Olga Rogachevskikh

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Toxic Legacy. Generations That Never Had Solid Ground Under Their Feet

Let's not dive into the long history of Russia, but just look at several generations of an ordinary families in Russia. I wonder what we will see there.
A person who is now is now 35-40 years old typically has children, as well as living parents and parents and sometimes even grandparents. Also, the history of his or her great-grandparents is known fairly well. That's what we'll start looking into. We will see that there are great-grandparents who were dispossessed of their property in almost every ordinary family. Most often, they came from large peasant families consisting of 12-14 people that ran a good business and were able to feed their children. It was decided to punish these able farmers who were known for their diligence, because they became too independent (free). Upondenunciation, complaint, or slander, they were dishonestly judged, dispossessed of all their property, put on a train with all their children, and sent far to the east of the country to start everything from scratch. No guarantees. No aid. Many died on the trains, and many starved to death, but nothing could be changed. Everyone was thrown into a new no man’s land and forced to work in locations, not suited for life. What did they tell their children? How did they bury them? We will never know that. A person who was good at farming in a warm climate could not do anything in a place with poor soil and little sun. But moreover, now they have labeled a kulak – a person who ate well while others starved. The label was unfair and nasty, no one helped such people. Propaganda condemned them severely. But coming back from that time, these were talented entrepreneurs who were able to work hard and were smart, but were not needed, and moreover were dangerous for the then government of the country. This danger was in their freedom of judgment, the ability to make their own decisions, and take responsibility for their own life and the life of their family. What a civil society could grow out of, but what was uprooted and condemned throughout the country by multiple propaganda tools. Although many died, some of the children of those people managed to survive but faced a war during their youth and adolescence. The brothers of my grandfathers and grandmothers never returned from the war. Huge casualties, and a decline in the population. From the inside, war is a huge trauma that people prefer not to talk about, but when no such conversations take place, people do not understand the gravity of the situation. And as we see, history may repeat itself in such a case. Unfortunately, propaganda does not disappear and continues its corrupting work. Those who returned from the war set up their families, but the number of children in families mostly did not exceed two. People did not dare to have many children: they were given to understand that the future was not guaranteed quite frankly. Many war veterans died in poverty because they lived up to the collapse of the USSR when no one took care of them if they did not have a family. The next generation (and most of them are still alive) experienced the zeroing of savings after the fall of the USSR. Many lost the money saved for old age. Nobody has ever returned this money to them; it just went up in smoke. People who had money in the bank to buy an apartment or two were left with a handful of coins, not enough even to buy food for a month. What a tragic disappointment.
The economy was falling apart and there was no way to find security. People employed in manufacturing were paid with products manufactured by their enterprises, no one had cash in hand. For instance, people received their wages on bicycles. What did they need them for? How would they feed their children with metal? How would they dress their children? There was only one way out - to sell them on one’s own. But the plant paid wages in those bicycles to everyone. Whom to sell them to? Who needed them? I remember people standing on the roadside with a mountain of bicycles and trying to find at least some money for their families. It was a reality. And some, for example, miners, did not receive wages at all. They worked and got no wages for a month, two months, half a year, and one year. What did the families of these people eat? How did they pay their housing expenses? The answer is depressing - people borrowed money and did not pay it back, with their debts piling up. They ate what the gardens at their summer cottages produced and worked every day. Many simply lost their jobs and could not find a new job. The state turned away from them. Children in the whole country wore clothes one after another, and toys, books, and other things were looked for and given away through acquaintances. Then American humanitarian aid appeared. On top of that, after a while there occurred a default and the savings went up in smoke again. People lost their money once again, and these were the few who managed to save some money. The majority who never recovered from the collapse of the country fell into apathy and alcohol abuse from which they ultimately died. No one took care of anyone, no one helped. The state neglected its obligations. People once again lost the ground under their feet.
And now let’s look at today: a generation that has already traveled down a path filled with many disappointments together with their parents and given birth to their children has found itself drawn into an aggressive war and pushed into forced emigration. A part of the population has abandoned everything and left Russia for ethical reasons. Their children start a new life in a different world with different languages, the war is now forever inscribed in their history, and they have lost a home. Here I have only described four generations of people in Russia. Yet, if we have a deeper look into history, we will never find a generation that has lived a life from birth to death in well-being. This has never happened in Russia. Life in Russia has always been about strokes of misfortune, loss of savings, death in a war, death from poverty, and a government that uses you and then throws you away if you have suddenly “broken down”. The core values in Maslow's pyramid have always been incomplete and have been fragmentary for many, many generations. This is very tragic. Russians always know that their money can be gone anytime, Russians always know that everything can be taken away from them, Russians always know that they can be sent to die, Russians always know that the government can kill them at its discretion. The worst thing is that this is what happens in reality: money goes up in smoke, property is taken away, and people are sent to war and killed in prisons.
As we can see from the example of four generations, Russians have never had a quiet and secure life, either now or a hundred years ago. The government has always been killing its people. People have never had solid ground under their feet. Those individuals who managed to create a civil society a few times in history were ruthlessly eliminated. Let’s recall today’s political prisoners in Russia - they do exist, and their names are known to the world, but they are still not free. Every family has historical pieces like these: about grand-grandparents who were dispossessed, grandparents who fought in a war,  parents who lost their savings several times, children who raised their children in emigration, and grandchildren who have left due to the war. This toxic legacy has not been overcome and cleansed, prompting us to make the wrong decisions again and again. To be afraid of the strong. To lose the truth.
While from the outside Russians are seen as Europeans who enjoy well-being, inside a Russian has never had a sense of well-being and is not sure of his or her future. Fear, uncertainty, and the inability to plan life and the future have been instilled for many generations in a row. This is a heavy burden. No one has ever been able to get out of this vicious circle and achieve conditions and a country in which they would feel safe and comfortable. So that they could give birth to and raise as many children as they want, provide their children with education and opportunities, know that after retirement they will lead a decent life, receive medical care and see their grandchildren, and that people around will take care of the environment and eco-friendly products. But most importantly so that they could speak of their country well and could sincerely love and respect its institutions.
Now this task seems very difficult. It is hard even to imagine where one could begin to change the historical paradigm. But this needs to be done. The purpose of this book is to seek help. It is obvious that the population of Russia has an abusive relationship with its government, but, moreover, generates this type of communication itself. It is only through international cooperation and assistance that such a process can be initiated. The history of the big country of Russia is tragic at its root, but I am confident that good results can be achieved.

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