Ukraine , Russian and me

 Times have changed. Cold war is history. The world is not what it used to be. But a war among former disintegrated USSR republics ie Ukraine and Russia  brought memories about my ‘connections’ with this erstwhile largest country . Nostalgia junkies among millennials in Kerala like me grew up reading and hearing everything fantastic about Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

             Soviet Union, Soviet Life, Sovietland and Misha were propaganda magazines from the erstwhile Soviet Union, circulated across the world until the disintegration of the USSR. Those were the days before globalization and India was the mighty Soviet Union’s best friend. Russian magazines and books influenced the reading habits of Indians a great deal, especially those in communist leaning Kerala. The works of Russian masters such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Olga Perovskaya and Maxim Gorky were popularised in Kerala by the Communist Party of India’s Prabhat Book House, which got the rights to import Russian books in 1952. A heavy subsidy from the Soviet Union made sure that readers got them relatively cheap and some of them were delivered free of cost if we write a request to USSR embassy. In a state where people named their children after Lenin, Stalin and Nikita, these magazines still conjure up nostalgia about a bygone era.

 Misha was the most beautiful magazine I have seen as a kid. The glossy pages featured Russian folk tales, riddles, puzzles and exquisite illustrations. It was USSR literally delivered to our doorstep. Each issue (of Soviet Union) had smiling faces of Russian working class, happy families, clean streets with swanky cars, research laboratories , space programmes and factories with state-of-the-art machinery. Everything was picture-perfect. It was nothing but a public relations exercise to extol the virtues of communism. I remember the Communist Party leaders of Kerala till 1991 quoting  communist  USSR as the "Paradise  on earth"  . They changed their opinion since that country disintegrated to 12 nations. 

                          Soviet Union and Sovietland seldom talked about politics but rather focused on life and cultured. However, these inexpensive magazines were rich sources of information about life in faraway places in the pre-Internet era. Sovietland, sent out from the Soviet Information Centre, was printed in 13 Indian languages. The influence of Russian literature in Kerala was so much so that the renowned Malayalam writer Perumbadavam Sreedharan’s "Oru Sankeerthanm Pole" explored the intricate relationship between the legendary Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his stenographer Anna Snitkina. The novel first published in the 90s has sold over 3 lakhs copies to date.

As a schoolboy in early 80’s, I remember all educational institutions in Kerala were given one day holiday in respect to the death of former USSR President Leonid Breznev . (whilst  it may be  a working day in USSR.)

Coming to other mediums, Radio Moscow used to broadcast programmes including news in Malayalam. Shortwave radio enthusiasts still cherish the evenings they would tune into the station. As a young sports enthusiast of the 80s and 90s , by scrolling the sports pages of the malayalam news papers , the names football of USSR, Dyanamo Kiev and Spartak, Moscow were familiar and was followed by many. 

                      For the nostalgia junkies among millennials in Kerala, Soviet Union was a paradise lost . Hope this war between the family members ends soon, because the cost of ‘human and humane’ factor  is too high in a war.