The country that was taken away from us: My Soviet memories.
"ChrisD(RJ)" <chrisd at russiajournal.com>
CB:
My life was pretty clear, without any major worries, and all roads in life were open for me when I grew up. It was not a question of whenever you can afford it to go to university - it was simply a matter of you doing your best at school and knowing what you want to become. I had an extremely happy childhood. Not rich or posh or anything like that, but that is not what makes you happy. I had a very loving and caring family around me; I had plenty of interesting books, I have travelled more than any of my friends - every year several times with my mother, all around the USSR, and it was an enormous country! The life was sometimes a bit boring, maybe a bit predictable, but we never knew what it is like to worry about your tomorrow and the future of your children. The usual road in life was kindergarten (or staying with granny, which was a far more preferred by the child and a very convenient option) - school - university (or work, or another types of specialized education first).
Me, Chris: I do get the impression that life in the USSR was pretty damn dull. All the cafes and restaurants closed at 11 p.m. Dull, dull, dull
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CB: There may have been an overreaction in the other direction after all the excitement from 1917 to 1945.
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CB:
In 1984 I entered the prestigious Moscow State Institute for History and Archival Science - to my own surprise, at the first attempt, even though the competition was fierce, with 8 people competing for each available place. The new life, the 5 most interesting and most happy years in my life, have begun. Little did I know that the dark clouds were coming together over my country, my way of life and everything I cared about, and that my life will never be the way I wanted it to be, after that*
Me: This is pretty much general Russian opinion. This idea promulgated in the West that the fall of the USSR was about an oppressed people throwing of their shackles is simply laughable. 90% of people in the USSR were socialists or communists of various sorts. Andrei Sakharov was about as representative of Soviet opinion as Noam Chomsky is of American. (I might add that celebrating the fall of the USSR involves either ignorance or moral vacuity.)
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CB: Here, here .
Chris Doss The Russia Journal