Word: schecters
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Still, Soviet society has its positive side, Schecter says, his voice assuming a matter-of-fact, almost exasperated tone, as if he is repeating the answer for the umpteenth time. "Look," he says, "in the Soviet Union, everybody is taken care of. No one is starving out on the streets. People aren't living in slums. There is racism, but that's another problem altogether. Racism is much more complex there than here, because its based on differences between nationalities and republics. That's a lot different than white versus black...
Muscovites look down upon Georgians, he says, and enjoy making Georgian jokes. There is also institutionalized anti-Semitism on the part of the government, which considers Jews to be a separate nationality. Schecter, who is Jewish, says that he never felt the effects of anti-Semitism himself, although he knew that it existed. He noticed that the Soviets also practice the conventional American form of racism. "They are always complaining about our racism, but over there it's just blatant and open," he says. The Schecters made several friends in a special university for African students near their home...
...Schecter knew very few American children in Moscow, by necessity rather than by choice. The only way he could meet them was at the Saturday movies sponsored by the American embassy, but the Schecter children had school on most Saturday mornings. "We felt we had a commitment to school and to the Russians. They just didn't give us time for Americans," Schecter says. It was also difficult for him to associate with other Americans because he lived on the outskirts of the city...
...Schecter feels that the stay in Moscow had a "tightening" effect upon the family, different from the effect of living elsewhere. The Schecters lived in a foreign environment before--Steve was born in Japan, and the family had lived there for several years while his father was Time bureau chief in Tokyo. The Schecters, Steve says, couldn't immerse themselves in Japanese society and attend Japanese schools because "there was almost a racial problem. We just didn't fit in." The children attended American schools in Japan and led basically Western-style lives...
...Moscow, we all joined together and were much more dependent on each other than in Japan," he recalls. "To stay cheerful in Moscow is a real task, especially in winter. It gets so cold." Schecter mentions that many other foreigners became seriously depressed during the winter months; in the book, his mother mentions how the family went into mild hibernation as the sub-zero temperatures slowed down their metabolisms. "It's a rough place to live," he laughs. "I think the way we did it was perfect. Having a big family was a great help...