Unlearning the Shame Culture of the Former Soviet Union
The avoidance of shame is a community obsession, one I haven’t been able to escape even in my thirties.
Since 2020, I’ve belonged to a private Facebook community that’s become something of a support group. It’s one of the few reasons I’m on Facebook at all these days (the others being birthday reminders and gawking at the terrible opinions of people I lost touch with years ago). Created a year into Trump’s presidency, the group is a place where liberal and leftist immigrants from the former Soviet Union can work through their culture-based shame. I can’t remember how I found the group, but I can tell you what keeps me there: the unparalleled hypnotism of seeing what I’d thought were my most idiosyncratic struggles reflected in the experiences of strangers.
pozor
will
narcissistemotional vampireReductressimmigrant parents really replaced emotional intimacy with a plate of cut up fruit and have the audacity to ask ‘why aren’t you married yet’
Ruth Madievsky's debut novel, All-Night Pharmacy, is forthcoming from Catapult in 2023. She is also the author of a poetry collection, Emergency Brake (Tavern Books, 2016). Her writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Harper's Bazaar, Guernica, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She is a founding member of the Cheburashka Collective, a community of women and nonbinary writers whose identity has been shaped by immigration from the Soviet Union to the U.S. Originally from Moldova, she lives in L.A., where she works as an HIV and primary care pharmacist. @ruthmadievsky. www.ruthmadievsky.com
Enter your email address to receive notifications for author Ruth Madievsky
Success!
Confirmation link sent to your email to add you to notification list for author Ruth Madievsky
More by this author
Translating the Immigrant Experience Into Fiction
These stories are my inheritance, which is not the same as sole ownership.
Michelle Hart Is Queering the Campus Novel
In this interview, Michelle Hart discusses her debut novel, ‘We Do What We Do in the Dark’; the art of the flashback; and how ceding your power can be very hot.
Bridging My Family’s Language Barrier, One Filthy Russian Idiom at a Time
My family may not get much of my writing, but our mutual appreciation for ill-advised sexual mayhem transcends language.
More in this series
Your Hipster Kimchi Could Never
A column about why I love kimchi (hint: it’s not the beneficial probiotic cultures).
What New York City’s Most Famous Peregrine Falcons Taught Me About Parenting
Adele and Frank prepare for an empty nest.
The American Road Song Is Changing with the Climate
It’s not just a single driver who’s lost direction and seeks a new destination—it’s an entire population.