WELLBEING → LIFELINES Issue 689 · December 13, 2017

For the Miracles and Wonders

In Russia, you didn’t tell your parents about your problems, because they had enough problems of their own. Children knew to be seen and not heard

By C. Saphir

20 min read December 13, 2017

In Russia, you didn’t tell your parents about your problems, because they had enough problems of their own. Children knew to be seen and not heard

“I want to marry a girl who’s exactly like you” my young son once told me. “A girl who’s missing an arm.”

“They’re very hard to find” I replied. “I think you’re going to have to settle.”

Then I asked him why he wants a girl with one arm. “Because people like you have more siyata d’Shmaya” he answered simply.

I was born in 1976 in the city of Ufa capital of the unremarkable Soviet republic of Bashkortostan. Ufa is located in the Ural Mountains about 700 miles (1 200 km) east of Moscow along the Trans-Siberian Railway. At the time Russia — known then as the USSR — was ruled by the powerful Communist regime.