Kate Saba (00:29)

Hello and welcome to The Soviet Life, the podcast where we journey back in time to uncover what everyday life was really like behind the Iron Curtain. I'm your host Kate and I'm delighted to have you here with us. today I have a very special guest, here is Aisha Aladinov. She grew up in 1980s and moved to United States in 2011.

She was born in Uzbekistan and in 1998 moved to Crimea. In 2005, she graduated from university with a law degree and worked as assistant professor teaching a new generation of lawyers. She started her PhD in Crimea, but then had an opportunity to move to United States to join a family. Upon her arrival in United States, she obtained a degree in accounting and works as a CPA currently.

Aisha, welcome to the show. We're very happy to have you here. How are you today? Hi Kate, hi everyone. Thank you so much for inviting me and having this conversation. I'm really happy to be here and share whatever experience I have with the audience. Perfect. So first, tell us how was life like in the Soviet Union when you were growing up? I was...

born in 80s and I was raised not for a long time in a soviet like era but from my so basically it was my childhood and I have only good memories of my childhood growing up in soviet unions I know it's not the case for even for my parents or grandparents but from my childhood I have

great memories because of the family, my family who created these memories for me. That's wonderful. When you were growing up, was it a big family? I consider family not only me, my sibling and my parents. I'm considering my family like my whole relatives.

So yes, to answer your questions, yes, I grew up in a very big family. We had a large house. We always saw our grandparents, our parents, we spent like summer in my grandparents' house. And it was just wonderful time. yes, I remember my family times with grandparents. Exactly. That's of best memories. Now, I don't really know lot of people from Uzbekistan. I myself am from Belarus and a lot of community here is mostly from...

Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, if you remember it, how was Uzbekistan different compared to Crimea If you have memories of that. it was different. If it was different, because Soviet times everything was the same. Exactly, absolutely. Buildings looked the same, with the same model, those five-story buildings called Khrushchevki, built in the 50s all across. I remember going to museum and seeing a picture of a...

building and I knew exactly that was from US society. It didn't even matter if it was from Kazakhstan, it was from Estonia, if it from Russia, somewhere, it was all the same same buildings. Absolutely. You know even that movie, in Russian it is called Ирония Судьбы. If you will translate in English it will be like fate of...

I I regularly obey. So it's definitely about the Soviet life when everything looks alike, everyone live the same life. Absolutely. But for me, moving from Uzbekistan to Crimea at that time, is part of Ukraine. it was different because I felt I was moving from the motherland where I grew up to the motherland of my whole nation.

where my grandparents were departed by Stalin in 1944. So for me that moving experience was completely different Uzbekistan is Asian country. the culture is very warm. People are very nice Ukraine is completely different experience, not because of that. It's just, it's European part.

of the world and people there are also kind but I definitely had an experience changing cultures Were you happy to be back? absolutely I don't know I was happy in Uzbekistan but all my childhood even raising as a kid I knew that Kremie was mother

land of my grandparents, my nation. Yes. I was... So you felt like going back home? Exactly. I was dreaming about it. That's wonderful. How old were you, if you don't mind me asking, when you moved back to Crimea? Crimea? was 15. Yeah, I was 15 years So you have good memories of Uzbekistan too. Tell me, if you don't mind, if you're comfortable with this, about your parents or your grandparents getting deported to Uzbekistan.

What happened exactly? How did that go? How did the family feel about it? So it was in 1944 and my grandmother, the mother of my mom, she was a young girl at that time. So in my family the conversations was from her, memories. I mean of course other people, other nations had their memories, they shared with us and it was awful.

It was just 1944, one year before the war was over. The whole nation was accused and just found guilty without any official documentation paper that they were guilty in... Who was accusing you? Stalin. Stalin was accusing Ukrainians. Crimean Tatars. Crimean Tatars. Crimean Tatars. And I know it's not only our nation, not only Crimean there's a lot of Jewish persecution too. exactly, exactly.

They were all found guilty. mean, I don't think it doesn't matter even in what we found guilty. It was just because we were not the same nation, probably the same religion as majority. And somehow someone needs to be accused. So the whole nation was just looked out of their houses and deported in not...

developed or not so well developed part of the Soviet country. was just Ural, it was Siberia, was ⁓ Asian lands. Uninhabited lands that were not prosperous at the time. Exactly, And it was just, I mean, it was not moving out from country to country. was literally people... Put in exile. Yeah. People were in nightgowns without anything. They were just taken out from their home. They were moved.

like my family was in Uzbekistan. Does your mom tell any stories of hardship in Uzbekistan at the beginning? Yeah, so even well mostly it was my grandparents because they experienced this the most because they had start all over. They worked so hard to give their kids, my parents good education, good experience. They didn't have a chance to finish even

high school by themselves because of the environment where they lived and they grew up. But they did everything possible and impossible. So, they're three kids, my mom and her two siblings had great, perfect education and they can achieve whatever they wanted. My mom finished and graduated from medical school. My uncle graduated from engineering, university.

and my aunt, she graduated from economic university. know, okay, those are three, I don't know, like one staples. Even right now, exactly, exactly. Yeah, education, again, we had an interview before. Everybody I talked to, education is key and So, your mother was a doctor and that obviously shows, looking at your background, starting to...

becoming a lawyer, pursuing your PhD. When you moved to the United States, you didn't want to practice law, you just wanted to try something different. So when I moved to the United States, I mean, I do wanted to practice law. I knew from my background that there are completely two different legal systems in Ukraine and in the United States. I mean, everyone who knows law knows that. So I had a choice to either...

⁓ do re-qualification and basically to get in law degree in United States. It means almost starting all over again. Or do something else. And because of different aspects including financial, time wise, I have decided to pursue something else. I was always passionate about methodological thinking and I had some conversations, I did my research and that's how I switched to...

You like accounting so far? Absolutely, yes. That's fantastic. So tell me about schools in the Soviet Union. were schools like? Did you feel like you could express yourself? Were there any unspoken rules? So, experienced, high school-wise and university-wise, experienced

both world, right, in Ukraine and here in America. School education, I personally finished and graduated in Ukraine. I have kids and I see how they're studying right now. I felt like more structure-wise, more organizational, it was back in Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

Like, I knew that we had schedule. The Soviet system. The Soviet system, yes. You like the Soviet education. Even right now, we are way far when the Soviet Union collapsed. But we still refer to that time and to our education as Soviet education. That education, to me, it was perfectly structured. It was well organized. was...

easy to follow, it was not easy to study. And you can relate, I know this for sure. It was definitely... had to work. Exactly. You had to work. It was challenging. time to play very much. I you had time to play, but not for hours. You maybe have one hour in evening to play or do whatever you like to do, but you really had to get your homework done. Now, how involved were your parents in your education?

My parents actually got divorced when I was five, my mom who was engaging with us with me and my younger brother, but we felt very responsible. She always checked our agenda, our schedule. She always was involved. She always knew what's going on in our lives.

you mentioned that your parents got divorced did you ever feel uh that been frowned upon did you feel a difference in a society

when people knew they were divorced or was it really not a big deal? I felt like I always missed my father, but my mom, she was so wise She's still with me, helping me and helped me a lot, but she made the right decision. She never involved.

me and my brother in that adult situation. She never said to us that your father is bad, he left like us, he divorced with me. No. I didn't hear such a thing. Did you hear anything negative? No, it was no negative. Did the society look at you differently? Did you feel like your neighbors were looking at you differently or your kids at school were making fun of you because your parents were in force? You never felt that. I never felt that.

I never felt like society was judging me that I didn't have a father But it was for my mom, I knew and I saw that. I remember that it was very difficult to raise kids without any help. I mean, obviously, my grandparents, they helped us. obviously, for a woman with kids, was in Soviet Union time, it was pretty challenging.

Very challenging. say the economy was not the best, put it mildly. you, your mom had been working as a doctor. Was she making enough to support the family? I don't think so. Absolutely no. I mean, to be honest, Kate, even nowadays, let's say in post-Soviet countries, the most unthinkful professions, professions who are involved with human beings.

physically mentally so doctors teachers I Mean I can't even think about even right now how Those professions who are dealt with human health and human mind being being not appreciated Yes with money with anything else. how do you recall going through those times in the Soviet Union?

with just the basics, going through the basic days. Did you have a garden that you grow food? Did you have to maybe find some other resources to put food on the table, literally? My mom was working really hard. And I remember we had like very small fridge. Maybe the size of a desk in a school. Sometimes it was there.

like just the meat and I know that sometimes mom, my mother was not eating, she sacrificed herself, she didn't eat meat just to provide to me and my brother,

And you know the doctors in Soviet Union, were taking shifts, night shifts. So for her it was like, again night shifts, everything. Just for us, for me and my brother, to be in one of the highest, best schools in Tashkent, in Uzbekistan. Nice, and you were in the city, you grew up in the city. Yes. I just remember back in the Soviet Union, there was no such thing as a poor family or rich family per se.

middle size. We're all about the same. would describe you when I first came to America, it's like you say, take the white and the black and mix it together, it's gray. So you're either poor or not rich, you're just all gray, which is not great. It's not to say you're a comfortable middle class. So you're not a comfortable middle class. But you

are more on the poor side, not dirt poor. That's how I recall. Growing up, I don't even know the word charities. may have been some in post-Soviet Union, but during the Soviet Union, I never heard of charity or you never saw beggars on the streets. There's just not such thing. There was just not such thing because the Communist Party made sure to take it out because...

God forbid that somebody from the West says that I was not going to for the Soviets. you have to be appeared like a happy country with a happy life. that everybody's doing great, everybody has plenty of everything. When actually in reality we had the basics, we had bread, we had milk, so you could survive. But what kind of quality of life was that? That's a different story. And of course we all knew it was not written in stone, but you kind of knew who was the...

son or daughter of a politician for example or somebody who was a director of a factory you knew they were probably making more money or had more connections to get the goods it may not be monetarily but there was a lot of corruption yeah that's what i'm trying to say there was a lot of corruption and also moving along was dependent on who you know can you tell me if you had any experiences or know a little bit about corruption or getting something based on who you know

I can definitely relate to that. mean, corruption absolutely, I agree, it was always there. even right now, unfortunately, in order to achieve something, it's not only about you, your time

even when in 2000s I graduated from high school and I was about to enroll, it was in Crimea, was about to enroll in one of the best universities in Crimea.

it was a system there that if you will get all the A's by the subjects, you will be paying no tuition. It will like a scholarship. It's a little bit different system that's known right now in the United States.

when I took my first exam, it was Russian language and literature. So it was test-based. So we took a ticket, we had time to prepare.

It was like 30 to 40 minutes and then we had to answer in face-to-face conversation. So at the beginning of my answer they told me it's just perfect answer, absolutely great. Well, we had to get B. So I'm not getting A. And they basically saw that they checked my last name in their list. I was not in the list that they were checking my...

my last name. my gosh, so you were on the left. Exactly. exactly. I was first of all, was not on the specialist. I was with last name that clearly says that I'm not of the special kind. I'm Kremien Tatar, which was obviously, and we never had it. So I was getting an NP and I ended up to be enrolled in a department to be paid by my parents. Wow. I was

I was crying. was devastating. It was really hard. I knew the reason. They told me it was perfect answer, but we can't put you When you can't give you an A, wow. Now, you also grew up Muslim.

Officially 25 % of the Soviet population were Muslims. So not very large. Most of them are in the southern states such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan When did you become Muslim and how did that affect you in general and you still are practicing Islam? Well, I first of all Crimean Tatars nation which is my nation. We are all Muslims. So I was born as a Muslim

I grew up in a Muslim. My family is Muslim, my kids are Muslim. So, Muslim is just official religion in my family. But we are not very conservative Muslims, so I don't have my head covered. ⁓ I'm not practicing like namaz. I'm not saying that this is right. It's just I grew up...

in a culture where it was not something that they had to force people. The Soviet Union prohibited religion. it was not... growing up in the 80s I know things started to change quite a bit as we got closer to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90s. you... were you persecuted for your religion? Did you feel that you could not openly practice Islam? I didn't feel that and my family didn't feel that but you know...

the last name of my family they had to change it to be OV or OVA not to be like Kremientators like for example what was the last name if you don't mind so my maiden last name was Mustafaeva so it was before the Soviet Union it was either let's say Mustapha Khzyr or like Edelir ⁓ something like this it was not be OVA

So they change it to sound more Russian. They russify your last name. Exactly. They try to russify everything. Even streets, names of the cities, like everything. Which they basically tried to even out all the people. I mean, to be fair, the people, never judge themselves by the nation. My grandparents, my grandmother, she always told me, Aisha,

When I was young, I always had friends who are Russian, Koreans, Belarusian, Ukrainian. We never, I mean other nations, we never... Separated, were all never fighted because of It was not... Even look at us right now. Exactly. I mean we are different religions, we are different nations, we are... cultural backgrounds. Different cultural backgrounds, but with our kids, not even communicate, they are friends, we are friends. Yeah, absolutely.

by the way

What are your thoughts on Crimea going back to Russia?

So I definitely am against that. think this is just bad. I mean again, this is very mild words that I'm trying to choose to describe the situation. But it's very very unfair to people who just want to live and practice their life. This is how it was before.

2014, where people had their normal life, they had their normal problems, they were concerned about how to properly raise their kids, how to provide for their families. Yes, it was not perfect times, but it was something that people knew how to deal with, and they were passionate about their work, their job. Right now the situation is completely different. They have to think not only how to provide for their family, but how to survive, which is in 21st century.

It should not be even the case. So I'm totally against one country's aggression against another country. What are your thoughts on today's situation with Ukraine and the war,

I feel really bad about people who right now sacrifice and going through that. Literally they don't know what to do. They are living different lives. they they're not sure about their tomorrow. Like right now we know what I'm gonna eat.

let's say tomorrow, whom I will be seeing tomorrow, whom I will be conversing with tomorrow. But people who are struggling right now and going through war, they don't know what to expect from tomorrow.

the bottom line is both sides are hurting innocent people are dying exactly and that's That's that's the the very sad reality no matter what the political view is how you understand one part of the other part That's just the bottom line is the blood blood is flowing and it should not be flowing

Let's pivot a little bit back to the Soviet life. You were there during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tell me how did that go? How did you feel about that? How did you find out about that? We're talking about August of 1991 when the coup took place. Well, I remember not a lot about that. I do remember it was news. I believe it was some kind of TV ⁓ shows from...

Moscow, guess, from the Red Square, they were translating about something happening. And I remember our parents and my parents' generation were talking about this. But in school, honestly, I felt a little bit of change or to no change. Like, we had this small Oktyabrenok stamp that we proudly, actually, we were really Because you were a member of the Communist Party.

at the first grade you were part of the Communist Party so you basically take an oath and after you take that oath they ask if you want to be a member of the Communist Party nobody in their mind, right mind would ever say no of course so of course you proudly say yes because you believed wholeheartedly in the ideology and then you'll have that little pin attached to your uniform and of course everybody wore uniform that was a red star was the picture of Lenin in the middle so when you wear that pin in

Elementary school that means you are what's called? Octobrionic so you proudly wore the pin that you were part of the Communist Party And I know we talked about how you you know even with your background of being your family been in exile and coming Growing up in Uzbekistan you didn't really feel that it's a fault of the Communist Party You never really pointed finger at them

No, but I knew that it was because of Stalin. I always knew So you blamed Stalin not the ideology? No, but maybe because I was a child and at that time nobody taught your kid... I mean in my family nobody taught like my generation about Communist Party. Growing up when it was a history lessons obviously we already knew...

about the communist party, was the ideology, when it was philosophy in universities, we already knew about all of this ⁓ differences between the ideologies and parties. That was post-Soviet Union collapse already. But your family growing up during the Soviet Union, before the collapse, there was never a political discussion, correct? It was never a political discussion, but I always felt that it was not easy time. You were not able to talk...

Openly and freely even conversations right now probably would not happen at that time. Yes Probably we had to lock the doors lock the windows turn the water on I saw a case of the device I remember that absolutely you definitely will not be able to have openly conversation in a bus This is what this country I mean America, right? this country is famous about the freedom That you can you can talk unless you will until you will not hurt other people

Yes, you can express yourself. Absolutely. Well, what did you do for fun at home during the Soviet times? my God, it was a lot of activities. We spent a lot of time outdoors playing with friends and neighbors. We did...

jumping, did like chalks, drawing on a street. We were going to my grandparents house We watched cartoons, we talked a lot, we read a lot.

We helped our parents and it was just we spent a lot of time outdoors. It was I don't know I I I Remembered also spending a lot of time outdoors. And of course as a kid you love watching TV and cartoons However, the reason and it's not because I'm such a great kid Well, my parents are great. They didn't let me watch a lot of TV But we had three channels and tell me if it's different for you and again during the Soviet times I know it all changed post-soviet union

We became more westernized, but during the Soviet times we had three channels. They started, I think, at six in the morning, you had the news. Then you had war movies, then they had more news. Then they took a lunch break from 12 to three, you had nothing. And that means your screen was just, we call it crickets. It was just a gray screen, And then after three o'clock you had more news, three o'clock news. Then you had another war movie about the World War II, course. Then you had...

more news and then there was a cartoon at 8 45 and my parents made sure to time it where I took my bath everything was ready for me to watch the scene and the thing was if you don't listen that day if you don't do your homework if you don't brush your teeth and get cleaned up then 8 45 you will not watch that cartoon that is the only time watch cartoons there were a couple of cartoons on the weekend and you it was a treasure you waited anxiously for watch those cartoons and I remember the exact same cartoons

It's it that's all we have so it's not like we had much of a choice so unless you to war movies or some kind of Movies about the Communist Party or like the early revolution movies movies about World War one Which the older generation the grandparents loved to watch it in fact I did watch the war movies and and when I was in my this thing 10 11 I loved it. Yeah, but you can only watch so much of the of the war movies

Exactly. This is probably how right now is calling, living education. you're not only using textbooks, but you're something that people were going through. is that world movies that you were talking about. That was the, yes. It was part of our education, I guess.

Did you ever feel like there was a cultural divide between the city and the country? And the reason I'm saying it is we talked earlier about not having the poor, the rich, because we all were on the same level

did you ever feel like there was a divide between the city and the country? Honestly, yes. And I felt that in Uzbekistan, in Ukraine, so all of those countries that I grew up in, I had education. So in the rural area or in villages, people were...

I don't even want to say not educated. They were just simpler. They had their own points of view in life. They were relating and they were trying to explain the life in very simple terms. And they were so correct about that.

they just saw life differently, not all of them, of course. That's why you have to be very careful when those people were moved from rural to country to city. If they are not used to that, they could be really spoiled or to be appeared in a very dangerous situation. And by spoiled, you mean having amenities, like in the city you had running water, you had light, had your basics such as flashing.

toilet and food that you didn't have. water. know, Kate, even before moving to the United States, I lived in Crimea in Simferopol. Simferopol is the capital of Crimea. mean capital. Okay. So my experience was we lived in apartment and it was scheduled time when we had cold water only. Oh my God, that sounds so It was from 6 a.m.

to 10 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. So we had to fill every single canister, every single tank with water. We had to warm it up to have a bath and we have to burn fire. And you know that and others can just imagine we never were late. I mean we were always on time for our work, for our studying, our grocery shopping or whatever.

And I didn't have any complaints. I remember Minsk. Minsk was the capital of Belarus. We had schedule outages of water, but that was only during the summer. But every year you had some time when you had no water, so we had to prepare in advance. And then you had time when you had no hot water, which...

wasn't a big deal, you just knew that during that month you go to your aunt's house, you're taking three bus to go to another side of the city because she had hot water, And then just, I know this is probably gonna be too much information, but you obviously didn't take a bath every day. I know here in America you shower every day and I make sure my kids do shower every day.

But back then, you know, you're driving across the city to take a bath. So you probably go once or twice a week realistically, but you had little buckets. You warm up just to like wash your feet and in some areas. So you spot wash yourself, but it really take a bath. You drive across the city to take a bath and next month, know, I'm just going to come over to your house to take a bath on a Saturday. Exactly. mean, because it's normal, everyone can relate.

You don't have time for politics discussion because you have worry about a buckets of water to put aside and make everything from scratch. were happy and nobody was complaining, they had more big problems waiting for them. I mean it was very interesting life. I mean it's not perfect obviously but it was not time for complaining. Absolutely,

So when the Soviet Union...

Do you remember the first year? I know it was a lot of chaos, a lot of changes. I don't remember that time, but right now I remember all the conversations,

My parents' generation sometimes misses Soviet times, to be honest. What do they miss about the Soviet times? Their order, their structure, their educational system. People having common sense, not losing their mind right now. Kids are in a safety place with their family, listening to their parents and not complaining.

about such small things that even right now don't matter. Kids were not spoiled at that time. We respect elderly. Unfortunately right now some common sense we have to explain like younger generation. And also there was no... there was also censor on movies and cartoons. As we just talked right now, movies were educational not because they were created to educate people.

They were created about life. We talked about war movies. wasn't pure entertainment. Exactly. was more to learn from it. Yes, exactly. Yes, we talked about... It of life. Good life examples. And we do have a lot of that here in the West too, but all of it was educational in this movie. Absolutely. We talked about war movies, but it was like humor movies, it was romantic movies. even right now my kids are watching them and they're learning from them how to properly...

make a conversation, how to properly be able to express your feelings without being, you know, inappropriate, let's say that, in a mild way. So, I mean, it was different. So, if I was to ask you what would you, what would you miss about the Soviet Union? you could handpick something from the Soviet era, obviously you would pick out the structure. Is there anything else positive about the Soviet times? Educational system.

probably medical system, the whole like medicine. If you can combine whatever people had in Soviet Union with the Western tools, technology, equipment, my God, you will have powerful tool to help people's life. So is that the system or the education that brought up very educated doctors who are very competent? Education. Education. Yes. And the reason I'm asking is when I was growing up in the Soviet Union, the system

It was the same system of course that you had in Uzbekistan. But for my mother to have an appointment for me, just a general appointment, we'd have to wait for over a month because it was social. It was social health care of course. And you had so many doctors who were overwhelmed, very underpaid, very much underpaid.

We did not have a lot of nursing support, so the doctor was responsible for you fully. So they had to draw your blood, they had to do everything, take your vitals, there was no team. When you go to the doctor, the doctor is the one doing everything. And of course, I don't blame the doctors, but the way the system was set up, you had to wait for over months for pretty much any appointment. If it's something urgent, yes, you go to the hospital, and that's a whole other story, but that was not the best route to go. And I just remember my mom.

having to build that rapport with my doctor every time she'll come to see her she'll bring a bag with champagne homemade cookies candies ⁓ golden chains she'll be saying we'll be saving up money so we can get the nice goodies for the doctor yeah exactly i don't make it because i don't touch those cookies as for the doctor can only have so much to make we also had a cabinet when we stored as you said ⁓ kate

So we had to save money and when we had the chance we bought something for that event when we need to go to the doctor and we had to basically ⁓ appreciate their work because the government was not that rich enough to appreciate this kind of important people who are saving people's lives. Even nowadays I know in Crimea in order to get good medical treatment you have to find a doctor

You can ask a lot, you will ask a lot of people. You can find that perfect doctor who knows everything. And because you feel like he's doing extra ordinary job, you feel like, okay, you need to appreciate him. You give him something extra. Because you know they don't get paid much. Absolutely. So it is kind of corruption and you basically paying them under the table, technically. But you know, I can't blame the doctor for taking it because they got a family to feed and they're making...

Miniscule amount of money So it's only fair and I know when we were doing that we wanted to do we wanted to build a good rapport with the doctor So it wasn't the people were saying it's just the way the system was so there's some good parts of that system We have very educated very Versed doctors who are very caring. You also had doctors come into your house. Yeah, so they also like for general appointments, especially older

was older one was my grandparents they had them on a schedule where the doctor would come to your house to take your vitals and check up on you write your prescriptions so that's that's the positive of course yes that's what you mean by combining those positive aspects with the Western Society where I can pick up form right now and make an appointment even if I can't make a point right now I can go to urgent care and I can get ⁓ state-of-the-art amazing health care

So one more question for you.

What are your thoughts on the post-Soviet world today, especially in your home country? don't think ⁓ it's good situation right now. And I don't know who else will say from other post-Soviet Union, but because I'm from Ukraine, right? And there is a war right now.

I mean, obviously, it's ⁓ not good situation right now for just ordinary people who want to leave, who don't want to be scared when they're talking to their relatives over the phone, over the WhatsApp that they will be hurt and then later they will be punished. Punished by the Russian or the Ukrainian government? I think probably by Russian, because Crimea right now...

Oh yeah, because Crimea belongs to Russia, I understand. So, I mean, would definitely not be... nothing will be to us, people even here in this free country, but to them it will be... Your relatives are still in Crimea because it is part of Russia. only my mom is here, but my whole... The rest of the family. Yes, the rest of the family is there. What do you think people outside the USSR get wrong about the Soviet life?

I don't know if it's maybe not necessarily like direct answer to the question, but they were really surprised when we're talking to them that we didn't have laptops, we didn't have enough textbooks, we had to make a Xerox of the starting material because of the to study. And they were surprised that we didn't have access to this kind of necessities. changing brush, ⁓ I mean,

toothbrushes every six months. Oh my god, it will be too luxury. can you? What are you talking about? No flossing. What else? Obviously this very common expression that people in Soviet Union don't have sex, right? I it's common. mean no, it was there but it was not top of the conversation. Exactly, it was other things.

to talk about as well. were also wrong probably that people didn't have enough opportunities to express their opinion because sometimes you have a chance but you will sacrifice from that a lot. They were also, I think, they were wrong that think that parents, Soviet parents, they are too harsh with their kids.

as opposed to right now. because I do know and I do believe that sometimes they think that our parents were too strict with us. You're talking strict, meaning you had a lot of...

still lot of discipline and the society overall was shaped to support you in that like I was saying TV you even if you wanted to watch TV even if your parents allowed you to you you wouldn't watch it because there's not much on TV exactly there is you can you can only get in so much trouble there was no video games so you had no problem with getting addicted to video games exactly there were no drugs there so you had no issue there yeah alcohol I think was a problem then and

still is, Exactly. absolutely because of that they think that most of the people who come from post-Soviet countries they drink and they drink a lot, which is completely not true. also depends on family that you grew up there. there's a lot of alcoholism, especially in the country, least where I was growing up. But I think you have a good point where...

People joke most of the time because always... Somebody offers me a drink and they tell me want vodka because I said no, don't drink. They're like, you mean you want something else? was like, no, I don't drink alcohol and they're shocked. They asked me next time you're pregnant. said no. Exactly. Yes. What's wrong with you? You're from Russia. You be drinking vodka. I said, just don't... I've seen enough people's lives ruined by alcohol. So I just don't want it. I've tasted it. It doesn't taste good to me and I'm perfectly fine.

drinking my hot tea or water. Absolutely. I like my normal state. I don't want to alter my normal state. Exactly. I think that's part was for me at least that people all the time get wrong just assume that you feel from that area you would you're draker and there are a lot of people who did drink but a lot of them also drink in a controlled way. Because you know I think that people don't have enough knowledge and enough education about the whole Soviet Union country.

When you tell them that you are from Soviet Union, they assume that...

Either you are from Siberia or from Russia. Moscow? Exactly, or Moscow. They assume that you're drinking vodka. They're not surprised if you are blonde. ⁓ yeah, obviously you are from Russia because you are blonde. I mean, probably they think that they don't have Brunette's people there or something. They always assume that you are Christian. They don't know that there are a lot of other religious nations, Jewish, Muslims. is very diverse Exactly. mean, even even Buddhists there.

So they're just not enough educated, about the Soviet Union and this whole culture. Excellent. Well, hopefully with this podcast, we'll start to change that a little bit and allow people to learn more about different parts of the Soviet Union, different perspectives, and just hear these conversations, different stories. Thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate you.

taking the time for this. was a really fun conversation. Thank you, my listeners, for joining us as well. I'm really glad you could stay with us.

If you'd like to get a hold of me or Aisha, please email me at Kate at thesovietlife.com. And I hope you can join me for my next interview next week. Hope to see you then.