I don't know how much a part of your childhood the Soviet Union was but if you are my age and you lived in the the Western world that isn't USSR then you probably had it involved in your life quite a bit. Most of it was fear that was told to you by teachers and the government, but we also had a lot of Hollywood influence in this sphere in that the "bad guy" in almost any movie was someone Soviet, almost without fail.
Also, Gorbachev was in the news a great deal and until the whole Ukraine / Russia thing I wouldn't say that Russia generally made the news in the west, people didn't really care. It was big news in the fear machine back in the 80's when I was a kid though and it was a really good thing to most of the Western world when the announcement was made that USSR was spitting up into 12 commonwealths that had a treaty together. I don't really the details of this alliance, or if it even was one.
It was only back in 1991 that this happened
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that is meant to be Gorbachev in the back there
We are taught yet again, to fear Russia, and when I was in elementary school we had bomb drills where we would all go to a room with no windows and get in the duck and cover position, as if that was going to do very much for you if a nuclear bomb struck. I mean, I guess it might but based on what I have seen from other pictures of nuclear aftermath it just seems like a windowless room would result in your burial, faster.
We weren't taught to hate USSR every day by teachers, but the subject rarely came up and if it did come up it was presented as a massive rival and someone that must be defeated. This was true in sports as well as anything military related and it even extended to music. There was a song on a cassette by Sting and the song was simply called "Russians." It was actually a pretty great song and it wasn't a one-sided story either because Sting talked about the arrogance of the USA and hinted at his home country of England being part of the nuclear threat problem as well.
One of the best lines in that song is "there's no such thing as a winnable war.... it's a lie we don't believe anymore."
When the sickle and hammer flags were taken down and replaced by something far less menacing looking the world celebrated, at least for a little while but honestly, it didn't take very long for us to return to Russians being the baddies in films because all other groups took some level of offense if they were scapegoated in movies. The Russians must have just gotten used to it. Since almost all brand-name products from the outside world were banned for import under Soviet rule, I wonder if the people of Russia even knew that they were always the bad guys in films?
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While many of the commonwealths or states declared their own independence a bit before the official date. They were Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The rest of them were separated later with today's date making it official. One of those countries was guess who? It was Ukraine.
I was just starting high school when this news broke and I was probably more concerned about not getting pushed around by upper-classmen in the hallway, checking out girls, and dealing with Clearasil than I was with the Soviet Union dissolving but I would imagine for a lot of people that it was a very big deal
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The fall isn't represented widely in movies but I do recall the section where Yuri from "Lord of War" is kissing Gorbachev's head on the TV as the news is announced that the USSR was disbanding. Of course he had other reasons for feeling this way but it is my understanding that a majority of people, including most Russians, were happy to see this failed government end.
It it worth noting that the rather famous USSR flag still flies in many places in the country of Vietnam, which is where I live now. I think they were close allies especially during the war with the Americans here, and perhaps that is what lead to the USA having such bad blood over the entire thing. I don't know... I'm not trying to ruffle anyone's feathers here.
It was a pretty important date and it wasn't even that long ago but I suppose that kind of depends on how long you have been alive. And it all started today a mere 31 years ago.