(no subject)
As angry as I am with one of my favorite authors (see previous post), it's nice to know that Sergey Lukyanenko can still write something thoughtful in his livejournal.
Originally posted on July 23, 2008. Translation by yours truly
Our feelings about Motherland, patriotism, emigration and other connected things always depends on age.
It's not surprising
Most of the people who are now over 40 tend to remember the good and forget the bad, for very understandable reasons. USSR was the vast, united Motherland. They were taught to be patriots. The grass was always greener, the trees were always taller, the dick wasn't limp women loved them. USSR had it's faults, and everybody saw them, but they took them as a given.
For them, Soviet Union was a mother. The one and only. Warm and kind. Beautiful.
Meanwhile, their peers, the ones who got on the wrong side of Motherland's caring hand for one reason or another (some for good reason, some just because) grew to hate the worlds "Motherland" and "patriotism." Just like a child whose mother beat him and tried to toss him from the balcony once, will tremble at the sound of the world "mother" until old age.
For them, Soviet Union was a stepmother. Harsh and unfair.
For the ones who are in their 40s, things works out differently. They saw that their mother can be overdramatic at times, that she can be stern for no good reason, that she's old fashioned and gets into stupid situations. But it didn't touch them. Because of their age, they didn't have time. We grew up and our Motherland was gone.
For them, Soviet Union was a mother. She was as she was, with all her flaws and virtues. Sometimes, we wanted her to change, we wanted her to get better... but she was still their mother.
For ones in their 30s (though, from my experience, it also applies to people who are 25 and older), they didn't have a Motherland. She was stuck in hopitals, they kept taking something out, she sold things in concourses and traded scrap metal for cheap Chinese crap.
Soviet Union was an abstraction, a "mother" from a textbook. They were like orphans in an orphanage. Some dreamed about their mother, some didn't remember.
But the strangest generation is the generation of the 20-somethings. A Motherland was there again. Just smaller and more constrained. For some, it means more, for others it means less. As for USSR... it's a dead grandmother. Parents talk about here sometimes. Sometime, they remember good things and sometimes, they remember something bad.
Their Motherland is different. It's hard for us to understand them, and it's hard for them to understand us. We talk about Mother Russia but we mean different Motherlands. When I hear the song "All of Russia Wakes Up at Sunset," I shiver - they sing that old tune about another Motherland.
But I'm glad that they at least have some kind of Motherland.
It's easier for me to understand the 20-year-olds than the 30-year-olds.
Most of the time.
Personally, I place myself with the 30-somethings, even though I am 23. When I was growing up, Russia was still trying to shake off it's Soviet influences, and it didn't really have an identity of it's own. That didn't happen until a couple of years ago, but by that time, I was already in America. Of course, Lukyanenko also implied that we didn't have a Motherland to be proud of, which isn't true. It's just that we weren't terribly proud of the way Russia was in the present.
Originally posted on July 23, 2008. Translation by yours truly
Our feelings about Motherland, patriotism, emigration and other connected things always depends on age.
It's not surprising
Most of the people who are now over 40 tend to remember the good and forget the bad, for very understandable reasons. USSR was the vast, united Motherland. They were taught to be patriots. The grass was always greener, the trees were always taller, the dick wasn't limp women loved them. USSR had it's faults, and everybody saw them, but they took them as a given.
For them, Soviet Union was a mother. The one and only. Warm and kind. Beautiful.
Meanwhile, their peers, the ones who got on the wrong side of Motherland's caring hand for one reason or another (some for good reason, some just because) grew to hate the worlds "Motherland" and "patriotism." Just like a child whose mother beat him and tried to toss him from the balcony once, will tremble at the sound of the world "mother" until old age.
For them, Soviet Union was a stepmother. Harsh and unfair.
For the ones who are in their 40s, things works out differently. They saw that their mother can be overdramatic at times, that she can be stern for no good reason, that she's old fashioned and gets into stupid situations. But it didn't touch them. Because of their age, they didn't have time. We grew up and our Motherland was gone.
For them, Soviet Union was a mother. She was as she was, with all her flaws and virtues. Sometimes, we wanted her to change, we wanted her to get better... but she was still their mother.
For ones in their 30s (though, from my experience, it also applies to people who are 25 and older), they didn't have a Motherland. She was stuck in hopitals, they kept taking something out, she sold things in concourses and traded scrap metal for cheap Chinese crap.
Soviet Union was an abstraction, a "mother" from a textbook. They were like orphans in an orphanage. Some dreamed about their mother, some didn't remember.
But the strangest generation is the generation of the 20-somethings. A Motherland was there again. Just smaller and more constrained. For some, it means more, for others it means less. As for USSR... it's a dead grandmother. Parents talk about here sometimes. Sometime, they remember good things and sometimes, they remember something bad.
Their Motherland is different. It's hard for us to understand them, and it's hard for them to understand us. We talk about Mother Russia but we mean different Motherlands. When I hear the song "All of Russia Wakes Up at Sunset," I shiver - they sing that old tune about another Motherland.
But I'm glad that they at least have some kind of Motherland.
It's easier for me to understand the 20-year-olds than the 30-year-olds.
Most of the time.
Personally, I place myself with the 30-somethings, even though I am 23. When I was growing up, Russia was still trying to shake off it's Soviet influences, and it didn't really have an identity of it's own. That didn't happen until a couple of years ago, but by that time, I was already in America. Of course, Lukyanenko also implied that we didn't have a Motherland to be proud of, which isn't true. It's just that we weren't terribly proud of the way Russia was in the present.