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Life In the Soviet Union
The first runner-up to this year's Eyewitness to History contest spoke with her father about life in the Soviet Union during the Cold War
People in the Soviet Union often had to wait in long lines for hours to buy food and other necessities.
After World War II (1939-1945), the U.S. and the Soviet Union were locked in a fierce battle for power and influence around the world that lasted for nearly half a century. The conflict—known as the Cold War—came to an end in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. (See “Russia: Friend, Enemy, or Frenemy?”)
Alessandra Minin, a fifth-grader at Highland Elementary School in Skokie, Illinois, interviewed her father, Yury, who grew up in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Alessandra Minin: What was your life like in the Soviet Union?
Yury Minin: I probably didn’t feel it then, but we didn’t have much. We were a family of four and we lived in a small one-bedroom apartment. To get basic things, you had to be lucky to find them in a store, and then spend a lot of time in line to buy them. I once spent three hours in line just to buy some peaches! Also, you could never criticize the government. Finally, traveling abroad and choosing your own path in life was practically impossible.
AM: What changes occurred at the end of the Cold War?
YM: When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the 1980s, things started changing. Politicians on TV started talking about openness and transparency. Previously forbidden Western books, music, and movies became available. People started traveling abroad. In 1989, my family decided to move to the U.S.
AM: Why did your family leave the Soviet Union?
YM: I was finishing high school, and there was a frightening prospect of being drafted to fight in a war in Afghanistan. Also, we were a Jewish family, which meant the government imposed restrictions on what universities we could go to, which jobs we could take, and so on. We didn’t want to live with a glass ceiling.
Alessandra’s dad, Yury Minin, in 1989
AM: How did your family move to the U.S.?
YM: Leaving the Soviet Union was not easy. From the moment we applied for an exit visa, the state treated us as traitors and took our Soviet citizenship away. If we were denied the visa, my parents would have lost their jobs, and I would not have been able to continue my education. When we were allowed to leave, we could take only two suitcases per person. First we were sent to Austria, where we applied for asylum in the U.S. Our vetting process took three months.
AM: How did you feel after coming to the U.S.?
YM: I had a lot more freedom, but also a lot more personal responsibility. The society of the U.S. is much more individualistic. While you have an opportunity to achieve a lot, you have to work on it alone, and that frightened me at first.
AM: When the Soviet Union fell, how did you take it?
YM: It was very shocking. I never thought that this could happen. Nobody did! It was the end of an era.