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// Mira Bergelson // From a Russian Perspective

Áåðãåëüñîí Ì. Á.

Áåðãåëüñîí Ìèðà Áîðèñîâíà
äîêòîð ôèëîëîãè÷åñêèõ íàóê,
ïðîôåññîð êàôåäðû ëèíãâèñòèêè è èíôîðìàöèîííûõ òåõíîëîãèé
ôàêóëüòåòà èíîñòðàííûõ ÿçûêîâ è ðåãèîíîâåäåíèÿ
ÌÃÓ èìåíè Ì.Â. Ëîìîíîñîâà
,
Øåô-ðåäàêòîð àíãëîÿçû÷íîé âåðñèè ñàéòà Ïðåçèäåíòà Ðîññèéñêîé Ôåäåðàöèè

Mira B.Bergelson
Professor at the Department of Linguistics
and Information Technology,
Faculty of Foreign Languages and Regional Studies
at Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU)

Chief-editor, English-language version
of the President of Russian Federation website

e-mail: mirabergelson@gmail.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FROM A RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Santa Barbara News Press
THURSDAY FORUM

Mira Bergelson is a Soviet linguist
visiting Santa Barbara while her husband,
also a linguist, conducts research at UCSB

ESSAY #1
November 14, 1991

The first thing our American friends keep asking me is: "How do you like America? Are you surprised by what you see here?" Well, it's a good chance to answer: "I do like America and I'm not surprised, although it may sound strange". I wished to visit this country from my teens when I first started to study English. I read American books and books about America, I went to American movies (maybe there was not a lot of them and they were not bestsellers, but still they were really good movies). My parents were never under the impact of ideology that for so many years oppressed the majority of people in my country. They raised me in the same way, and I never looked at Americans as my enemies or the enemies of my country. Like many people with the same or similar background, my friends and schoolmates, I rather admired America for its energy and efficiency, love for freedom that we lacked so desperately, its high standards of living. Now I can admire all this from inside.

Two conclusions I arrived at almost immediately are like following. One is that Russians and Americans not only share much in common - it's obvious still all of us are humans - but in quite a few aspects we, Russians, are much closer to you, Americans, than either of us to Western Europeans. I think that it's the vastness of our respective countries that matters, the still existing feeling of pioneers opening up new lands - in the west of America and in the Far East in Siberia. The other is tasting and probing the details of everyday life in the country which you certainly can't discover unless you just stay here not as a tourist but as one of the millions of people in this huge "salad bowl" of cultures called United States and especially California. These features greatly contribute to the portrait of Americans and their style of life in the same manner as salad dressings make up for the final flavor of the salad. I'm happy that I just live a small part of my life here, in California, staying with my kids and my husband (he is a visiting scholar at UCSB) sharing for a while the everyday life of people in Family Student Housing and trying to learn as much as possible about these details that make life so colorful and so special.

I am sure it will be of no surprise to you if I say that you Americans are a smiling people. I knew it still in Russia, but all the same it was great when I experienced it. For me the most remarkable are not the smiling clerks or staff in a supermarket; they just may be somehow interested in smiling for you. It's great when people smile to you just passing by, as the first reaction of one human being to another. By the way, while investigating the diversity of American smile I found out - as a side effect - a very interesting thing: the size of a "personal zone" for Russians and Americans is different. The concept of personal zone was elaborated in social psychology meaning a space around a person which he or she considers private and trespassing of which - even by a glance - is viewed as not welcome. For different people and, especially, for various cultures the exact size of personal zone differs greatly and people are very sensitive to one's crossing it: it could be either an offense or an intrusion or an intimate contact. Just staring at a person that moves in your direction becomes, when certain distance is reached, an intimate contact. The fact is that during my walks on the UCSB campus or in downtown Santa Barbara I came across many people who - though they were strangers to me - would not only smile to me but would also say "Hi" - with a somewhat embarrassed face. They did it because I trespassed and they reacted by making an intimate contact as if we were acquainted to each other. And my trespassing was due to the fact that Russians have as a rule smaller personal zones than Americans. I just did not put aside my eyes at the proper moment.

... Sometimes the most simple things are the most embarrassing just because they are different. For instance, in Russia all the water taps are turned on and off in one and the same direction. In this country all possible combinations of on/off directions occur for both cold and hot taps. It makes me furious: long adjustments cause the waste of water. Most hilarious for me was to discover that all beds in the places where we were staying had rolls or wheels that made beds to move easily which is nice but can produce a lot of noise sometimes. Russian beds are usually more sturdy and since most people there live in multistorey buildings I think it's a good idea.

ESSAY #2
November 28, 1991

America's 'Sameness'doesn't Stifle Diversity

ESSAY #3
December 5, 1991

A Refreshing Bow to Culture

I can't say I have already done much sightseeing in Santa Barbara - I am no tourist here. But, surely, I stare at everything while driving around and it's sometimes really hard to keep your eyes on the road when passing so many interesting things on its sides.

They say that Santa Barbara is the most pleasant place in the whole of the U.S.A. So far I don't have much to compare with, but I would say I like the place very much. And not the least, for maintaining the Spanish style in architecture. First, it's really beautiful with all these towering roofs covered with tile. Second, it shows the respect for the culture of the people that once settled in this area and is a sort of contribution to a better intercultural understanding, paying some debts, I guess. We need this kind of things in my country today. The agressive nationalistic movements we are suffering from just now and may be suffering a great deal more in the nearest future is the immediate, though long-prepared, result of the neglect to minorities' culture. And in the former USSR everybody except Russians were the minorities. Thus, Russians, especially those living in the other than Russia republics feel it now back on them. And, by the way, Russian culture was neglected during all these years not less and sometimes even more than other cultural traditions. In some sense Russians were also a "minority" in their own country. It's the communist authorities who were the ruling class, ordering the music to be played. Russians along with other peoples (there were more than 130 of them in the whole of the country) just paid for it. There is a saying that each people deserves the very government it has got. Well, let the price peoples of Russia paid, are still paying now and will have been paying for many years ahead get us something better.

Now, I went a long way from speculations on Santa Barbara architecture. By the way, our cities' and towns' outlook could be much better if traditional styles would have been preserved. But neglecting it and making everything look alike was also a part of "denationalizing", humiliating communist policy. It may look strange if one tries to compare such a big metropolitan city like Moscow with a place like Santa Barbara. But for me who was born and lived all the time in Moscow and close countryside it's psychologically absolutely natural. And let the results be considered!

Every day while driving I encounter signs "Road construction ahead". In Moscow a lot of such work is also constantly done. (I think we have really got much road construction ahead - meaning various activities we didn't have any access to in previous years.) But there is still a difference: in this country every day you find the signs at new places; in Moscow the signs telling you about the danger ahead are sometimes lacking and sometimes they are found at the same place - with the same poor condition of the road - for a long time.

Another thing concerning so-to-say the city outlook is ads which are numerous in many places here (the same is true for Moscow). I always stop to read them carefully, because it's so interesting. Not speaking about the special language style used in ads, you learn so much from what people are looking for and what they need. Well, we in Moscow also sell and buy all the possible things through ads. But one characteristic feature of Moscow ads is trading. You, for instance, may trade women's shoes of such-and-such size for a men's fur hat or a coloured TV set for a food processor. Money costs nothing. It's goods that you need.

But you wouldn't find in Moscow ads proposals most common here, in Santa Barbara: selling cars or apartments for rent. In Russia people only want to buy cars and rent apartments. And if you - just by chance - happen to put an ad about selling a car or letting an apartment, you don't need to say "Runs great" or "Excellent view" - your telephone will burst away with the calls.

And there are also ads written on cars and buses here. Some of them are really ads with very elaborate content, like those on MTD buses: "Respect for tradition in the world where none exists" or something about Claude Monet's supposed appreciation of Santa Barbara's beauty (I think it was meant to invite people to a bus trip around Santa Barbara - surely, on a MTD bus). I am pleased to say that referring in an ad to a French artist reveals a high cultural standard for both the authors and the potential readers. I was a bit puzzled with it (trying to translate the word "Monet" from English) and even created sort of a mess on a stret crossing where I happened to meet that bus. My apologies to all the drivers involved.

Car stickers seem to me a special American, or maybe Californian, way of expressing patriotic feelings, attitudes on urgent public matters and especially - humor. Just look:

"We make good turns and right turns. Please, let us do both, " or "Buy American or good-bye jobs." What punning and playing with words' meanings! It can be compared to a special way Russians express their attitudes and their humor (and also their grievances!) - our famous jokes, so called anecdotes. Everybody in Russia knows a lot of them.

I would love to finish today with one, but you see, they are untranslatable because being so deeply absorbed in Russian life and realities, their understanding demands a great amount of context and explication. And it just kills the joke. It should be short. So should I.

ESSAY #4
December 12, 1991

The Car an Apt Symbol of the American Spirit

One of quite a few stereotypes that Russians have concerning Americans is your special attitudes towards cars and driving. My sister - she lives now in Philadelphia - told me that after she says: "Hi! How are you? How are the kids?" to her American friends, she always asks: "How is your car?" Her friends are very pleased to answer this question with all the possible details, though my sister initially meant it to be a joke. So we know that cars are precious to Americans, that they symbolize much of the American spirit; but why is it this way? I think the answer to the question is worth a thick book on sociopsychology, anthropology and history of America. But a short and simple one was given - strange it may seem - in the thirties by two Russian writers who put it like this: "Cars are no luxury, they are just vehicles". (In Russia they were and still are luxury, not available to the majority of people who badly need them in the vast areas of our country - provided the roads to use them on.)

Really, it would be impossible to live in California without a car; I felt it quite well during my first week in this country. Yours here is a "one-storey America" (it's also an expression by those two mentioned writers), that's why your cities are not as "tightly packed" as Russian cities full of apartment buildings, and that's why it is ten miles here and ten miles there just to do something of everyday life. You are stuck to your "wheels", but, surely, this is not the worst sort of dependency! I like driving very much. By the way, you'd be stunned with the fact that in Russia the absolute majority of drivers are men, and very few women can drive. The latter are looked at with great respect on the side of non-driving women, with admiration and suspicion on the side of non-driving men (as if we were strange creatures violating some basic laws of nature) and with slight antipathy and condescension on the side of driving men. To the first two categories I usually say that driving a car is much easier than playing piano. "Look! - I would say - nearly two hundred millions of Americans can drive, half of them are women. Do you think they are all extra talented?"

And the following episode from my Moscow "driving history record" shows the usual attitudes of the last category. Once I parked near a tire shop - a kind of place where only men are supposed to be found. When five minutes later I wanted to leave I found out that my car was almost blocked. I tried to find the driver who was responsible for that but failed as he wouldn't reveal himself. I was in a great hurry and decided to set myself free though it was a demanding task. After quite a few minutes of hard work with the steering and clutch pedal I needed just one more "back right, forward left". At that moment a man came up to me and said in a mentor tone: "You'd better learn where the pedals are before driving a car".

In this country driving is a special pleasure thanks to your excellent roads. The striking difference is driving at night which is unpleasant and unsafe in Russia taking into account the poor condition of roads, the greater length of dark time and lack of these light-reflecting-pieces-of-something that divide lanes. It's these lane dividers that at night make American roads look so beautiful and driving so easy and pleasant. They help even in the dense fog (I tested it just yesterday evening). The next that I like about driving in this country is some of your road rules. You can make a left turn nearly everywhere which is not the case in Moscow. And there are not only special lanes for left turns, but road extensions especially designed for that purpose. In Moscow drivers have to think over their itinerary before setting out and to remember where the needed left turns may be performed. I think it is due to the dense traffic on Moscow streets and not the bad will of our road services. By the way, how about the left turns in New York City? Would it be possible for me to turn left easily on Broadway or Wall street?

There are two crucial points where Russian and American driving rules demonstrate striking differences. Such kind of differences demands breaking some in-built taboos if you happen to start driving according to another set of rules. I mean turning right on red which is prohibited in Russia and strict observance of the stop sign in this country.The latter isn't so widely used in Russia; instead of it a sign "yield" is in use. And this has a special impact on the style of driving. I didn't know it before I started driving in Santa Barbara, and then I realized how often I have to make a full stop and use the first speed - much more as compared to Moscow. Next time I would like to continue with some psychological pecularities of driving here because it's definitely a very important part of the every day life in America (though you may be so used to your cars, your rules, your taboos that you would never think of them from that point of view).

By the way, in Moscow slang a word for a car would be translated in English as "barrow".

ESSAY #6
December 26, 1991

Getting a Handle on California Driving

I'm beginning to feel that I can't catch up with the "information flow" - I mean all those new pieces of experience I have to cope with, to think of and put down to the paper. I haven't yet touched such "basics" as food, clothes, shopping - all of which are extremely different from what we have in Russia - not speaking about children and everything that is connected with them. Then you can face some "emergency experiences" like getting a flu for the whole family and dealing with doctors and pharmacists. But I think I should be consistent and continue on pecularities of Californian driving style, which I have already advertised.

I mentioned earlier the red light right turn and frequent stops at the stop signal being the basic difficulties for drivers from Russia. But people are different in what they adjust to easily and what creates more problems for them. My husband quickly learned to stop automatically where needed but was first reluctant to turn right on the red signal. Me, just the opposite: I get much pleasure in turning whenever possible on red and always think - furiously braking to the full stop at a stop line -why we haven't bought a car with automatic transmission (I myself objected buying a car with autotransmisson being used to the stick).

Now, I don't want you to think that DMV acted wrong way in issuing a Californian driving license to me; in fact I'm an experienced and very cautious driver - having always to drive with my kids on the back seat. Some clumsiness and uneasiness of the first few days of driving in this country gave me an excellent opportunity to find out what are the differences between Russian and American drivers in reacting to some other's mistakes. You are very polite and friendly people on a road. You are taught never to insist on your right of way, you would patiently wait for anyone to finish a three-step U-turn on a narrow road and then pass by with a friendly smile. In my country drivers are much more nervous and wouldn't usually let you take place in the lane before them when you try to change lanes. But at the same time Russian drivers are much more tolerant to other's mistakes and clumsiness and won't make fuss about it. A Californian driver, on the other hand, is not expected to remain calm when somebody is doing things against the rules. He would look, passing, into your car with an expression of utter discontent. And, as I found out, the only case when it's so-to-say appropriate to look into other person's car is just this one - expressing sort of surprise at one's poor performance. In other cases your curiosity is regarded as trespassing because (I mentioned it already elsewhere) Americans expand their private zone to the borders of their cars; the bigger the car - the more space to be considered private. In Russia looking into other persons' cars is considered normal; if you are angry with a driver you would express it in a somewhat more distinct way - such as cursing the offender.

I think that the difference in the behavioral patterns of Russian and American drivers is due to much more basic, than just driving, attitudes. In this country you should be strong, self-confident and reliable, then everybody is nice to you - both on the road and in life. In Russia it is more a question of lack of respect for the rules (so why care when somebody neglects them), which is rooted in viewing laws as something imposed by authorities for their own profit and convenience. Such an attitude (in many cases it is absolutely justified) has important consequences for driving. I will mention just two of them. When my American friends were in Moscow they were very surprised (not to say puzzled) at our faking of seat belts fastening - we just pretended doing it. I never pondered over the subject but then, as my friends displayed their interest to the motives for such irresponsible behavior, I realized that - funny enough - by acting this way I tried unconsciously to avoid obeying the rules - a kind of protest against the authorities. For this situation the latter are embodied in the highway patrol officers - a highly corrupted stock of people, by the way. I understand that meeting with a patrol officer in this country can also have unpleasant consequences like fines or tickets, but it is reasonable - you know what rules you have violated (at least I think so, because I never have even seen a highway patrol in these one and a half months of my everyday driving; maybe they are unvisible like elves?). But in Russia we not only regularly deal with these people, we regularly bribe them. And they consider these bribes to be a second, tax free, income. The reason for such indecent (on both sides!) behavior is that road rules can be used loosely and aim at punishing, not preventing. The result of it is quite obvious: people don't have any respect for rules or laws and view representatives of law as their potential enemies.

I always fasten the seat belts in this country.

ESSAY #7
January 2, 1992

Americans Love their Food - in All its Forms

What time could better suit speaking about food than holiday and vacation time in America? I do know how much effort is spent by many of my American friends to eat and drink healthily, but all the same, I would rather consider the second part of the following saying to refer to Americans: "Some people eat for living and some - live for eating." Well, it's quite understandable, not in the least because your food producers try their best to make the products look as appetizing as possible. For the visitor from Russia there is so much to be said about "food-ing" in America - about food shopping, cooking, serving, having-guests-for-dinner, table-talking. But a thorough and consistent comparison to Russia is impossible - and I wouldn't like it - so terribly different is the situation now, such a soar point it is for those, like me and my family, whose parents and relatives and friends are now staying in Moscow.

The most amazing for me was the special "food" section in this paper - I would never imagine what could be put in there. Now, as I read this newspaper I do know that Americans can get pleasure not only of good cooking and eating but also of good reading about it. If only one could satisfy hunger this way. It would be an excellent idea for my country nowadays. Though joking like that, I understand quite clearly how it is important for the society as a whole and for every individual to have interest in good and healthy food.

In my country it is only several years as people learned about the harm chemically grown food produces (but salt, sugar and cholesterol were concidered dangerous for one's health long ago). Now the question of choosing healthy food is not in the foreground for most of my compatriots. But at the same time I can't say that Americans as a whole have very healthy diets. First, I found out that the stereotype about Russians eating too much bread should be supplemented by the same statement regarding Americans. In my country people serve bread for dinner but they don't eat so many sandwiches, hot dogs, ham-, cheese- and I-don't-know-what-burgers.

Second, your food undergoes a lot of processing in this or that way before it can be found in a supermarket. There is no question of its appearance - it looks terrific, all these fruits and vegetables from all over the world, but they are not always that tasty and after just a few days in the refrigerator they often get rotten. I think that it is related to the amount of chemicals used while growing them. Surely, this is not true for the highest quality or the organically grown products. So you have your choice - just what we always lacked in Russia.

In my country during the winter season a standard collection of vegetables in the state stores would be potatoes, beets, carrots, green cabbage, onions and garlic. Fruits would be represented by apples, tangerines (in Russia they are called "mandarines") and grapefruits. The choice of available vegetables determines what could be called a typical Russian winter salad (in my country the winter menu differs greatly from the summer one; the reason is poor storing capacities and lack of food import from the southern countries). It includes cooked meat, potatoes and carrots, preserved peas, onion, pickled cucumbers dressed with mayonnaise. It is of French origine, I guess, because of its name - "olivier". If you add to it cooked beets, you will get so called "vinegrette". The typical spring salad is fresh cucumbers, radish, green onion, lettuce and hard boiled eggs dressed with sour cream. And the typical summer salad includes tomatoes, cucumbers, red or green pepper, onion, parsley and dill with the sunflower oil. Trust me it's not bad. But "typical", for all the seasons, Californian salad with various kinds of lettuce as a main component is, unfortunately, unknown in Russia.

It's also a pity we (most of us) don't use as much of fresh vegetables and fruits as people in this country do. You even eat fresh mushrooms which are very delicious in the salad. In my country people like mushrooms and prepare them in many different ways. And gathering mushrooms is a cherished hobby for thousands of people. It is also true for my family. When we came to the place we live now, we found nice mushrooms looking very much like those we have in Russia on the lawn just in front of our door. Surely, we gathered and cooked them. They were very tasty, a bit diiferent from their Russian relatives. Our American friends whom we told about it were really embarassed by such a strange idea as gathering mushrooms instead of buying them in a supermarket. However, they liked the idea that our mushrooms were organic and sun-grown (though I don't think they would love the idea of gathering or tasting them). And later, one Saturday we went to the farmers market in downtown Santa Barbara. There was a man selling mushrooms. "Ours" were among them. They had the name "Portobelli" or something like that and cost $8 per pound. And you know, many people were buying them!

ESSAY #8
January 9, 1992

There's Much to Learn in America's Kitchens

ESSAY #9
January 30, 1992

Americans Strive to Treat Toddlers Right

There is such a saying that you can judge the given society's level of humanism by its attitude towards children, seniors and women. I do know enough about Americans to understand that the last point (women) can make feminists irritated; so I won't deal with that in this perspective. But the first two, in fact, make up the basics of the society, since all of us have experienced the joy, happiness and grievances of childhood and will (I wish it to everybody) face the problems and peacefulness of the senior age.

In my country both problems are also sore points now: one can figure out how bad it is just from the amount of information and time spared on these issues in American media. Kids and all the bunch of problems related to them are of special interest for me as a mother of three. Due to this fact most of my social contacts are to a certain extent child-oriented - like speaking to other moms about strollers and sneakers, coughing and schooling. What I would like to begin with are the very first impressions when we arrived in Santa Barbara and for the first time I went for a walk with my younger kids and a stroller. The playground was next to our doors, the sunny and warm day made one feel comfortable but when I saw a child running with bare feet I was quite astonished. My astonishment reached the maximum when I saw another kid in huge black shoes reminding the boots of Soviet soldiers in World War Two. "Well, - I wondered, - don't their parents think that it could be too cold for the first one and too hot for the second?" Later I had many opportunities to see the same kind of picture and got the idea that one should not judge what the weather is by the number of bare-footed kids seen in the playground. Children are dressed much more lightly in this country than in Moscow. Surely, there is a difference in climate and weather - but still...

The next thing that made me speculate on what is wrong with me was the absolute lack of babies sleeping outdoors in their strollers. As for me, I always tried to expose my baby as much as possible to the fresh air, and left her to take her nap in the stroller on the lawn besides our apartment. Again it's the California climate to be blamed for the "neglect of fresh air exposure". In Russia, the warm season (what can be compared to the Californian weather) is only about five months. Our apartments are adjusted to cold seasons and our children are separated from staying in the fresh air by two or three doors, so we cherish every opportunity to put them outside.

"World of childhood" is not just a phrase in America. So many things are designed especially for kids and those in charge of them. And there is such an amount of literature for parents - even not mentioning books, just considering newspapers and magazines you can find anywhere. I've learned much from that sort of literature especially about attitudes towards the facts I could have seen myself. For instance, I think it's great that you can find a special high chair for kids in the restaurants. But as was put in some newspaper ad, American parents feel very upset and even furious not finding these high chairs in all possible places.

I was fascinated with the things you can get in this country for your baby. I understand that not every family can afford all these "specialties" but I like the phantasy of people who thought out all kinds of children's seats (car-, table-, swing- and other), all kinds of carriers, strollers, cribs, playpens and - especially - toys. Everything to make your baby happy, to distract them and - this is the main point - to let the parents feel free from their baby for a while.

However, I wouldn't say that toys and games for the elder kids (from 5 years old) gave the same kind of impression to me. Maybe I have not seen all the varieties yet, but I find Russian toys and games for that age better. They have frequently a much more poor outlook but they are sometimes more interesting and challenging than their American counterparts. So far I got acquainted with quite a lot of Californian kids, beginning from ones five months of age up to 15 years old teenagers. I've got a sort of image, or stereotype, for each age. Infants are "stuffed creatures" with everything - toys, blankets, stroller covers, mom's bags, booties etc. - stuffed. Toddlers and preschoolers are all in pink, blue and purple - it is very colorful when you have a whole bunch of them. And for older kids there is a special image I've already written about: large, spacious T-shirt, baseball cap turned to the back, short pants leaving the knees bare and huge athletic shoes or boots, sometimes replaced by roller skates. That's all but still nothing! The main thing about the American children is that they are very friendly. I like your kids very much.

ESSAY #11
March 5, 1992

If the Metaphor Fits Schools Will Prosper

ESSAY #12
May 7, 1992

Here, and in Rusia, Housing is a Hassle

"There is no place like home" - reminds an old saying. And there is no other task like making a new one.

In the past few months I had to make a new, temporary, home for my family three times and each one was an unforgettable experience. At the same time, most of the friends we were visiting with or staying at live in their own houses, so I could get some impressions that made up the mental picture of what an American type of dwelling is. In fact, in many aspects it's a nice thing, a great difference from what we are used to in my country - both in types of buildings and in the attitude towards the living space a person needs.

In my opinion, next to be the largest gap in the life standard of Russians and Americans - after the food problem - is lack of living space and poor living conditions available for most Russians. (I won't go into the problem of homeless people who are quite numerous in both countries, though for different reasons - lack of money in case of America and lack of lodging in Russia's case, partly related to the so called institute of "propiska" - requiring a permit to get lodging in most of the big cities). Nowadays most Russians live in urban areas in multistory buildings. The apartments are characterized not in terms of bedrooms, but in terms of simply rooms - one-, two-, three-, very rarely four rooms except for the kitchen and a bathroom (one per household).

The main myth promoted for years by Soviet authorities was that everybody in the former U.S.S.R. enjoyed state provided lodging and its low price. The myth concealed three important facts: the size of those apartments which in many cases didn't exceed the only room of 160 square feet for a family of four; about 30% of apartments were so called "cooperative" - built by the state but for their future owners' money (regular payments were from one quarter to one third of a person's salary and a large sum of money was paid in advance); and it was extremely difficult to get an apartment soa lot of corruption was involved.

Outside the urban areas people in most cases live in their houses, some of which are quite old and shabby, being built one or two generations ago and some - new, nice-looking and spatious. Usually houses in the countryside are "unlivable" from the American point of view: they lack plumbing, sewage, central heating and gas- or electricity operated stoves.

The price for building a house was always very high, especially in the last years. And as in all other cases of private enterprises you couldn't get bank credits. Now the situation is different in some aspects. But all this is, as it were, common knowledge while I am more interested in details which sometimes better reflect differences in lifestyles.

A regular American apartment will include a living room, a dining area, a kitchen, a few bed- and bathrooms. Such structure reflects the respect for privacy - a characteristic feature of American life (though not in all cases, as I had an opportunity to see). The tendency of life in Russia in the previous years was to rob a person of any hint of privacy - even at home. I think that partly this is a reason why when the construction of apartment buildings in Khrushchev's time began, the standards were set so low.

Things I really love in American apartments are carpets covering the whole of room which makes you feel so cosy, so at home and white wall painting that looks very elegant. In my country floors are either wooden or plastic, and you put some rugs on them, but it's not the same. And people usually have wall-paper instead of paint; it's much cheaper to renew.

But I should also admit that being a tenant of an American apartment gave me some negative experience and destroyed one of the cherished stereotypes of the great advantages of private enterprise and management as compared to the state-run ones.

In April, when we moved into the apartment that was rented for us by Ronald L. Wolfe & Associates, we found out that that the shower, the bathtub, the refrigerator, the dishwasher and a couple of doorlocks were all out of order.

It took us about a month to make managers fix everything as they didn't want to change the worn-out appliances - pretty much like it is with the managers of state-owned apartments in Russia. The only difference is that these guys who came in again and again trying to fix the unfixable were very nice and polite, which is not common among their Russian colleagues.

Still, the worst was the same feeling of dependency on these people, as the monthly rate made them quite sure we won't be able to protect ourselves against the violation of a leasing agreement. In Russia this dependency is of different nature.

The most surprising was the total lack of concern for the client, which I imagined could have existed only under socialism.

ESSAY #13
June 11, 1992

In some aspect it's much more difficult to write the final column than the first one. Though eight months seemed to be such a long stay the time passed so quickly and I have to say `good-bye' to Santa Barbara, which - I am pretty sure everybody knows - is much less pleasant than saying `hello'. Unless you didn't enjoy the place. But I did a lot.

I try to figure out what is the most important thing I learned in these months, what experience was the most valuable. My husband did a pretty good job and collected a valuable data for his future research, my kids went to the American schools and pre-schools and speak English now with just a Californian accent, I tried and succeeded in writing for an American newspaper and we have been travelling, hiking and camping in such a wonderful places one could only dream of. All this is very nice, but the most precious and the most heartbreaking is to part with are our friends.

Friends, close friends, as you call it here, are really a special and very important matter in Russia. I don't know how it is related to the so-called "enigmatic Slavic soul"; what I do know is that under communism people were deprived of normal social life, of public relationships free from the ideological stuff. We didn't have all these clubs, commitees, circles, societies and fraternities people have here to enjoy, to communicate ideas, to share experiences and to help each other. We, in Russia, have friends instead of that. And friends always were our "private fortresses" we constructed to preserve our personal life from the state interference. Real friends bring more space to your inner freedom, they enrich your life and help you to withstand it. I know that it is different in this country where the notion of personal freedom is such a cherished one that you can't risk it committing yourself even to friends.

By the way, the extent of personal freedom and privacy, certainly, varies greatly relative to the culture or country. In my opinion, American protectiveness of kids leads to serious intrusion into private life of the citizens. I used to consider it my family affair to decide whether my children can taste some wine being with parents at the vineyard, or whether we can go to the cinema leaving them to sleep at home. In this country it is unlawful.

Nothing is absolutely bad or good in this world, and there ia always the other side of the coin. The very fact that made my five-year-old daughter so happy - her school and friends she made here - will bring her a lot of sorrow: she is going to miss them very much. It is a useful experience since every step of our lives is a loss of something or somebody. But does she need to be exposed to it that early? However, many kids in this country have the same problems as their parents are looking for a job in all possible places and move if they find one. It is especially true for young professionals - the people you would usually meet at the university town. In Russia people are more attached (in all senses) to their living quarters.

"How do you like America?" - this is the question I have been answering to for all the eight months I am here. The answer is pretty easy: "Oh, yheaa, very much!" More interesting question is: "What do you like in this country?" And I do like many things. But I also don't like or, better to say, don't understand some other ones. I don't like the leftist ideas that people who don't want to work still should be paid money to live on it and still complain how poor and robbed of everything they are (though 90% of humankind, including my country, has much lower standards of living for those who have been working through all their lives). Such attitudes can have disastrous consequences and it would be that way if not for the common sense of American middle-class. We, in Russia, didn't have and still lack this 'backbone of the nation'.

Another thing that made me feel difference in the attitudes towards the state, is the abundancy of American flag in all possible places, on people's own houses, which could never happen before in Russia where people in most cases were opposed to everything official, coming from the state.

It's impossible even to enumerate things I really liked. I think that with time passing my impressions become more conclusive though, helas, less vivid. And I hope I will be able to share them with you and compare it to what is going on in Russia.

So we are leaving soon. And again I'd like to repeat, the cherished memories about friends we have made in this country is the most precious part of our baggage. All of them helped us, tried to make our life here nice and pleasant, shared their knowledge and experience, their sympathy and love. Now I know what it means - the famous American smile! It is the smiling faces of tens of our American friends.

November 1991 - June 1992, Santa Barbara, California

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