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Author Topic: Show an interest in FSU history - it might help with seeking a partner  (Read 2633 times)

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Offline msmob

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When I was fourteen going on fifteen and studying for English Literature ( Ordinary Level) we were allowed to choose from several books to study ... Now I'm not sure why, but I chose Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"  ( I was the only one in the class  ) and that formed my interest in the Soviet Union .. wondering HOW people coped with such authoritarian control over their lives / thoughts.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich
( note to BdHvA.. the book was first published in English in 1963)

I met a Polish lady (through work) who had spent her teenage years in Warsaw during WWII and she told me how the "Soviets shelled the parts of Warsaw were the Resistance was strongest and had let them fight it out with the Nazis before 'liberating' the city" ...  She, somehow, made it through the retreating Nazis to Paris and met her Polish hubbie.    As they couldn't go back to Poland ( remember: the UK and France actually LOST WWII as 'we' didn't free Poland ) they settled in the UK.

These two experiences made me wonder about the people of the USSR and how they lived ...  As I teenager, I remember Olga Korbut winning hearts at the Olympics, but I always saw Svetlana as a name for Beefy, red-raced, Russian shot-putters with hairy arm-pits.

When the FSU was falling apart, I was still single and travelled to their former satellite countries, following a freaky meeting with Raisa Gorbachev(a) who had just landed at RAF Brize Norton to meet Mrs T on their way to meet Ronny 'Raygun'.

I was fascinated to see the USSR break up and couldn't wait to visit.

However, I got married, had kids and, apart from travelling to the US for holidays ( vacations) or on biz trips, my wanderlust was curtailed ..

Whilst separated and awaiting divorce from the mother of my kids, 'friends' from the sailing club 'enrolled' me in a dating site ( match.com) and I saw a Svetlana ( but she was in Cyprus )

I went there to visit her and to find someone who had cheated me out of some dosh and came back and reported the cheating gits whereabouts to the UK tax people ..( he fled to Serbia and the US before giving himself up and being done for fraud nearly 16 years after the event.) and had to find a 'career' as an excuse to live in Cyprus and court Svetlana.


Nearly all my knowledge of FSU culture is down to the education I received from her / her friends.. My divorce from Wife #1 was v.messy and drawn out and Svetlana bought a house away from the sea and I rented an apartment BY the sea ... She smoked I abhor smoking, but her company was wonderful.

She being eth. Russia, from Latvia was deemed a non-citizen and not an EU citizen, and couldn't work in Cyprus, but I got her residence and she was able to stand on her own two feet.  Her English improved in my company and I learnt Russian ( v.slowly) by imply listening to her conversations with her 'girlfriends' as we lay on the beach at weekends. Cypriot men didn't bother the girls as they didn't know which was my g/friend and I got to lie with 3 eth RU ladies ..

So, I immersed 'myself' in FSU culture, without having travelled TO Russia.

Svetlana and I parted, as I was now divorced, but my first wife was making waves that reached Cyprus and effected our lives. She helped me with translations and encouraged me to travel to the FSU to find a wife.

THAT is why I could travel to Kyiv, Moscow, Piter, Volgograd, Sevastopol, Novorossiyk, Minsk, etc., ..checking out the 'Hero cities' and trying to combine the trips with a lady who was interested to show me around.

Knowing the history and culture REALLY helped with meeting FSU W ladies and they liked that I was familiar with their past.


IF you've got the time / inclination..I can recommend history trips with a 'local guide' that you might get along with. It worked, for me.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2020, 12:47:37 AM by msmob »

Offline calmissile

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Interesting story and history.  While we accomplished much the same thing (with me limited to Ukraine) it enforces the notion that a wife seeker needs to learn and experience the culture of the prospective mate.
Doug (Calmissile)

 

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