Back in the USSR

Soviet nostalgia is still alive and well in today’s Russia. To take you on a journey or look at the USSR which existed from 1922 to 1991, is a journey back in time. For many in Russia today, the Soviet Union is more than a memory. It is still a source of fascination, more an inspiration living today. Understandably the shadow of life in the USSR for the old is hard to escape? For the young, it is history? I can remember when I left the United States after my studies, in the cold winter of February 2, 1962 and got a week’s Visit Visa, which indeed was just less than a feat, and how I managed to extend it by nearly a month, remain still a mystery, to say the least. The Cuban crisis was just beginning. A Third World War against the enemy US seemed inevitable to many. The change, in fact something of a “revolution” of sorts, was about to take place. I was young, it was unbelievably fearsome, if not exciting? It was part of the New Frontier that President John F. Kennedy had inculcated in the last year before I left the United States to return home. It was also almost 70 years of the existence of the Soviet Union, which according to history had turned a corner from a backward “quasi feudal realm” ruled by the autocratic Tsars and turned into a modern global Super Power rivalling the United States of America. To bring it in context with history, we see the October Revolution of 1917 which took place with Soviet Union being formed, at a time of political turmoil. Tsar Nicholas II, the absolute ruler of the Russian Empire was overthrown and the government that replaced the monarchy, was powerless against a Bolshevik revolt led by Vladimir Lenin. The newly formed Red Army, was formed and is still here in Russia’s military parades to this day. The Red Army, I was told by my Russian interpreters was fundamental for the defeat of Nazi Germany. Russian people to this day still pay a debt of gratitude to their memory of history. The feats and the fears the citizens endured are etched in their memory. I too can remember my visit to Workers’ Collectives, called “Kolhoz” as well as other Museums in various towns, cities and toured some villages in different Soviet Republics. It was a memorable experience during my near month long plane tour of the distant parts of the USSR enroute to Colombo. I had the opportunity to visit the cities of Moscow and Leningrad in Russia, Kiev and Odesa in Ukraine, a flight stopover in Simferopol in Crimea,, Tbilisi in Georgia, Erevan in Armenia, Baku in Azerbaijan, near Caspian Sea and Tashkent in Uzbekistan

At the Kolhoz farm communities, I witnessed some achievement of how farm managers earned their reputation. They told me how workers’ reps were made heroes out of their self-sacrificing work as well as their workers, to reach and superseded production quotas, in their Five Year Plan. At schools and Technical Institutes, I was informed why students are paid stipends to study and excel. The incentive was to take on the achievements which they had heard about the United States? All I could do was observe, but could not challenge, as I was only a Visitor, not a researcher. Although I lived mostly in the hotel rooms and canteens, one hotel, The Metropole, in downtown Moscow, near the Moscow Metro (Subway) built in the 1930’s, stands out for from where I visited the Bolshoi Theatre for the theatrical performance of “Swan Lake.” The architectural wonder of the Metro still lingers on in my memory after 62 years ago. Visiting Kruschev’s USSR after my scholarship in the USA, was an experience of a lifetime. It was also a time of warnings; the crossing of Check Point Charlie, in East Berlin, to my flying into Moscow Shermetevo Airport from Warsaw airport and losing my bag with all my winter clothes, at the height of severe winter, will never ever be forgotten. Not everything was a “bed of roses”, as on the flip side of the coin, I literally saw people everywhere in the USSR queuing for bread and particularly “moloko” milk, which was rationed and the words “niet,, nichivo” a common word or words, at kiosk’s all over the USSR. Everywhere I visited, there was a tremendous demand for “western goods, garbs, and jeans in particular”. Space exploration and Science was the battle field for US and the USSR during the time of the Cold War. The Soviet Union sent the first man in Space, Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961, when I was in the United States, which pride was witnessed all over during my visit to the USSR. Victor Cherubim