29 Jul Soviet and Russian, by Lydia Cutler
Demonstration in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s era. Photo from www.bearsand vodka.com.
Guest Blogger Lydia Cutler comes back to share another comment inspired by my stories and posts.
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I can’t find the words to explain the distinction between Soviet culture and Russian or Ukrainian or any other culture. That distinction is mentioned many times in Bena’s family story, beginning with the homepage www.appledoesnotfall.com.
An episode from my own experience comes to mind. After emigrating from the Soviet Union, I lived for almost a year in Brussels and one of my jobs was taking care of an old Russian man, who was able to run as fast as he could when the Red Revolution won against Czarist rule.
He was brought up in Russia before the revolution. Even his Russian language was different from my “Soviet” Russian. It sounded purer, maybe even more noble. The foods he ate back in Russia and tried to describe to me stopped existing in Soviet Russia; even the products he knew—I never saw them in my life. The more I wanted to tell him of my life, the less he believed.
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