Rebecca Mildren's Blog - Posts Tagged "yeltsin"
Back in the USSR…
Or almost. Today is Russia Day, in case you didn't know. I lived in Russia for exactly 9 years, 1993-2002. As a country, it changed dramatically during that time, or at least Moscow did. I'm sure I'd hardly recognize it today. If you've never been ever so happy to stand in line to buy rolls of sandpaper-like toilet paper off a little old lady sitting on the street corner, hoping there will still be some in her suitcase when you reach her; if you've never been smuggled onto a Russian military base to hang out with people you barely know; if you've never been invited to celebrate the birthday of an Ismailovsky Park artisan by toasting his health with a disposable plastic cup of champagne; if you've never been gifted a 3-liter glass jar of unpasteurized milk on the Metro by someone you've never met, just because they were overjoyed to meet their first American; if you've never trembled with dread to check in with authorities and get your visa and residence papers stamped every three months, I'm afraid those fun times from the early 90's are gone forever.
When I arrived in August 1993, a clueless 19-year-old all excited about building bridges with these former Cold War enemies, I didn't realize I was about to witness a historic event. By September, a big clash was brewing between Yeltsin and the parliament, over the difficult transition from Soviet Communism to a more Westernized economy, generally speaking - though I was only to learn that much later. Did I mention I was clueless?
I remember that one Sunday morning in early October, I was hanging out in downtown Moscow on Novy Arbat with a couple of newly acquired Russian friends - Alexey spoke English with such a perfect southern drawl that it was a long time before I believed he was really Russian, and he thus became my inspiration to try to master Russian with an accent good enough to fool a native speaker, a feat I eventually accomplished. I don't remember the other guy's name. Anyway, we watched the demonstrators marching with red flags, and no one seemed to really think much of it. Until the tanks began rolling down that very street that same afternoon of 3 October. By then, of course, I was safe back "home," watching Moscow's bloodiest street fighting since the 1917 Revolution unfold on television. I remember my host parents - the director of the school where I was working with their ESL staff and his wife - in tears, but their English and my Russian were too poor at the time for me to quite understand what was happening.
Some of my other young expat friends weren't so fortunate to be watching it on television, because their electricity had been shut off. Imagine their terror to be watching it all through their window instead, and without the benefit of host parents: While I lived in the city outskirts, they lived by themselves a couple blocks behind the White House, where all the action was going on. I suppose most Americans don't realize that Russia also has a White House, but this government edifice is more of a White Building. By the time the tanks were done with it, though, it was a Black Building. These friends were so freaked out that they crawled around on the floor to keep from being seen by the soldiers outside and subsisted on rice and Jello for a week. Not sure where they got the Jello. What I will always remember as the attempted coup of October 1993 is enshrined on Wikipedia as the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. Feel free to look it up. Then you'll know a heck of a lot more than I knew at the time. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.
The fact that the army sided with Yeltsin meant that he won that round, and most of you have never even heard the name of the guy who tried to replace him, albeit briefly. But now, even the Yeltsin era is far, far behind us. As to what's happened in Russia since then, more on that later. When I feel up to it. Stay tuned.
When I arrived in August 1993, a clueless 19-year-old all excited about building bridges with these former Cold War enemies, I didn't realize I was about to witness a historic event. By September, a big clash was brewing between Yeltsin and the parliament, over the difficult transition from Soviet Communism to a more Westernized economy, generally speaking - though I was only to learn that much later. Did I mention I was clueless?
I remember that one Sunday morning in early October, I was hanging out in downtown Moscow on Novy Arbat with a couple of newly acquired Russian friends - Alexey spoke English with such a perfect southern drawl that it was a long time before I believed he was really Russian, and he thus became my inspiration to try to master Russian with an accent good enough to fool a native speaker, a feat I eventually accomplished. I don't remember the other guy's name. Anyway, we watched the demonstrators marching with red flags, and no one seemed to really think much of it. Until the tanks began rolling down that very street that same afternoon of 3 October. By then, of course, I was safe back "home," watching Moscow's bloodiest street fighting since the 1917 Revolution unfold on television. I remember my host parents - the director of the school where I was working with their ESL staff and his wife - in tears, but their English and my Russian were too poor at the time for me to quite understand what was happening.
Some of my other young expat friends weren't so fortunate to be watching it on television, because their electricity had been shut off. Imagine their terror to be watching it all through their window instead, and without the benefit of host parents: While I lived in the city outskirts, they lived by themselves a couple blocks behind the White House, where all the action was going on. I suppose most Americans don't realize that Russia also has a White House, but this government edifice is more of a White Building. By the time the tanks were done with it, though, it was a Black Building. These friends were so freaked out that they crawled around on the floor to keep from being seen by the soldiers outside and subsisted on rice and Jello for a week. Not sure where they got the Jello. What I will always remember as the attempted coup of October 1993 is enshrined on Wikipedia as the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. Feel free to look it up. Then you'll know a heck of a lot more than I knew at the time. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.
The fact that the army sided with Yeltsin meant that he won that round, and most of you have never even heard the name of the guy who tried to replace him, albeit briefly. But now, even the Yeltsin era is far, far behind us. As to what's happened in Russia since then, more on that later. When I feel up to it. Stay tuned.
