July 18, 2021

Finding Her Russian Roots


Finding Her Russian Roots
Behind her catatonic face, "Olga" hides many versions of herself. Pixabay user didssph

When I was teaching Advanced Placement high school history in New York City, I was baffled by a female student who sat at her desk in a seeming catatonic state, like some Romanian orphan from the 1990s news headlines.

The school was in Queens, and the student was blond, with very Greek first and last names. She had made it into the Advanced Placement course in a school with a lot of great students, but her face was perpetually blank. Even when I gave my students a few minutes to talk and joke around at the end of class, her entire body seemed as immovable as a rock.

One day after class in 2013, she came up to me with a copy of a baby's Russian passport in her hand. She said, "Can you read this for me and tell me what it says?" I think I was the only person she knew who could read any Russian. My noisy, chaotic classroom suddenly felt like the wrong place for such a sacred conversation.

I read her first name to her: Olga. It may have been the first time that the current version of herself had ever heard that name.

Russian passports
Russian "zagran" passport, for travel abroad. | Wikimedia Commons user MediaPhoto.Org

"Olga" was born in Chelyabinsk and adopted by a Greek-American couple from New York. She had spent the first 11 months of her life in an orphanage – where she probably picked up her catatonic expression. Her adoptive mother had died before "Olga" started high school, and her dad did not know as many details of her adoption as his wife had.

I took home copies of "Olga's" documents and photographs, showing a partial orphanage name. The next day I brought her a bunch of printed information about her orphanage, including the director's name, the number of children who lived there, and a Google Earth image of what it looked like from the outside. I got most of my information from NearYouRU, a site that does not seem to exist anymore.

I was an American who had accidentally become an obsessive Russophile, translating Russian for an actual Russian person far removed from her native language. The look on "Olga's" face when I handed her the information in English was the bright and curious look of someone putting together the puzzle pieces of her own infancy for the first time.

Adoption from Russia by Americans is no longer allowed. But from 1992 to 2012, the United States welcomed a sizeable cohort – some 60,000 adopted Russian children in all.

The girl who was named Olga in Chelyabinsk was probably born around 1996 and adopted in 1997 or so.

Anecdotally, white American couples – who often could not conceive or bring a baby to term themselves – were looking for white babies who would not bring a birthmother into the adoptive family with them. When the Soviet Union ended, the newly opened Russia seemed to meet all of those criteria.

Children playing on the beach
A total of 60,000 Russian children found American families before the adoptions stopped. | Wikimedia Commons user Barelyhere

By the fiscal year that ended in September 1997, the United States had become the biggest receiving country for Russian overseas adoptions. "Olga" was probably among those 3,816 children placed in the United States by that time.

In 1998, Russian Life reported on negative press surrounding the small percentage of adoptions to the US that had unfortunately turned out negatively. The children involved in such cases tended to have been through early trauma, including long-term institutionalization. A Duma deputy proposed new procedures that would have required Russian authorities to visit American adoptive homes and check up on how the child was doing; meetings with the birth government may have been even more destabilizing than having a birthmother or birthfather in the family's life. Ultimately, it was decided that Russian adoptees would remain Russian citizens until age 18 but would not be visited at home. However, American adoptive parents did have to file reports for the first three years after the adoption.

That intercountry adoptions were facilitated by private organizations based in the United States seemed exceedingly suspicious to concerned Russians, who could not imagine any institution but the state handling such important matters. It conjured visions of child-selling by unregulated for-profit businesses.

The Russian law putting an end to U.S. adoptions – the Dima Yakovlev law – was named for (the Russian name of) an adopted toddler who died after being accidentally left in a car while his Virginian father was at work all day. The law ended U.S. adoptions from Russia on January 1, 2013.

To get a better sense of what these adoptions were like while they still existed, read Russian Life's 1998 article by Corin Cummings, "Adopting from Russia: A War of Perceptions."

When she was my student in 2013, "Olga" said that someday she wants to go to Chelyabinsk and see where she came from. I wish her the best, and if she ever makes it back to Russia, she can swing by St. Petersburg and see me again. I can introduce her to my husband and stepson – her countrymen.

Nesting doll
Russian adoptees with little or no memory of their Russian past may feel like stereotyped Russian souvenirs with many versions of their past and present selves. | Pixabay user didssph

 

You Might Also Like

Reconnecting Adoptees
  • January 01, 2008

Reconnecting Adoptees

Russia remains one of America's largest sources of foreign adoption. Now, after more than a decade of cross-cultural adoptions, thousands of children from Russia are bound to begin wondering about their roots. Some, in fact, are already digging.
Russian Genealogy
  • February 20, 2014

Russian Genealogy

A comprehensive listing of resources, online and off, for researching your Russian roots, courtesy of Ginny Audet.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Russia Rules

Russia Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
22 Russian Crosswords

22 Russian Crosswords

Test your knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and society with these 22 challenging puzzles taken from the pages of Russian Life magazine. Most all the clues are in English, but you must fill in the answers in Russian. If you get stumped, of course all the puzzles have answers printed at the back of the book.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955