Living in the Communist “Paradise”
И вновь продолжается бой, И сердцу тревожно в груди. И Ленин такой молодой, И юный – Октябрь впереди. (музыка: Алехандра Пахмутова, стихи: Николай Добронравов)
And the battle’s going again, And the heart’s uneasy in the chest. And Lenin is so young, And the young October is ahead. (music: Alexandra Pakhmutova, lyrics: Nikolay Dobronravov)
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The Biggest Cargo Plane Ever Built
She was born in 1980. Eight years later, in 1988, the Ukrainian Antonov aviation design bureau completed the Antonov An-225 Mriya. It was the largest and heaviest aircraft in the history of world aviation — the ultimate dream of the aerospace industry. That is why it got the name “Mriya,” a Ukrainian word that translates literally as “dream.”
Can you imagine a basketball court? The aircraft’s cargo hold alone was longer than one. Its original purpose was to transport large components into space for the Soviet space program.
At 276 feet (84 meters) long, Mriya featured six engines and could carry more than 250 tons of freight. The colossal plane would go on to break hundreds of world records, becoming the pride of Ukraine and the entire aviation world.
Her mom was an engineer who worked on its construction. She was fascinated with her work, continuing to labor on the project even during her pregnancy. She gave birth to her daughter in 1980. Wanting to name her after the plane she had been working on, she chose a name with a similar pronunciation, naming her daughter Mariya — an Eastern European variation of Maria or Mary. Sometimes, she would call her Mriya-Mariya.
Mariya was born eight years before her mom finished her work on the world’s biggest airplane. Mariya’s relatives called her many cute nicknames. They invented multiple diminutive versions of her name to show their affection. Her parents spoke to her mostly in Russian and Ukrainian.
Russian was the official language of the Soviet Union. Ukrainian was the official language of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Ukraine was just one of the fifteen republics comprising the Soviet Union. All Soviet republics, except Russia, had two official languages, and all used Russian as their official language of cross-republic communication.
Her mom was a Russian-speaking Ukrainian who endearingly called her daughter “Masha” — the Russian diminutive form of the name Mariya. Meanwhile, her grandma was a Ukrainian speaker who fondly called her “Mariyka,” the Ukrainian diminutive of the same name.
A talented aerospace technician, Masha’s mom was barely able to make ends meet at first. She had not graduated from college, having joined the Antonov aviation design bureau straight from high school. Nobody valued her work until she earned her college diploma, and only then was her talent truly recognized. With her degree in hand, she finally secured a decent salary.
Masha’s mom’s co-workers were only pretending to work. They would usually come to the office to secretly read romance and science fiction novels when their supervisors were not around. In contrast, Masha’s mom would always find tasks to complete and things to improve, not caring about the lack of bonuses for working extra hard. However, she was hated by her colleagues because she did her work with fervor. She was willing to commit to complicated projects and was always able to successfully complete them.
Pretending to work was a common practice in the Soviet Union. Having a college diploma, knowing influential people, and simply showing up for work guaranteed a salary sufficient to live comfortably. Effort did not matter, nor did the results, as employees could easily falsify their outcome reports just to show they were meeting production goals.
Masha’s mom, the daughter of a prominent Soviet army officer, did not care about money. She was happy simply to have food and shelter while working on her engineering projects, firmly believing that socialism would bring great things to society.
Masha’s dad disagreed. He was the son of a political dissident who had barely survived the labor camps of the Russian Far East, where he spent most of his life. Through this legacy, Masha’s dad learned to see how unfair life in the Soviet Union could be. He trusted nobody but himself and believed in nothing but his own ability to survive.
Her parents were a very unusual couple. Even their friends had a hard time believing that they would stay together for long. Masha’s mom was from a high society of intellectuals, while her dad was from a working-class family.
They met by chance at an aviation show where Masha’s mom was conducting flight tests. After celebrating the successful performance of her latest airplane with her colleagues, they went to a bar where Masha’s dad worked as a bartender. He asked her to dance, and to the dismay of her friends, she accepted. They danced all night.
Masha’s parents have not parted ever since — except for their first date, when Masha’s mom arrived at their meeting spot and Masha’s dad was not there. Offended that he could have stood her up with no explanation, she decided to leave, and she did. However, she returned to their spot fifteen minutes later just to check whether her date had shown up, and he had.
He was apologetic, holding flowers and inviting her to dance with him again at another venue. She saw how clumsy all his wooing attempts were, especially in contrast to her flirting with other suitors. Masha’s mom enthusiastically decided to accept his courtship and make him her student in love affairs and social etiquette. That’s how Masha’s parents’ love story began. Masha’s mom was his leader in love, and Masha’s dad was her rock regarding all practical matters. Masha always wanted her own love story to be similar to the one that had united her parents.
Coming up next in the sample chapter for the veil: Know Where to Get Food
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