Well, it finally happened. After coming to Russia to live and work a few years ago, after marrying a Russian dude and giving birth an adorable (in my heavily biased opinion) little boy, I’ve finally been called an “American pig” in public.
It was at the unauthorized March of Freedom protest, on freezing Lubyanka Square. My colleague Anna Arutunyan and I were filming our English-language show, appropriately titled “Weekly Rant,” when some random man decided to insult us and to express his hope that we would be killed soon. I couldn’t quite understand if he was a genuine protester or some random provocateur who was trying to start trouble, and I ultimately didn’t care.
Predictably enough, we only got him to shut up after I started swearing at him in my native Russian.
It was a classy moment, to be sure, but it was also one of those moments when I didn’t want to be “above the fray.” In fact, I find the whole notion of being above the fray to be annoyingly… American.
The Russian journalists I know have a habit of talking back to people who insult them (Oleg Kashin immediately springs to mind), and, well, there is something healthy about that. At the very least, you are not keeping your anger on the inside. I hear that’s bad for you.
Considering the mood at some of the recent protests in Moscow, being called “American pigs” was by far not the worst thing that could have happened to us. And in many ways, it only underscores the prominent role that the United States plays in world affairs (not a role I often agree with as a voter, but that’s another tale, for another day). People hate what they believe in.
What I found interesting was that the man who insulted us spoke English extremely well – and might have even spent a considerable amount of time abroad. He was attending an opposition protest – a protest launched by a movement that many people, including Americans, see as intrinsically aligned with Western values.
And yet there was nothing odd or random about his hatred of us. Plenty of Russian opposition activists accuse the Russian establishment of exactly what the establishment suspects them of – being in cahoots with foreign powers and selling out Russia in the process.
Just because some prominent opposition activists attend events at the American Embassy (much like many other famous figures, including those who are pro-Kremlin), that doesn’t mean that the opposition en masse sees itself as Washington-friendly.
My own delicate fee-fees aside, a lot of opposition rhetoric has bothered me lately. Ahead of the December 15 rally on Lubyanka square there were calls for “taking revenge” on the ruling party. I wasn’t the only one to notice this – plenty of my friends, including playwright Yelena Gremina, author of such plays as “One hour and eighteen minutes,” dedicated to the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, were equally disturbed.
I’m not saying that the opposition should be all kisses and hugs right now – but Russian history has taught us enough disturbing lessons about where rising political tensions may ultimately lead you. As famed director Leonid Kheyfets recently told me, “Russia is still balancing on a knife edge.”
There’s rhetoric, and then there’s politics, and it’s the latter that assumes some notion of responsibility, and some notion of being constructive. Fury gets you nowhere, even if you have legitimate reasons to be furious.
But hey, thanks for calling us “American pigs,” dude. It made a great video.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
Trendwatching in Russia is an extreme sport: if you’re not dodging champagne corks at weddings, you’re busy avoiding getting trampled by spike heels on public transportation. Thankfully, due to an amazing combination of masochism and bravado, I will do it for you while you read all about it from the safety of your living room.
Natalia Antonova is the deputy editor of The Moscow News. She also works as a playwright – her work has been featured at the Lyubimovka Festival in Moscow and Gogolfest in Kiev, Ukraine. She was borxn in Ukraine, but spent most of her life in the United States. She graduated from Duke University, where she majored in English and Slavic Literature. Before coming to Moscow, she worked in Dubai, UAE and Amman, Jordan. Her writing has been featured in The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Russia Profile, AlterNet, et al.
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