What could have been?
After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Russia went from being the federative keystone at the head of a global economic and military superpower, to being largely politically irrelevant overnight. Nearly a decade of economic liberalization meant that capital was being terminally funneled out of the country towards western businesses, and this coupled with the war in Afghanistan during the ‘80s, and rapid consolidation of power among wealthy oligarchs, meant that by the early ’90s the nation was hemorrhaging.
Members of my extended family grew up in Soviet cities, being provided relatively easy and immediate access to everything they needed to survive, and all of that was taken in an instant. Political upheaval and violence became commonplace. Wars broke out. Some of my distant cousins were conscripted to fight in Georgia and Chechnya. Others starved to death.
I’m homesick, but my home is gone. It was gone before I had the chance to see it. I’m nostalgic for a time and place that I’ll never get to experience. I often think about my lost and distant relatives gazing up at the stars on the cold streets of Moscow - the same stars as are in my sky, and given recent events in Eastern Europe, it begs the question:
What could have been?
DNI:
Fascists (I’ll use my own discretion)
