I heard the funniest anecdotal story told this evening during class. The professor had just finished lecturing on the end of the Cold War and was going around the room asking students how the Cold War affected each of their lives. This girl, who giggles too loudly and voices her simple uninformed opinions on everything (she’s sort of a class joke), raises her hand and tells the following story.
When Gorbachev (check that site out!) came to Minnesota in like 1990, or ‘91, or ‘92 or something, my parents wanted to go see him since he was going to be near our house. My mom told me that the communists love the colour red, and that I should dress in red when we went to go see him, so you know, I got really excited and dressed myself in red, from head to toe. Well, we went to go see the Gorbachevs and as he and his wife were walking past she saw me and said something like “Look, Mikhail Sergeyevich, we have a little fan!” She stopped and hugged me tightly for some moments. I was thrilled. Um, in retrospect…that’s pretty embarrassing.
She then blushes and puts her hands over her face. That story cracks me up. It seems to be quite symptomatic of the uninformed perception that the isolationist American public had of the Soviet Union and communism: they are atheists, they like the colour red for some reason. I really wondered if her parents were attempting to create some ironic spectacle by having her dress in such colours, or really actually thought they were being hospitable. <