Iron Curtain Anyone?

The Cold War may have officially ended 21 years ago, yet lately it seems hotter than ever.

On March 1, The Right Stuff meets The X-Files when the Hollywood film Phantom, starring Ed Harris and David Duchovny, hits the big screen. It is the story of a submarine captain suffering from seizures that alter his perception of reality. Forced to head up a secret submarine mission, he finds himself in the middle of a nefarious plot in which a rogue KGB officer is trying to take control of his ship’s nuclear weapons. Or is he? Sounds a bit like Red October 2.0 meets Dr. Strangelove.

Second, there is the slick new FX TV series The Americans, about a pair of Soviet sleeper agents “living among us” in 1981. They are being actively pursued by FBI counterintelligence (an agent just happens to move in across the street), while questioning their motives, their conjugal ties, and speculating on the money they could get by defecting. Just two episodes had been released by press time, but both were riveting and filled with the fascinating spycraft and moral quandaries typical of the genre.

Finally, there was the release, on Valentine’s Day, of the latest installment in the Die Hard series: A Good Day to Die Hard. Granted, the film takes place in present day Moscow, but we can be sure that John McClane (Bruce Willis), when he travels to the capital to help his wayward son (a CIA operative trying to prevent a nuclear weapons heist), will take on an array of neo-Cold War (i.e. organized crime and corrupt FSB officers) baddies, while probably finding a “good Russian” worth saving – likely a sultry woman dressed in fur.

Two decades since its closure, the Cold War remains a reliable source for the archetypal stories all cultures treasure: good vs. evil, familiar vs. foreign, profit vs. prophet. And the fact that an ex-KGB agent (is there such a thing as an ex KGB agent?) now occupies the Kremlin certainly helps to make the new Cold War stories “relevant.”

Yet, despite what Hollywood and spy novelists would have us believe, the Cold War was anything but sexy, especially for those living under the tyranny of a police state, those whose families were separated by the Iron Curtain, those who perished in Gulags, or who had to wait in long “sausage lines” just to put meat on the table.

This issue of Russian Life is a useful counterpoint for the Cold War fantasies launched upon us this winter, because every story bears fingerprints of that era – when native cultures were diminished, families were fractured by state-manufactured social ills, and superpowers played dangerous games with nuclear-tipped toys. In two shorter pieces, we also meet two talented Russian émigrés – one who makes wonderful sausage, another who makes powerful documentaries.

And there is the rub. Because for all of the horror and soul-crushing tyranny that was the Soviet dictatorship, the creativity and strength of Soviet/Russian citizens is an endless source of hope. Russia today may be plagued with myriad social, political and economic problems, as any nation, but its people have an uncommon will, a profound resilience and resourcefulness rooted in an extremely rich and fascinating culture. That more than anything assures the country and its people a brighter future.

Enjoy the issue.