David Brodsky remembers March 1, 1990, the day he arrived with his family in the United States. They came directly to Springfield as Jewish refugees from Ukraine, which was then still part of the Soviet Union. “We had friends who emigrated to big U.S. cities who didn’t have such a welcome,” he recalls. The family’s hosts, the Springfield Jewish Federation, took them immediately to their apartment, which had beds for everybody and a refrigerator full of food. Their youngest son, 13 months old, was just beginning to crawl, and had tried his new skill in Italy during their journey here. There it was winter and the stone floors were cold; here the apartment had carpet for the baby to crawl on. “My wife was so happy she started to cry.”
Now after a 30-year career in Springfield as a graphic designer for the state, Brodsky, an artistic photographer (see www.brodskyphotoart.com), is retired and living in the Chicago area. Lately he and his wife have been glued to a YouTube channel, Ukraine 24, which presents news in Ukrainian from several Ukrainian TV channels. After not speaking his native tongue for many years, “Now I can understand Ukrainian language again,” he says.
“I can’t believe this is happening in the 21st century,” he says of the Russian invasion, which seems like a scene from the 1930s. “We’re very worried about our friends in Kyiv.” Both he and his wife grew up in Kyiv, as did their parents, so they keep in touch with several families there. They visited there in 2005. “We talk almost daily to our friends who live on the 10th floor of a highrise, with the mother who is 96 years old. Every time there is a siren they go hide in the bathtub. There is no way they can run to the shelter.” The family tapes the windows so glass won’t shatter. “It reminds me of World War II movies.”
The invasion happening in the 21st century has its positive side, in the attitude and solidarity of the Ukrainian people. “I’m really, really impressed by how Ukraine is fighting,” Brodsky says. “It’s a different country than the country I left 33 years ago. The people actually feel like this is their country. There are a lot of young people with a different mentality. I don’t like Putin, but he has united the whole world against him. I’ve never seen anything like that in history. It’s just amazing.”
And the 21st century contributed social media, which has played a role in uniting Russian opposition. “I was never a big fan of social media,” Brodsky says. “It has negatives, but also positives. The information goes so fast. And it’s not just information; it’s emotional communication.”
But Brodsky is happy his father, a World War II veteran of the Soviet air force who died 10 years ago, isn’t around to see the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. “It would be unbearable to him, because they were fighting together, Russians and Ukrainians. He would be extremely sad and upset. For him it was the same people.” Brodsky says he has some of the same feeling, after having grown up in the Soviet Union. “We have friends and relatives in Moscow. For us it was one country.”
He’s proud of the history of his native city. “Kyiv is the oldest city in Russia, I mean before Russia. Kyiv is more than a thousand years old. They called Kyiv Mother of Russian cities. Christianity started in Kyiv. Russia didn’t exist before Kyiv started to unify the small city-states.” But the history doesn’t have direct bearing on the current conflict. “Thirty years ago Ukraine became an independent, sovereign country. So what happened 500-plus years ago doesn’t matter.”
Another amazing development, which Brodsky attributes to 21st century attitudes, is that Ukraine elected a president who is Jewish, Volodymyr Zelensky. “This was unbelievable to us. During the Soviet regime there was a lot of anti-Semitic feeling, especially in Ukraine for some reason. It has changed dramatically. The new generation has a different view on a lot of subjects.” Brodsky calls Zelensky “a very brave person.”
There was much anti-Semitic discrimination under the Soviet Union, especially as the economy failed toward the end. To be Jewish in the Soviet Union was considered a nationality. “In getting jobs, they ask for your passport, and your nationality is Jewish. That changed the whole game. But when I came to the U.S., they called me Russian, which was fine with me. And then I became American.”
Brodsky hopes the Russian and the Belarusian people find a way to rid themselves of Vladimir Putin, who is growing increasingly desperate. “He is like a dog in a corner,” he says. “I feel bad for the Russian people. Russia will be seen as a pariah for many years to come. It’s not good for the people.”
This article appears in Meet us at Southtown.
