You Say You Want a Revolution

[lilmissnever]

The day before I left for Kiev, I had the following conversation with my mother:

Mother: Child, do not go to the Ukraine. It's too dangerous.

Me: Mom, you remember that we vacationed in Israel through two Intifadas, right

Comments

[ilcylic]

The Mouse welcomes you to Sovietland.

[lilmissnever]

I really wish I had photos of that place. Perhaps there are some on the Internet. I will go look.

Revolution? No problem! Soviet kitsch cafe? Mind blown!

[elusis]

I would like to hear about your childhood in Latvia. I don't think I realized you spent so much time there.

[lilmissnever]

I only lived in the USSR until I was three, but when we came to the States, we really brought the USSR with us. For one thing, we brought all our books and furniture. I watched Russian cartoons and read Russian books and ate Russian food. I learned to read and write from Russian textbooks my parents ordered from the Russian bookstore.

The Soviet Cafe basically looked like a parody of my parents' living room.

[lilmissnever]

Russia controls the gas pipeline to the Ukraine, so that is not an idle threat. But I am very impressed with the hardiness of the Ukrainian people. Europeans and Americans traditionally revolt in the summer, when it's warm. It takes serious commitment to camp outside in the snow.

[uke]

Loved reading this. Thank you!

[lilmissnever]

I'm glad you're enjoying it. I always worry that no one reads these things anymore, but it seems like a terrible shame to experience all of these things and not write them down.

[attutle]

It's stories like this that keep me reading LJ. :-)