It’s interesting that the two most important people in Ilya’s adult life (Shane and Svetlana) are both mixed race.
Okay, bear with me. The next few paragraphs are mostly about Irina and Ilya, but then I get back to Svetlana.
As for Ilya and toxic masculinity, I think Grigori being abusive to Irina had a huge impact on young Ilya’s development. Alexei seems to have been the child in the Rozanov family who decided to lean into toxic masculinity and copy Grigori’s behaviour.
As a child, it would’ve been a self-protective mechanism. A child may identify with the abusive parent because the abuser is the only person in the family who has any power. And the child is terrified and craves power.
But Ilya’s family niche was as Irina’s supporter and confidante. The role of Grigori, Jr had already been taken by his older brother. And a depressed Irina would have pulled away from Alexei as he started to imitate his father’s behaviour. Been closer to the child who instinctively took her side. Who sympathized whenever Grigori was “hard on her.”
So Ilya is more attuned than most white boys from privileged backgrounds to sexist bullshit. Because he adores his mom and Grigori and society treat her like shit. Ilya also loves his girl best friend Svetlana, and guess what, society treats her like shit too! It’s like being a woman or girl in a patriarchal society is unfair or something. Ilya is far from perfect, but he’s not a standard hockey bro either.
I also suspect having a biracial girl as his best friend from childhood also had a huge impact. Because he got to see, day in, day out, all the shit Sveta had to deal with. For being racialized in a pretty openly racist society and also just for being a girl. And Irina may have reinforced to him that the way people treated Svetlana wasn’t fair. And as her best friend, it was Ilya’s job to be better than the other kids.
Warning: the below gets highly speculative about Svetlana. Particularly when it comes to Sergei Vetrov and his parenting:
Svetlana loves hockey and follows it obsessively. Why doesn’t she play? Was she not allowed to play as a child? Forced to do figure skating instead because nice, ladylike girls don’t play hockey. Even if they have the talent (world class goalie dad means she likely had plenty of athletic ability) and the interest (she’s obsessed). And she just happens to become the best friend of a brilliant boys hockey player her own age.
Or maybe Svetlana was allowed to play as a prepubescent child, but then she broke her nose or had another hockey injury that could’ve affected her looks. And Sergei decided she had to stop playing before she damaged her pretty face for good. She needed to get a good husband someday, after all. He was just looking out for his little girl’s future.
Or maybe when Svetlana was a kid, there were too many rumours about the grown women on Russia’s national women’s hockey team being secret lesbians. There are a lot of queer women in women’s hockey, let’s face it. Sergei didn’t want his little girl to be contaminated and grow up to be a lesbian. So he either made her give up hockey, or he never let her play it in the first place.
Maybe the original friendship developed when Little Ilya would lend Little Sveta his hockey skates and gear. And then he’d keep a lookout to try and stop any adults from realizing the child on the ice was a girl who wasn’t allowed to play hockey. They’d get caught a fair bit, and both punished. But Ilya would continue to try and help her circumvent her dad’s stupid rules.
Maybe Irina was the only adult in their lives who looked the other way when Ilya snuck Sveta onto the ice. She couldn’t do it too often without getting in deep shit with Grigori. He would’ve been furious at her for undermining his buddy Sergei’s authority over his daughter. But maybe Irina looked the other way when she had plausible deniability. Because it wasn’t fair that Sveta loved hockey and was talented, but couldn’t play because her dad was an asshole.
As an adult, Svetlana is very loyal to Ilya. I suspect he was always a good friend to her to earn that loyalty. She even drops everything at a moments notice to come to Moscow with him after his father dies. She knows the rest of his family are vultures, and Ilya will need her support.
And maybe some of Ilya’s support, when they were kids, was him affirming her dad’s rules were bullshit. Being a girl is a terrible reason to stop a talented kid playing hockey. And a gifted Ilya would’ve recognized Sveta’s natural talent. As a child himself, there wouldn’t have been much he could do about the injustice. But he could sneak her on the ice when possible.
Also, there must be a reason Svetlana moved to Boston in the first place. She already had an American passport, so she didn’t have to worry about a visa. And it makes sense that she’d first go to the same city as her best friend from back home. She would have one familiar face, at least.
But why move eight time zones away from her family in the first place? And not even just as a university student who later returns to Russia. She settles down in Boston long term, later even start a business there. When in Russia she could use her prominent father’s influence to pursue any career. She would almost inevitably prosper, thanks to nepotism and corruption. Sergei Vetrov doesn’t have political influence over American oligarchs, only Russian ones.
But instead Sveta moves to another continent, and makes a new life for herself. In a society where she’s penalized both for being part black, and for being an immigrant from a country many Americans distrust instinctively. She might also speak English with an accent (she certainly will if her mother isn’t American). And Americans tend to be suspicious of racialized people with accents. But apparently Boston is still preferable to Moscow.
She hasn’t cut her family off entirely, she still goes back to Russia to see them, and is pleasant to Sergei at parties. But realistically, eight time zones mean she probably only sees her parents once a year. Maybe she still can’t forgive Sergei for not letting her play hockey.
She won’t rerun an old argument with him, but she can choose not to see very much of him or her mother (whom we never meet). By the time Svetlana’s a legal adult and living far away, she could play in a women’s rec league in Boston. But she’d never have the opportunity to play competitively. She would’ve started much too late.
Also, amazing tags by @foxnfenix
And more great tags by @shanyshko
And finally @mushroomrice
