Green Shoots of Socialist Russia in the US

When we came to the US at the very beginning of the 1990s, we did not know what to expect. We just expected it to be totally different, in fact the opposite of what the Soviet Union was. And in many respects, it proved to be true. People lived in private single family homes, everybody owned a car, people smiled to strangers in the streets, and service people were super nice and polite.

It was hard if not impossible to explain to Americans what the reality of our life used to be like. Crammed living spaces, and several generations of one family living in the same tiny apartment were a rule of life, not an exception. People rarely moved from one apartment to the next - it was not uncommon to live for 40-50 years in exactly the same place. Then there were "communal flats" which used to be the main form of urban housing till the 50s, and were still quite common in the 80s, surviving even to this day. Americans struggled to understand what it was - several families living in the same apartment and sharing the kitchen and the only bathroom. Tenements, really - something that America has long forgotten.

I am terrified to see that such living arrangements are making a come back in this country. A recent issue of the People magazine ran an article on a family where the parents welcomed their grown kids with spouses/significant others and grand kids to move back home to help survive the lost income in this economic downturn. Their household size went up from 3 people to 12 practically overnight. I keep hearing personal stories similar to that one from all around me.

Then there is such thing as Craigslist with its Rooms for Rent ads. Check them out for your city - there will be dozens upon dozens of new ones added daily. And the nature of those ads has changed from those where students are looking to sub-lease a space in a pretty shabby apartment, to homeowners from nice neighborhoods, people like me, looking to allow somebody to move into their Bonus room, or the Basement and help pay the mortgage with rental income. A personal friend of mine who has a townhouse she was always very proud of is looking to take in two lodgers to help make ends meet. So whereas in Russia in the past 20 years it became less of a trend for strangers to be sharing living quarters, or for adult children to be living with their parents, in America the trend is reversed, and the new trend is gaining the momentum.

[The only good thing about this is that they invariably give rise to lots of very funny jokes about mother-in-laws. No wonder: if one has to share the kitchen with one's mother-in-law for any extended period of time without the opportunity to move out, one's remedy of last resort is only laughter. So look out for the new in-laws jokes to appear soon!]

Then there is the famed American stellar service which is giving way, too. A friend of mine was flying to Europe with her daughter on buddy-passes. A buddy-pass is a ticket which a person who works for an airline can let you use - it allows you to pay a discounted fare, but you are not guaranteed a seat on a flight, you are only given one if there are some left over. My friend is a permanent resident of the US, but she has a Russian passport. Her daughter was born here. The Delta employee was not only exceptionally rude and incompetent, but she was also deriving apparent satisfaction from putting down a person who was completely in her power. Thus, when she asked my friend for a German visa and was shown one in the passport - she exclaimed in indignation: "How am I supposed to read it?! It is not in English!" Well, duh! Germans tend to write in German, and if this clod was incapable of understanding the dates, she should not have been working where she was. My friend had to patiently explain what the numbers and words on the visa meant, and when the Delta broad realized that the return ticket was issued for the date on which the visa was expiring, she suggested that my friend go and extend the visa. Like, right now. Before boarding the plane which was leaving in 30 minutes. Then she got on the phone with someone with the following lines heard by my friend: "Listen, I have this Russian here [sic!] who is trying to go to Germany. Her return ticket is on the date when the visa is up. Why should we let her go? That's what I think. I think she should go and extend the visa." Etc. Finally, reluctantly she processed my friend's boarding pass, and after the cliche "have a nice flight" added with a sly smile: "By the way, your buddy-pass comes with a very low priority, and the flights are really full, so your chance of getting on the plane are slim to none!" [My friend made it to the flight, and flew to Germany business class.] My friend told me that she has never felt more humiliated in her life in America. It made her feel exactly like we felt in Russia at the hands of some government bureaucrat. The woman was acting with an air of impunity, obviously enjoying her power of making a client miserable. How socialism-like!

So it is with great disappointment that I report observing green shoots of socialism not in the governmental take over or some companies, and not in the expansion of public programs, but in the little things like how we live and how we treat each other. Maybe, this is simply the sign of lesser prosperity? Anyway, just like once you get your ears frost bitten, they become more sensitive to cold, - once you suffered from those demeaning circumstances, you become more sensitive to even the smallest shift in their direction. And I am seeing the shift.