ninth of May

 "Is it propaganda? .. Like propaganda? No?" Repeated my neighbor. "Twenty seven million soviets died.. did you know? .. it was the soviets who raised the flag in Berlin ... I don't understand.. why do Americans think THEY won the war? ..and why are Americans taught this? It's like propaganda, no?"

The guardsmen monument symbolically defends the Kremlin and pays tribute to the Kazakhs who died fighting in WW2. Listen here to a man in my local pub explaining how 28 Kazakh men fended off a battalion of German tanks.

За родину, за Сталина

It was interesting to see someone supporting Stalin. I didn't see him here last year. My Russian teacher was surprised when I showed her this. She told me that by the mid 1960's most of soviet people were aware of the atrocities that had occurred under him.

"I remember! I'm Proud!"

9th of May/Victory Day

When I told my students I would go to the park on Victory Day they warned me to bring an umbrella. They said the gods have been crying on at least the last five Victory Days in Kazakhstan.

bread and vodka to feed the souls of Soviet soldiers

the man on the right in red without an umbrella sang along to every song.