I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
We were fortunate to have the Russians as our childhood enemies. We practiced hiding under our desks in case they had the temerity to drop a nuclear weapon.
I know not every mom is a secret KGB spy, but every mom has this whole other life. Every dad and every person has this whole other life.
From being a patriotic myth, the Russian people have become an awful reality.
I have no spy stories to tell, because I saw no spies. Nor did I understand, at that time, any opposition between American and Russian national interest.
It was awesome and liberating to play a Russian spy.
Soviet regime in a way deprived me from my childhood in my homeland, because my father was in military, and after the Yalta agreement he was sent to teach in military academy in Riga, and I was born then.
As for myself, I was never against Russia.
I've met enough KGB colonels in my life.
My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.
I was proud of my Soviet country, of wearing Young Pioneer uniform, bombarded by my mother's Communist propaganda.