Several nights ago I was watching TV with Baba T and there was a new show on, that compared different decades in Russia's history to more modern times. The night we were watching they were comparing the 1960's with the year 2000. It was interesting to see how the traditions and culture of the 60's were very Russian but the culture of modern times was more like a tacky mixture of extremes from every culture outside Russia. For example, the clothing of the 60's seemed to fit the culture – warm, practical, beautiful, modest clothing. The music and movies were in the Russian language, portraying life in the USSR. But the cloths of 2000 were full of bright colors and patterns, strange hats and shoes, weird run-way-style clothing from Europe, America. One music group of 2000 was like a Russian version of the American-pop-group TLC singing about how diamonds are a girl's best friend. Another popular song from 2000 was a Russian pop artist singing a song in English.
On a different night I went out to say goodnight to Baba T and she was sitting at her desk doing a cross word puzzle from the newspaper. I noticed on the page above the cross-word puzzle was a large picture of a topless swimsuit model. I wasn't going to say anything (sadly, I have come to accept such "advertizing" as the norm). But then Baba T said, "I can't believe they have this trash in here" pointing to the picture. I said, "I know, I was thinking the same. In America they wouldn't have a picture like that in the newspaper." She irrupted in laughter and I said, "What, you don't believe me?" This led to a conversation that wasn't my favorite, involving how its America's fault that there is such garbage in Russia now. While, sadly our society is pretty sick and inundated with pornography in varying levels, to me it doesn't seem as in-your-face as it is here (i.e. watching a family TV show and during the commercials you see a topless woman). My attempts to defend my country and society, being judged by the reputation Hollywood has given to the World, were in vain.
The next morning at the breakfast table, Baba T brought this subject up again. While I did not want to discuss it again, she asked me to hear her out. She explained that perhaps I am right about it being worse here, but that it didn't change the fact that it came from America. She went on to say that because the government had so much control over the people during the USSR and didn't allow anything from outside of the Soviet Union to come into (cloths, music, cars, appliances, magazines, newspapers, ANYTHING), that when the Iron Curtain fell, Russians went crazy adopting and bringing in the things and cultures of the west. They threw away their culture and considered the things outside the former Soviet to be better then what they had lived with for the past 70 years. One example I see today, is clothing that is not fit for cold-Siberian-winters (mini-skirts, short jackets/coats).
Thankfully, I think that the next generation of Russians are learning to appreciate their Russian culture and not completely throwing it away in attempts to live like Americans and Europeans.
