What Dreams May Come

Me, snoozing in my mom's lap, while vacationing on Lake Voldai.

Soviet Youth

My mom (left), with some friends, in the early '70s.

Knitting on the Beach

My mom was into knitting way before it became cool. Actually, making your own clothes was the only way to be reasonably stylish in the Soviet times.

Winter Fashion

My mom (to the right of the Jackie O look-alike in the middle) on a group trip to Lithuania in the late '70s.

Mother's Day

My mom and I back in 1983.

Spring

My mom, middle, with college friends.

Class photo

My mom's eight grade class, I think. (There were only 10 grades under the Soviet school system.) Taken in the village of Serva in the Permskiy Kray region, 1971.

Concert

My mom sings with her college choir under the gaze of Lenin.

Costumes

In college, my mom sang in a choir. The singers occasionally performed wearing traditional costumes of all the Soviet republics.

Class photo

A class photo of my mom's. Taken in fourth or fifth grade, maybe. Ural Mountains region, 1960s.

Parade

My mom (second from left), as a college student, marching in a parade. Apparently, participation was mandatory. Note the Lenin posters.

Contrasts

My mom, in 1980, at the height of her Soviet hipster-chic phase. The retro graphic T-shirt! The bell bottoms! The disaffected stare!
And two years later, a Soviet working woman, wheeling a baby carriage in the courtyard of a communal apartment building in St. Petersburg.

Mushroom Eaters

My mom (9 months pregnant with me), my paternal grandfather (middle), and his brother pretend to eat just-picked mushrooms while vacationing in the country. Mushroom-picking is big in Russia.

Uzbekistan, Bukhara

More from my parents' early '80s trip to Uzbekistan.

Drinking tea and eating grapes.

Stopping at the bazaar for watermelons.

Atop a camel.

And then a donkey.

Touring a minaret.

And a temple?