HOPEFULLY ONE DAY

Today, as I write, it is the 26th of December and since that it is not very special it may pass casually unnoticed in usual festivities by the rest of the world. But there is something to remember.
Twenty-nine years ago, in 1991, my home then, the Soviet Union dissolved quietly. The Anniversary of Berlin Wall Fall for example is much more known and celebrated then this date. Check it out The Last Christmas of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union of the 1980s was a totally different country then of other decades. By that time, the USSR had abandoned its goal of Communist world domination in favor of its own national prosperity. This essentially was a revocation of everything that happened since its founding revolution and even the Stalinist era, as unforgettable as that was. Most younger Soviet people would not even hear anything about Gulag or repressions. This generation lived in a stable world where they knew exactly what happens with them in future.
My father even said it was so boring to know exactly what will happen and how you will be living. It is the stability of a nice zoo. Everyone will be fed. Everyone will be housed. They all will have their annual vacations either on the shores of the Black sea or the Caucasus.
And then Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost happened and people found out about all the crimes of the past that made them immediately resent it.
One must try to imagine the average Soviet citizens of this era. They were highly intelligent, very sympathetic people who thought they were all this time saving the world from capitalist countries. Then, suddenly, it appeared it all had such a big price to pay.
They found out about the American dream looking at this in the sort of pink glasses you could imagine. Everything about the Western world became fashionable. Coca-cola, chewing gums, films.
"America is a land of freedom". And it gave rise to critical questions.
"Why we were fighting with them all the time?. Why is this Cold War is needed? We are friends. We want to be friends from now on." I know it sounds naive but this is how it was.
That is why the collapse was so seamless. This happens rarely in history so here was a huge opportunity of starting the new more friendly world from the scratch and the joint space program of International Station was seemed to be just a beginning. Who knows what opportunities for mankind would it open but... it never happened. Putin came to power because the cooperation didn't work because the Soviet people felt rejected and lied.
Where I live now, the Canadian ex-ambassador in Ukraine Roman Waschuk recently mentioned that foreigners don't really understand Ukrainians. I am afraid the same that happened to Russians could happen to Ukraine too. If people will think their friendly attitude is used to enrich some circles or put down its economy down then there would be another Putin who will claim he will protect us from Western corporate interests.
With all that is going on in the world, from pandemics to the acute suffering of the marginalized and disenfranchised, we need to remember how bad times have been; that we endured and learned; and that our species has beat incredible odds.
Hopefully one day I will witness that moment again when instead of hostility the world will have another chance to embrace the cooperation ...

Picture courtesy: The Last Christmas of the Soviet Union
https://mycountryeurope.com/history/last-christmas-soviet-union/?fbclid=IwAR0oqMq-Z_dVA0Ki0fFAzRl3xkiOe9BE8J5_DrEvwEZQ8koYSaDSNrWT2Nc