Julia Kiosse

Ukrainian Oral History Project

Interview with: Julia Kiosse

Interviewed by: Alexandra Kiosse

Transcriber: Alexandra Kiosse

Date of interview: 26 March 2016 at 11:00 am

Interview Setting: Julia's kitchen in Brooklyn, NY

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(Start of Interview)

Alexandra Kiosse: Can you please tell me your full name, what year you were born, where you lived as a child, and when you moved to America?

Julia Kiosse: Alright my name is Julia Kiosse, I was born in December 12, 1975. I was born in Liv in Moldova, one of the ex Soviet Union republics until twenty-two/twenty-three years old.

AK: So, what year did you move to America?

JK: It was in 2000, so I was actually twenty-five. Twenty-five years old.

AK: And, what is your profession?

JK: Here, I become actually a freight forwarder, and I'm working in the logistics industry.

AK: I will start from the past and move to the present. So, we learned that the 90's were hard economically for the former Soviet Union. Were you, and how were you, affected by this?

JK: Yes, of course. I remember these years. I was about to graduate school. It was time when the Soviet Union were splitting apart, all republics, and it was very difficult economically wise situation. It was time when the government didn't pay any salaries to their employees, to the people. My father worked for a sports school, he was the coach, and he was not receiving his salary for three, four, five months. So, it was a big deal. It simply affected our eating habits; simply. So I'm not talking about something, you know, specific but simply food wise it was difficult.

AK: So, what was the common food, what did everyone eat?

JK: You know, we are from Moldova so it's a lot of vegetables, but it's also seasonal vegetables because [if] it's still winter in affect so basically, you know, potatoes, very common beets, cabbage, onions. Very common vegetables. And of course cereal, pasta, you know, this is most common. Milk, bread, something like this.

AK: Was there a noticeable change in the society when the Soviet Union fell? So from '90 or '91 to 93' for example?

JK: Yes of course. You can feel it, you know, it was difficult time for everybody. Everybody were scared. At the same time we got some feeling of freedom, but we didn't know what to do with this freedom because it was like we were always living in certain frames. So all of a sudden we hear about freedom and democracy, we didn't know what to do with this. You know, it was very broad-some kind of term that we heard, but we didn't know how to eat this democracy. So people were kind of scared, puzzled, hungry, and angry also. Because some people were very conservative when we lived building all our lives communism and all of a sudden, you know, this idea falls apart. It was also a lot of disappointment because all of a sudden we realized, so, what's next? It's kind of like a target that all of your life, all of a sudden disappeared. So it was very difficult time.

AK: So you said it was confusing. What did you hear on the news? What did the news tell you?

JK: You see, I was still very young girl. For me it was, you know, news I didn't watch much news. But they were saying a lot about democracy, glasnost, you know it was very common term Gorbachev implemented. Which means that, glasnost¸ you can say whatever you want to say. Which is big deal because, you know, before we lived and we know that we have to filter whatever we're saying. You can say something inside of your family, in the kitchen, but god forbid to say it somewhere out loud. So glasnost, and these were the major terms that were on the T.V. Democracy, what to do, who killed what, what's going on, and it was more friendly relationships with other countries. All of a sudden, we start hearing some stuff that we never heard before on the T.V. That, all of a sudden America become more friendly, or other countries exist and what people do there, and how they're living, and showing some T.V programs about life overseas. It was kind of you know very interesting because we never saw this before. It was kind of eye-opening situation.

AK: When you were in school what did you learn about America, or what were your impressions about America?

JK: It was something at the same time strange, forbidden, and also magically interesting, because we didn't know much about America. We just knew, as a kid, as a child, I knew Levi jeans, I knew some chewing gums, Coca Cola. This was very trendy. And it was, you know, it was not in the stores. You couldn't buy this stuff in the stores, you could only buy it on the black market, it was very expensive. So regular people would not even have, so it was something not reachable, you know, like desirable. So this was as a child I remember this America. But otherwise we knew that, you know, it's a lot of bad stuff in America. Like discrimination of black people, they always showing us very scary picture of American life. You know, so we didn't know much. We knew that people living much better there but we didn't know exactly what's going on there. And one of my favorite characters from the United States was Samantha-Samantha, what was her last name I cannot recall- but she came with the Gorbachev time. She was one of the girls that we had exchange program as an open-mind program. So we sent some girl to United States, and Samantha came to us as a peace visitor from the United States. Very cute, very nice-looking girl, so we kind of realized that oh Americans are actually nice-looking people.

AK: Why do you think that they had this exchange program?

JK: It was after a certain period of time, so when Gorbachev actually announced this glasnost and democracy, and you know it was more open to all of us to American people and Russian people. So it was one of the first steps on the normal-people level to exchange views. And you know simply to basically say "hello" to each other.

AK: About America, what did people around you say? Like what did your family say about America, was it nice or did they criticize America?

JK: You see, our family is a Jewish family. So, we have some Jewish roots and we knew, I knew even as a child, for a long time that we will immigrate from this country, from Russia. Because it was, we all understood that this was not normal life that we're living. It is not normal that people with education (like chemical engineer, my mom, and my father who was a coach with a Bachelor's degree) barely making to exist, barely making money to exist. So, it was always some kind of drugging, it was always a terrible situation that we lived. I cannot say "terrible" but we know that people can live better, and we don't understand what we can do in order to do it. You know, you cannot work more, you cannot work harder. It would not help you, you know, it's just the situation that you were living. No matter how hard you were working you still get the same salary. So we were planning to immigrate long time ago, and I knew it as a child, so we were always looking toward America or Germany, and the third option was Israel. So we were always looking to United States as our potential new home. So we didn't know much. We heard a lot of minuses from life in the United States. We understood, of course, all benefits of living in United States, but we didn't know exactly what's going on because we'd never been there.

AK: What about the United States appealed to you? What appealed to you while you were living in Moldova, why did you choose the United States?

JK: I saw already that it will be my potential, my life. I knew that my mind was already programmed that I'm going there to live another life, better quality life. So, I somehow on intuition level I knew that it is better there.

AK: Tell me about your childhood, what did you do in your free time as a child?

JK: We were playing outside a lot. Most of time we were spending outside playing ball, climbing on trees, playing hide-and-seek, bicycling. You know, outside games mostly.

AK: So, you disappeared in the morning and came back at night?

JK: On Saturday and Sunday yes, and then mom periodically was screaming from the window "go home it's time to eat, go home you need to clean up." And then I would clean up or eat and then go again outside, so it was always a lot of kids outside because there was not a lot of toys at home and then because we were very active so it was always pleasure for us to be outside.

AK: When you were younger, elementary school or middle school, did you have a childhood hero or someone you looked up to?

JK: I don't recall. I think it was probably elementary school and probably part of middle school, it was very communist heroes. First of all it was Lenin, because we tried to get this little znachok, how do you call it, pin on your school form with Lenin's portrait, a little star and inside it was Lenin's picture. We were told that best kids would get this pin. Not everybody-you have to behave, you have to be a good child. It means that you have to, besides school you have to treat other people well, you have to give your seat in the bus to the elderly and pregnant women. You cannot throw garbage on the street, you cannot do this and this and this. We were trying to behave basically. Then, because children are more, you know you can give them idea and they easily take this idea. So, they kind of following this. And then of course we had the pioneer, we tried to be good pioneers. It was a big deal. So you behave, and everything. You know if you do something wrong, people would say "no, you cannot do this because you will not be a pioneer! So, it was a big deal. And then we had also a lot of movies about war and about some children, patriotic children, that were killing Nazi people and we try also to be the same kind of hero. Some kind of propaganda I would say. It was not Snow White or something like this. No we didn't have something like this.

AK: Would you say the feelings toward communism were positive?

JK: Yeah it definitely had some positive moments. It's like a religion, it's basically putting you in some behavior frame that you have to behave, especially when the propaganda is working so well, for so many years, that you believe in this. And yes it disciplines you, especially children I remember this very well. I would say the scariest part for me was that I would not be a pioneer if I would not behave well. So, it was very motivated reasons to be a good person. Of course there was some positive moments. I can say it for sure.

AK: Do you think communism ultimately failed because of what it was as a system or because of something else, maybe because of some leaders or how they led the system?

JK: No, I think it's the idea. The older I become I understand that this is all baloney, all these ideas. You see in reality when you grow up that yeah you become a pioneer, but a bunch of other bad people become pioneers too. And actually these bad people can play against you just with some kind of secret report that you didn't behave as a proper communist, or something like that. Or basically when you grow up and you go out of college, you get the same salary that person who was fooling around. So it was this, everybody was equal. And then at certain point you got disappointed because it's like, "what is this? I work hard, I study, I tried, I'm working hard, I'm trying to be a good employee but by the end nobody will notice this." They would only give you some piece of paper saying that you're the best employee, but you cannot deposit this into your bank account. By the end it's just like when you have hundreds of these notes, they already cover your bathroom, but you don't have paper towels. You have no money. It works great for small children, but when you grow up and you need real life you understand that something is not clicking together, something is missing here.

AK: What was your education after high school?

JK: I went to college and I started my education in college. I graduated in three years in college and then we decided to immigrate. I got married and we were going to the United States. So I quit basically college.

AK: So did you continue on your education here?

JK: Yes, I went right away here. I got into college and I got my Associate's degree then I moved to Bachelor's degree, and I was working on a Master's degree but I never graduated. I have to come back and finish.

AK: What was your first job after graduating from college?

JK: Here in the United States, my first job that I used my education was job in the airport. I was working in the freight department of Virgin Atlantic, handling import and export of Virgin Atlantic in JFK.

AK: Do you think that your education in Moldova or your education throughout your whole life, from elementary school to high school to college, do you think that affected how you studied or how you learned in America?

JK: Definitely, definitely. We had very good, I think, level of education in [Moldova]. It was a lot of people in school, teachers and counselors that were full of ideas to educate the pioneers. They treat their job pretty well and level of education system was not bad at all. I like it and I see that when I came I feel that my background was much more ahead of people that I worked with people in JFK airport who only had high school diploma or a little more. I saw that there were many things they did that they had no idea of. Their education level was behind mine.

AK: What differences do you see, whether they are culturally, educationally, behaviorally, between kids in Moldova, when you were a child, and kids now in America?

JK: It is a difference. I think that in Moldova, education was much better. Much better. It's much more wider, it's much more serious, deep. Even though I was surprised that kids here start reading much much earlier than in Moldova. Both of my daughters started reading here at age six. At six in Moldova, you were still running with a ball outside, have no idea about books or reading. So, we started at seven or eight, my first grade I was eight because I was a December child.

AK: The same question, but what do you think about kids socially? How do you think kids are different in the former Soviet Union than they are now here in America?

JK: It has nothing to do with the Soviet Union or the United States now. It's just the technology level, I think now no matter what, even in Moldova now, it's different because technology is killing, unfortunately, social skills. Kids are growing from toddler age with IPads, phones. They like to play games and it has also a lot of pluses but it's also a big minus towards social skills unfortunately. So we were much more open in the old times because we had no devices. Toys were not so sophisticated, so even if you had a doll you better take it out and play with your girlfriends outside, making some dresses together because there weren't many dresses for girls, you had to do it yourself mostly with some colored paper, construction paper. It was a lot of fun, you were sharing ideas of how to do it. Some kids were more creative. It was cool.

AK: Your dad was a coach, so how did sports affect your life as a child and adolescent and how was that affecting your social life as well.

JK: It affected me a lot. It basically formed my character because volleyball is a team sport and as any sport it requires to have some basic character to be able to perform, to be able to fight no matter what's the reason. Basically once you're on the field you playing for the ball, fighting for the ball, winning ball. But then it becomes your life and you're fighting for your interests in this life, in a good way of course. You're not hitting anybody; you're not hitting your partners on another team. So you are just fighting to reach some goal in your life.

AK: So again, what difference do you see between athletics when you were a kid in Moldova and athletics here?

JK: I see a big difference. I think its connection of educational approach here and over there. It's a different mentality, people have a different approach. Here sports clubs are more hobbies. When kids are coming if child is overweight, they taking the girl to gymnastics or ballet just to fix this weight situation. In Moldova or Soviet Union, nobody would get the idea to bring an overweight girl to a ballet class, because it was just not acceptable. It's a different approach, first of all. There, kids are going to play sport and they see that they have to win, they have to perform, they have to give some results. Here it's more parents' drive that their children will be playing or doing some sports, and its more hobby, it's more for pleasure. It's not so serious as it was in Soviet Union, and I think that they still have the same approach there. So here coach would never criticize your child seriously, never treat it seriously. Over there it's a job, sports activity was a job.

AK: So, what were you striving for, what was your goal when you were playing sports?

JK: I wanted to be a good athlete, I wanted to achieve something. We had category of sportsmen, we had some kind of achievements in sports. You can be a candidate, we called it candidat mastera sporta and master of sport. We had category one, category two. So through your sport career you achieve, step by step, better and better category. And of course volleyball is a team job so you have to try to get into better team. First it was on the republic level, because it was Moldova Republic. Then you have to try to get on the Soviet Union team, and then perform on an international level. So, it was always some kind of goal, because it was a chance to live a little bit better life. To get out of this equality of the people.

AK: What was your biggest achievement in volleyball?

JK: I was playing for Republic of Moldova team, as a member of the Republic of Moldova team.

AK: Who did you play?

JK: I was playing, how do you call it, passuyushey, how do you call it.

AK: Setter.

JK: Yes, setter. As a setter. My height is not tall enough as is required for volleyball, so best position for me was to be a setter. I was running fast and setting tall girls to hit hard.

AK: Who did you play, like what countries or what other teams did you play?

JK: Normally it was a competition through the Soviet Union, between Soviet Union republics. So, all fifteen republics we played. Again, Moldova is normally not such a tall people like Russia or Ukraine, so we were not achieving some big results as these republics, but we were pretty good. We also performed on international level, but all this international level was only in the frame of the Soviet camp countries, like Romania, Poland, who was next to us. Yeah Romania and Poland were the biggest competitions. I don't think we participated in any other levels. It was only our neighbor countries.

AK: Do you still talk to your former teammates or your former friends from Moldova?

JK: Yes sometimes, sometimes. They are still living there and you know we lost connection, close connection I would say. Our normal conversation is ending up "How's everything, everything's fine. How's people, how's family." And to go somewhere deeper it doesn't have any sense because were so far away from each other. They're living their lives, they have their own troubles, problems, and achievements. Here is different approach so. I don't think it makes sense to go deeper into problems that each of us have. We just say everything is fine, okay good good.

AK: Do they ever ask any interesting questions about America?

JK: Not much, I think everyone knows about what's going on here so it's not a crazy country or something. But sometimes you can hear from people living there, especially now with all this brainwashing from Putin's regime. They think that we are acting this way against Putin because we have a propaganda here, and we not allowed to talk openly or whatever we're writing them, they think that we have to write it because our Facebook and Skype is controlled, and we have to do it. So they kind of whispering to us "it's fine it's fine, we know that you cannot say anything, its fine." It's kind of funny.

AK: What do you think about Putin's regime? How does it affect America, and how is it affecting the Russian people?

JK: It affects a lot. It's kind of sad because living here we kind of see the situation in Russia a little bit outside. I'm not normally watching even American news, I'm watching local American Brooklyn channels just to see what's going on in my city but I'm not much involved in politics, or propaganda because it just doesn't interest me. I'm not watching news, so I cannot say that I'm brainwashed by Americans that Russia is bad or something like that. I just see from outside that whatever we have been living with, not everything is right. We have to look at the problems or situation differently. And people who still continue living there, they looking at the problems differently. So mentally we are already from different camps. So I see that people are relying a lot on the T.Vs, the main channels that work in Russia, and they taking it really seriously and truly that this is reality. They don't want to even bother to go to internet and do some kind of research, and compare and analyze. They're taking it as it was during Soviet Union time, as they said. So they taking it without even analyzing and then they believe whatever they hear on the T.V, and this is kind of sad.

AK: So, we interviewed a Russian student in Binghamton on Wednesday, and she mentioned that, not here friends, not her generation, but the generation above her (parents and grandparents), when they found out she was coming to America they told her "tell Obama what we think of him." So what do you think they meant by that, what do they think of him?

JK: Yeah again they are victims of propaganda. My husband, when he travelled five years ago to Moldova, he was actually shocked. I think he still has some kind of homesickness but when he visited last time, he was very disappointed that even close relatives start asking him why did Americans torture Russian kids. Because apparently, it was a big topic on Russian T.V that few American people, few American families adopt Russian children from foster house, and something happened unfortunately to these children. And I think that it's thousands of kids been adopted, but only, let's say, five families screwed up. They didn't do their job properly, unfortunately you cannot control people. Sometimes it's really not good families that these Russian children, or any other children getting in. So, it's a tragedy, but it's tool for propaganda to switch this fact and show to Russian people that "you see how Americans torture Russian kids, on purpose." It's funny for us because this family, if they are idiots and they didn't treat their child properly, it's not because [the kid is] Russian it's just because they are sick for some reason. It's not because it's a Russian child, or Brazilian, or Japanese or something like that, they just sick people, they don't know how to treat kids. But Russian propaganda use it in their own advantage to show Russian people that "Look, look what they did." And relatives of my husband when he visit, they specifically seriously asked him "why do you do this, what's the reason? Why do you torture Russian kids?" And he's like "What kids, what are you talking about?" and they say "Yeah on the Russian TV its so many cases, you cannot now adopt Russian kids. We truly understand this and we're against Americans to adopt Russian kids." My husband was first shocked, and then he started laughing because this is ridiculous. It's grown up people, people he knows. It's not some idiots, it's people from his family that he knows are nice, kind people. But they're asking really ridiculous questions, and we see that it's because they are victims of this propaganda, it's nothing else. It's not because they really think about it. Another question was "why did you invade Yugoslavia, why did you bomb Yugoslavia? Get out of wherever, some islands. Get out of Poland." And these are people who work hard, they have much more troubles in their lives to discuss than discuss this situation, political situation. And they didn't see my husband for at least five, seven years. And one of the questions that was important that they decided to ask was why Americans are doing something. I think its poor brainwashing. People are so preoccupied with these ideas that the T.V is sending them, that they cannot even hold it. This is one of the first questions they ask their relative after not seeing them for five, seven years.

AK: When you came to America, did you have anything like that happen to you here? Did people have any funny questions or biases towards to you because you were Russian, or you spoke Russian, and had a Russian accent?

JK: No, I was actually surprised that Americans are very friendly people, very open people. I think especially people from Latin America, all this mix that United States has with nationality and races, it's kind of making this cute combination and most of these people are immigrants so they kind of treat us very well. Surprisingly well for us because our language was very bad. I remember situations on the street when you tried to get somewhere and you're trying to ask on your broken English how to get somewhere. And when you hear these instructions, directions where to go and you're confused because you don't understand anything, people simply walk you towards some direction so you can find your own path. For me it was big surprise because in Soviet Union we were not tolerant at all to some accents or some bad Russian language. So it was not accepted. We would probably turn around, or laugh out loud on the level that this human being is talking.

AK: When you first moved to the United States, what were your biggest worries and concerns? What was the hardest part?

JK: Language of course. You feel yourself like a dog, that understands with smart eyes, understands what's going on but cannot say anything. It was one of the scariest parts; that you trying to survive, you're trying to make money, but you simply cannot talk. So it was very depressing and hardest point. But then once I started talking, even in my bad language, I understand that people are willing to listen to you. They see that you can do something, that you are not a bad person that you are cooperating, and Americans will work with you no matter how bad your language is.

AK: What about economically when you first moved to the United States?

JK: I think that it was a blessing for me especially, because when we came to the United States, simply the welfare that I was getting from the government, it was a much better financial situation than I was living in Moldova. Because I was a student, and then I got married, I didn't work so I depended on my husband, and my husband was making money but it was basic needs. We were able to save some money on a car and this and this, but here I start living my own life, trying to bring my own money to family. I was surprised that I was getting from the government every month Food Stamps that allowed me to eat very well and some cash amount. It was not covering my rent, but still it was a big help toward my life. I cannot say that I feel bad economically, it was a good help for me to start my American life, to go to school and everything.

AK: Looking back now, what was your greatest accomplishment in America?

JK: I'm still working on my accomplishments, and I think that that's why I love America. It never stops, no matter what age you are, what is your social status, or anything like this. You can always achieve something, whatever you're dreaming of. I'm talking about achieving some goals financially, and just whatever your dreams are. Let's say if you, you know, I'm still playing volleyball and I'm enjoying this, so I have to opportunity to play after my business hours. It's also small achievements because I'm doing stuff that I like to do. I'm still working on my professional level, I have a plan to graduate my Master's degree. I'm not afraid, in Russia I'd probably be puzzles to go to school when I'm forty. Here I know that no matter what is my age, I still can do it online, I still can accomplish, it is not a big deal. So I like it, I see my future full of plans, full of achievements. I think it's a lot of possibilities. You can take a lot of classes, I'm planning one day to improve my English, I'm still thinking when my children grow up and I don't have to spend money on them, for their education, maybe one day I will take some tutor that can instruct me and teach me to speak English better. Maybe some other language. So it's a lot of things that you can improve yourself, and I like it.

AK: So you spoke about getting your Master's, what do you expect to get from getting a Master's degree and where do you want to be in twenty years let's say?

JK: I'm getting older so I'm hoping to maybe get some job that will pay me even more, but have more benefits toward my pension. Maybe less working hours, or something flexible. It's hard to say, I'm very happy right now so I can't complain. That's why I'm probably not rushing to graduate my Master's degree. But I think that it will give me more potential to find something better, just simply. It's just an additional skill that I can put on the table, if I need it.

AK: This is a hard question, how do you identify culturally? Would you say you are American, Russian, Moldovan, Transnistrian, or some combination? What would you tell people if they asked you?

JK: It is hard to identify. Definitely I'm Russian-American, so I'm American with Russian background. I would not even identify myself as Moldavian, maybe Soviet Union because it was still time that it was Soviet Union in affect and it was a part of everything. Even though we were living in Moldova, it was more pro-Russian than Moldavian. It's a combination, it's definitely not American yet, it's definitely not Russian already, but it's some kind of Russian-American heritage.

AK: Something in between.

JK: Something in between, that's right.

AK: How do you define your culture? Is it by music, by food, by language, by religion, by politics?

JK: Mostly by background, Soviet Union background. Because it was major time that I lived there, so food and culture and education mostly affected me when I was a child during the Soviet Union time. There was no religion, I would say almost no religion at all, so I would say it's mostly by the place that I was living, the Soviet Union.

AK: You are from Moldova, but also from Transnistria, Pridnestrovie, so how would you say that affected your life growing up and your culture? What was the difference?

JK: That's very interesting also because when Transnistria become as a new republic in 1992, we truly believed that it happened for a reason and it's a good reason for all people that living there. Again, it was tool of propaganda. We were told that we had the right to create our own republic, our own country, and I believed in this 100%. I was a strong believer in this, and I didn't understand Moldavian government, why they acted so aggressively by entering with weapons and bombing people, innocent people. I was against this, and I was a truly pro-Transnistrian citizen. But when we immigrated here, and I start looking at-- first of all I started living here differently. I started learning American language, American culture. I saw tolerance to other people, I saw big part of America by going toward the rules and traditions. All of a sudden it hit me that stuff that happened in Transnistria is not right. Its only, in my opinion, it was only done because someone on the government level decided to do this. They basically brainwashed people and guide them toward this craziness. And people who live there they still suffer from this decision, most of them not realizing that it was a bad decision. But they are separatists and they now living very separate lives from entire world because nobody announced them as a country. They still kind of isolated from entire world, it's just crazy. It's not right and its one of the, unfortunately, Russian, I think in my opinion, it's one of the Russian government decisions.

AK: Why do you think people wanted to separate from Moldova? Was the culture different, what was it?

JK: No, it was an idea that someone gave us in this time, and it's the same kind of idea happening in Crimea and Abkhazia. In Soviet Union time what happened, students after graduating from the colleges, they were sent to different republics, normally in most poorest economically republics basically to build up economy of these republics. Russia, central of Russia, was always active. But Moldova, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, traditionally were not very educated countries because like Moldova is a very agricultural country, so people were normally farmers. All students after college were sent to these republics. My mom, for example, is very bright example of this situation. She grew up in Russia, she is a Russian citizen, and she spoke only Russian language after graduating from her chemical university. She was sent to Moldova, first to Azerbaijan but she ended up in Moldova working as a chemical engineer in one of the plants that the Soviet Union time on purpose built in this republic. Then all republics were exchanging materials. For example, Moldova nothing to do with chemistry in Moldova, but it was convenient big places and locations and they have to employ people so they were building these huge plants to create labor and everything. So my mom ended up in Moldova. Moldova of course, their language was Moldovan or Romanian because culturally wise they used to be part of Romania long time ago. But in Soviet Union time everything was so centralized and so coming from Russia, majority of people on the government level and big manufacturing level were speaking only Russian. My mom was very comfortably feeling there, and all her life after she moved to Moldova, it was the 70's until the 90's, she was speaking only Russian. She was very successful; whatever she achieved everything was fine. When the Soviet Union started falling apart, each republic of course started announcing their independence because Moldovan people all of a sudden feel their culture because of glasnost and democracy, they said "hey we're not Russian, we're Moldovan. We want to speak our language!" They are dominant there, so it is normal that Moldovans want to speak their language. They announced that all people who are working in certain people, they have to speak Moldavian language too, which is normal. In United States we have the same thing. If you want to work somewhere, you have to first of all speak English. You can also speak Spanish or something, but if you are achieving something and working you have to speak English. So now it sounds to be very normal, but when I was in Moldova in '92 for my mom and all of us it was very shocking because all of a sudden we had to start learning Moldavian. It just historically happened, it's not the fault of Moldavian people or anyone else. If you want to continue to live in this country, you have to learn Moldavian language. But all of a sudden, somebody feel this situation and the propaganda started spreading around these people saying "hey you're Russian, you have to speak Russian. Why are they pushing you to learn Moldavian it's not good. You have to protest this. You work hard here, you have to be able to speak your language. You don't need Moldavian language." And of course these people, like my mom and family, they feel very comfortable with this idea because it eliminates the problem to learn another language when you're forty and after forty of course it's not easy. That's why my parents, as well as many other families, supported this idea to create this kind of republic. Yes we created it and we are all of a sudden we announced to Moldova that we're not part of Moldova anymore, we want our own state. It sounds funny right now, but for us with all this propaganda and all these thoughts that we were receiving from Russia, plus Russia give us citizenship immediately of Russia, and also the possibility to travel to Russia without any visa. People who retired were getting extra cash toward their pension. Of course it was very convenient for us, economically wise and idea wise because it eliminated the problem to learn another language. Now living here in the United States I realized that it was kind of a Utopia, it was unpleasant and not really comfortable idea but I came to United States and I have no idea, I have never had the idea to pronounce here on Brighton Breach independence of United States. I understand that if I want to perform here, I have to learn language and tradition. It would never come to my mind to protest here on Brighton Beach and say "hey I'm Russian I'm proud to be Russian and only Russian." It's just funny, it's very childish. But I guess because those times somebody supported us on a government level from Russia, we felt support and financially wise we just went to this idea, which was not right apparently.

AK: Would you ever like to go back to Moldova to visit?

JK: Maybe, maybe but it's quite far away. I see that my friends, we have different mentality level. It's also a lot of places in the world that I never visit before. So it's not my destination in my dreams or something like that. I guess one day I will be there, I guess. But it's not my dream destination. IN fifteen years, I've never visited and I cannot say that it's on my travel list.

AK: Do you feel a connection to your birthplace, or do you feel that you have a duty to go back?

JK: I have no duty to come back, my mom is living with me here in the United States. My father is there but he can travel, we talk on Skype, he has his own family, thank god everything is fine. So, I would rather invite him to visit me, than to go there. Especially I have two kids so I cannot go myself, it's kind of complicated. Definitely no duty there, and I have no other connection to go there. With technology, when you can always reach your friends and family over Skype and talk to them, it's good enough for me at least.

AK: Earlier you mentioned religion and how there was no religion in the Soviet Union, so how did you transition from this atheist place to America, which has so many religions and cultures? What does religion mean to you, and how do you identify?

JK: I also grew up so I became a more mature person, but in the 1990's when the Soviet Union fall apart I already got the feeling that I should belong somewhere, I should belong to some kind of idea. Communism fell apart for me so it was not very desirable dream to build communism. But I understood that person has to have some kind of frame and some kind of rules, but some kind of interest in this life to behave in. I think religion in certain ways, not strict one, but something kind of fusion because I belong to Jewish roots and some Russian Christian, so it's hard for me to identify myself that I'm Jewish or I'm Christian. I feel that I cannot say that whatever Jewish people saying is against Christian, or that Christian is in conflict with Jewish principles in religion. So I'm trying to create some kind of fusion, especially here in Brooklyn it's a lot of Jewish organizations and Jewish centers that I kind of like. I like their idea, again I'm against to go deeply into religion because it's very hard to be strictly religious in this crazy society, because you have to do a lot of things. I don't think anybody needs this kind of strict, unless you have some kind of inside call that you have to be this way. But I think it's some kind of mixture of everything, whatever you feel comfortable with, whatever giving you some peace. Whatever you want to do, I think it's great. That's why I love the United States, nobody criticizes anybody. If you're Jewish and want to go to the Synagogue everybody would respect whatever you do. If you're going to Russian Orthodox Church, it's also good. I'm going sometimes to both. I cannot see anything wrong about this. I mean it's great, this is typical United States. This is why I love about United States.

AK: Okay my last question, also kind of a hard one. Do you have any regrets, or do you think that if you could go back you would do something differently in your life and in moving to the States and how you live here.

JK: So far I cannot see anything I did wrong or I would do differently. Again I guess it's coming with some kind of maturity or longer time to look back. I'm pretty happy with my life. I guess if I would immigrate early, it would give me even more opportunities. Probably my transitional period from Soviet Union mentality to American mentality would've been much quicker and faster. But I'm very happy, I cannot say that I have any inside conflicts or something. I think I have some harmony in my soul in my life.

AK: Okay, thank you so much!

JK: You're welcome.

(End of Interview)