Former USSR

Tomorrow I will be in Russia - the country I have most wanted to visit for decades. My earliest memory of anything Russian was a school teacher in England (which means before I turned eight) frightening us with descriptions of Russians' neighbors, families and teachers(!) betraying them to the secret police. The only other thing I remember knowing about Russia was that my mother's 'Zenit' camera was made in Russia.

I think my next impression came from the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series. Of course I remember celebrating Paul Henderson's winning goal for Canada but some associated TV documentaries about Russia also enchanted my eye. I also began to understand and yet deny that Russia and Communism was living doublespeak. The Red Army hockey team were 'amateur' but were paid to do nothing other than win at hockey. And I began to get confused about civil rights.

My admiration for Communism grew until I visited Ukraine in (about) 1998. Although I didn't visit Chornobyl it was that disaster, with its institutionalized manslaughter that finally turned my head and heart off Communism - as I realized that Communism does not automatically consider the individuals above the State (which is its whole point). My soul was saved by the simultaneous discovery that Capitalism has its own faults. (I now embrace Social Democracy.)

As well as visiting Ukraine I have been to Azerbaijan and a variously Communist-influenced countries like Afghanistan, Angola, Cuba. But until now I have never been to the former Communist Motherland. I anticipate loving it.