Even though I was born just a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, some of the descriptions in this article resonate.
I don't remember what time of the year we had mandarins, but when it happened it felt like a very special occasion. I also had a little notebook of chewing gum wrappers. I think sometimes they also may have come with stickers inside. I especially collected the ones with wrappers and stickers of sports cars.
I knew of the concept of a Christmas-esque celebration. We did have a big celebration at that time of year with a tree, presents, and Ded Moroz with his granddaughter Snegurachka, but I always associated these things with New Year's eve. I still have trouble remembering what day exactly Christmas is some years and have to look it up, it seemed like such a random date compared to the big last day of the year.
I remember my childhood as being happy, but of course the vast majority of these memories came after the collapse. One of my favorite memories was our school getting a computer lab. For a few weeks, they let a few of us come in for special computer classes on Sundays (school was Mon-Sat). I remember having to copy instructions from pieces of paper, and once we finished we had a playable game. I always finished before the rest of the class and had a lot of time left to play.
I'm glad I was born on the brink of the collapse. My family's stories of the Soviet Union were complex, but didn't make me want to live there. On the one hand my mom talked about the good education and technology she got to work with. My grandmother was a math teacher and some sort of party official, so she was in good standing. On the other hand, apparently when I was a baby my parents still had to line up to buy bread and I would sometimes hear mention how my grandparents had to survive on grass during the Holodomor.
I don't remember what time of the year we had mandarins, but when it happened it felt like a very special occasion. I also had a little notebook of chewing gum wrappers. I think sometimes they also may have come with stickers inside. I especially collected the ones with wrappers and stickers of sports cars.
I knew of the concept of a Christmas-esque celebration. We did have a big celebration at that time of year with a tree, presents, and Ded Moroz with his granddaughter Snegurachka, but I always associated these things with New Year's eve. I still have trouble remembering what day exactly Christmas is some years and have to look it up, it seemed like such a random date compared to the big last day of the year.
I remember my childhood as being happy, but of course the vast majority of these memories came after the collapse. One of my favorite memories was our school getting a computer lab. For a few weeks, they let a few of us come in for special computer classes on Sundays (school was Mon-Sat). I remember having to copy instructions from pieces of paper, and once we finished we had a playable game. I always finished before the rest of the class and had a lot of time left to play.
I'm glad I was born on the brink of the collapse. My family's stories of the Soviet Union were complex, but didn't make me want to live there. On the one hand my mom talked about the good education and technology she got to work with. My grandmother was a math teacher and some sort of party official, so she was in good standing. On the other hand, apparently when I was a baby my parents still had to line up to buy bread and I would sometimes hear mention how my grandparents had to survive on grass during the Holodomor.