Lately I’ve been thinking about how my “community” stopped using the term Russian and started using Slavic to self-identify. Ive never felt properly Russian and I assumed that’s what others felt as well. Ive never lived in Russia. I was born in Latvia. But I speak Russian. But so did my friend from Georgia. And Ukraine. And Azerbaijan.
We all used to just say we were Russian, and talk Russian to each other. Or try to. Most of us forgot the language or never learned it properly. By the time I spent two years in this country, I went back to Latvia for the summer with an American accent all the adults mocked/teased.
Uniquely, I was able to relearn the language in high school, where it was even offered in a variant for native speakers. There were enough of us to constitute the need for a whole classroom with a separate, rather remarkable, teacher.
I wish I could tell you we were indoctrinated into communism or turned into sleeper cells, but in reality, most FSUs (former Soviet Union) are pretty patriotic toward America. Among the intellectual set, there is relief in being allowed whatever moral or political philosophies you agree most with. Among the ambitious, there is gratitude that you can actually work to achieve a rich life if you’re smart enough.
I used to think we would always be like this. The narcissism of youth makes you see the present as static and never ending. But obviously, the former Soviet Union eventually turned into Russia and thirty other countries, and now the immigrants come from newly formed or reformed republics with their own ethnic and cultural identities and even languages. Especially languages.
I really wonder what the new immigrants/refugees think about the American dream and if they come predisillusioned to it or have to get there naturally like I did. I also wonder if they’re making friends with each other the same way that we did.
One thing is clear though, we are not the Russians anymore.
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