Psychoanalysis

Over the last few days I've interviewed some interesting veterans of the Winter War with Finland and WWII. Pictured here is Leonid Davidovich Schwartz who gave me a pretty good idea of how horribly prepared the Red Army was at the beginning of WWII, and how terribly they were doing in those first weeks. He was an aviation engineer of some sort and told me that in the first few days of the war 90% of the planes in his aerodrome were destroyed. One day they were sent to the banya (bathhouse) and their last 5 planes were destroyed in an aerial bombardment. With no planes there was nothing left for him to do so he was sent to a Tank Corps. Later in the war he was forced to swim across the Dnepro river with the Germans on the opposite shore ("So many died from my corps that day, the river was red," he told me). His jacket with medals and honors was really impressive. As one can imagine, these people are very proud of their service. My grandfather didn't talk to me much about his service in the wars, and I never saw his medals or honors (my mother says she doesn't know what happened to them, but she thinks they were confiscated from him). I can only imagine he was just as proud.

Yesterday I met with an awesome Odessa historian by the name of Anna Mishuk. After skimming through grandpa's autobiography for only about 15 minutes, she had some of the best insight of anyone I've talked to about the book, and also some great advice on how to approach my project. The first thing she said to me was: "Your grandfather was a very Soviet person." She explained that for him politics, history, and official business was most important. That he totally separated his private life (his wife and family) from public and official matters (like those he writes about in his autobiography). I had wondered for a long time why there is no mention of my grandmother in the book, or of my grandfather's marriage, and very little about his daughters (mentioned only in passing in the section on immigration). Honestly, it was sort of a relief to hear Anna tell me she thought this was normal and understood it perfectly in the context of his life and times, and that it said nothing of his devotion.
Anna and I discussed how her mother (and my grandmother) are embarrased to be seen outside without make-up, or how they're even more embarrased to go outside with a walker ("but people will see me and what will they think!"). It is a mentality she claims in very Soviet, and a mentality she thinks comes through very clearly in the book. There are very few parts in which grandpa's emotion comes through, and upon reading a section about my grandfather's encounter with a starving Leningrad family during the blockade Anna claimed she could feel that he was embarrased having to admit that his emotions got to him that day.
Anna suggested that instead of translating the whole book and take out excerpts and make the rest a commentary and sort of analysis of the autobiography, of my grandfather, and of the people of his generation (informed by my interviews). I've been thinking about this point of view, and about integrating this sort of thinking into my project, but I don't think I want to take it as far as she has. I'm afriad this would distance me from the book and from my grandfather, and I don't really want to do that. I have to think about keeping this both personal and also academic.