Clive Davis quotes the following anecdote from Richard Pipes's Vixi: Memoirs of a Non-belonger:
I entered a streetcar in Leningrad and to buy a ticket took out the loose change from my pocket: mixed with Soviet coins was a Kennedy half-dollar. The woman selling tickets, sitting by the entrance, spotted it instantly and asked 'Are you an American?' When I confirmed, she insisted on yielding me her seat. As the streetcar lumbered on its way she pointed out to me various landmarks and, loudly extolling the beauties of her city, urged me as a Russian-speaker, to resettle there with my family. The streetcar stopped: passengers poured in and out. Taking advantage of the temporary commotion, the woman, her facial expression suddenly transformed from falsely amiable to genuinely anxious, bent down and asked me in an urgent whisper: 'We live like dogs, don't we? Tell me, please.'Posted by Dr. Frank at November 23, 2004 08:42 PM | TrackBack
As you are an Anglophyle, I am somewhat of a Russophyle being partly of Russian heritage, so I can say that it is quite true that the people of Russia are quite confident, sometimes boastful and always proud on the outside, but are somewhat disappointed and saddened that they do not have the means to live the lifestyle that the Americans, Brits, Canadians and Australians do.
Posted by: Zaphod at November 23, 2004 10:10 PMWhat a timely Thanksgiving post. And here I thought it was just the holiday between drunken Halloween and Materialmas.
It's hard for me to imagine their lifestyle, but I suppose it's similar in a lot of ways to my father's depression-era Appalachian existence. Though lifestyle is probably not the correct phrase; that implies a choice.
Posted by: TroyM at November 23, 2004 10:21 PMThere youy thought indeed...
Then you would be very cynical to think of them as such even in jest. How much we have to be grateful for despite our differences...at least
except for the local soft rock station already playing 24hr Christmas tunes.
As an East European history student, I have to say that Richard Pipes seems to absolutely hate Slavs. He essentially works on the foundation that anything non-American must be communism, and therefore reduces all cultural differences to the horrors of Soviet communism. Russian people have a lot of reasons to be unhappy with how they live, but holding North America as the standard is only ever going to produce disappointment in most places in the world.
Posted by: Mat S at November 24, 2004 01:56 PMWhat is your suggestion, then, Matt? Pretend there is no North America? Hold mediocrity as an ideal?
Posted by: josh at November 24, 2004 02:16 PMIt's that I think of them that way, it was more a comment on commercial media and unfortunate public perception.
I remember the lessons of "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
;-)
Posted by: TroyM at November 24, 2004 06:57 PM