of my students said Stalin was a very bad man, but I got the impression society
feels his crimes are almost forgivable given the life and hope that he gave the
country.
Today, Russia’s future is uncertain, something only the sub-20 population can appreciate.
During our debate, this pro-democratic group focused on the positives including
the free market economy, but immediately pointed out the fact that they are too
young to remember the Soviet Union, as if their opinions are sinful.
Everyone agreed the modern Russian government is worse than that of the Soviet government
because today everyone is bribed. “During the Soviet Union we had no choices and
only got what was Russian made; now we have choices, but that doesn’t matter because
we can’t afford any of them.” In fact, one person pointed out the fact that few
people can afford cars, only two people in this class even have driver’s licenses
and neither owns a car.
December 9, 2003
En route from the university to the center I walked with a student I met named Denis,
who showed me the old KGB building, into which the black KGB cars would enter with
their new prisoners. The building still adores the hammer and sickle and these “gates
to hell” are impressively intimidating.
The KGB (along with its forefather organizations prior to the KGB’s establishment
in 1954) in Izhevsk would go out in black cars, pick up the people and enter these
gates; the people would never be seen or heard from again. A lot of people turned
their neighbors in to receive a better apartment, to prove themselves good members
of society, or the paranoia spread through the culture made them believe their neighbor
really was a spy.
Dennis said his grandmother’s two brothers and another relative were all sent to
gulag and never seen or heard from again. I believe this to be one reason people
here are so closed off and are so paranoid about talking to anyone new and always
locking their doors (although everyone seems to have a welcome mat outside their
door, none of which are ever stolen).
December 12, 2003
My babushka is interesting to say the least. Since I got here two weeks ago she’s
only left the house once. Typically she’s up before me and does... well, really
nothing. All she does is knit on her couch or stand in her room; she watches TV,
cooks, and stares out the window, mostly the latter. She always wears the same afghan
and just moves around the house. I don’t think she likes me and she always seems
to be waiting for the phone to ring or for someone to come to the door so she has
something to do. Personally, I believe the only thing keeping her alive is her two
granddaughters.
For the most part, old people are rude and quite honestly I don’t really like them;
they are impolite, expect everything, give nothing, hate the country, think all
is going to hell, love communism, hate the younger generation, who they belief only
really know Russia. They are bitter about the failed promises and they constantly
live in the past. Their children and grandchildren are to take care of them and
so they do nothing on their own; they rely on others and expect to be treated well.
They feel they deserve a seat on the bus; they have no manners, only push and shove;
when they talk they only complain.
They were promised a great future under Stalin and now without that future they
live paranoid, bitter, resentful, needy, and down right unpleasant. They don’t look
back on their lives with thoughts of what they accomplished, but instead look back
and resent all that they don’t have or lost. I feel bad for them, but they fail
to live in the present.
They were mindless robots their whole lives, being given what they needed and being
told what to do and how to think. All of a sudden they were given freedom, given
choices, but this came at the cost of all that was handed to them. Before they didn’t
work and received and now they expect to receive and don’t. They’ve never had to
work hard, only listen mindlessly and now they are bitter that they aren’t treated
like kings.
Yet something inside of me has a great deal of pity for them because many of them
physically can’t work and can’t make money: all they had was lost. For this I feel
bad, but you can’t change your life by complaining, they’re a pain in the behind...
not to mention they’re very anti-American.
Every time I talk to Babushka or any older person I repeat to myself that these
little old ladies may be so rude and pushy, but when they were children if they
didn’t push and shove to the front of the line, they didn’t get the good food or
no food at all. From my perspective, they have always been pushy and rude and they
always will be, but what I interpret as rude, they interpret as survival.
December 18, 2003
Between classes Tatiana and I had tea and pastries as we often do. Tatiana, my starch
communist friend and boss brought up an interesting fact about money and Russia
today. She talked about the younger generation and their greed; “in the Soviet Union”
(one of her favorite phrases) they were taught money is worth nothing and they shouldn’t
seek it out, especially since they could get no more than anyone else.
Now things are changing and there are “gold-diggers” and more troubling is the emergence
of crime. Russia is still very safe because money has no real value to most people...
crime is pointless, there is no urge to have more of something that’s worthless
and no one else has it anyway, so who do you rob? The younger generation though
sees money as valuable and so there’s this greed to get it, motivations have changed
and survival of the simple life is evolving to the want of the extravagant life
- the need for the unnecessary.
From here, we moved onto Stalin. We all agreed that the only thing America and Russia
completely agree on is that Stalin was evil, however soon Tatiana and another teacher
started defending him and by the end of our conversation they had a whole list of
great things Stalin did. To be fair he did take the country, which consisted of
about 1/3 of the world’s land area "from the sickle to a world power."
December 26, 2003
Tatiana and Olga told us why the Soviet Union was better than Russia and they made
a good argument, but it still didn’t convince me. They talked about how money didn’t
matter, music, sports, dance lessons were free and given by people who loved their
jobs, people worked because they loved it and everyone got paid to do what they
loved and now that’s not true, people only want money, a concept conceived with
perestroika. Money is now more important, vodka lost its place in culture and alcoholism
began.
There is homelessness now and today there is an estimated 1 million homeless children
in Russia. The government allows foreign investment and Tatiana believes that is
taking money that should stay in Russia (Brad countered by saying that Canadian
oil was started with funds from US investors). Tatiana was not swayed and soon moved
on to speak more about alcohol. Russians used to drink vodka and wine in school
and it was traditional, but now it’s not allowed. She also sees beer as bad, a poison
and cause of alcoholism; she said only a Russian would ever understand why one bottle
of vodka is too little, two bottles are too much, and three bottles isn’t enough
again. "If you drink beer and vodka in the same night you’ve wasted your money;"
"only vodka is pure" and hence it is also very healthy.
Despite the complete opposite political viewpoints between Tatiana and myself, I
really like her, which Seth and I demonstrated earlier in the day. Although she
does not celebrate Christmas in December, we decided to surprise her with flowers
and candy for Christmas. There are a lot of flower stands (and beer stands) near
the center; the flowers are big and beautiful, they have more roses than anything
else and they are incredible. It took us some time to translate the candy names
then more time to bargain for the flowers from 200 rubles to 140, not the best,
but good enough for a couple of foreign kids.