I guess many things shape us, from our upbringing, to how we were taught, where we have worked and lived. I suppose in everyone's life there are those people we have met who stand out in our minds. Such is a person I met once in the Seychelles (where my husband was working on an overseas contract) in 1981 when I was at a local hotel pool with my son Matthew, who was standing in the children’s pool filling plastic bricks with water, when a man spoke to me. He had been watching Matthew for a while and mentioned the concentrated look on his face. He noticed that I was reading Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Cancer Ward’ and asked me what I thought of the novel. After I had expressed my views (and I cannot remember what I said) he pointed out that Solizhenitsyn only described a part of Russia, the Russia he knew and experienced. He then proceeded to open my eyes to the rich and complex life that abounded, the texture and fabric of the personal lives of Russians as people. We spoke of the “enemy” concept and of “good” guys and “bad” guys.

I remember asking him what Communism had achieved and I recall his irony and cynicism at the facade of communism. He told me that Communism simply didn’t work and even if it did, it worked to no purpose. He mentioned that freedom and human rights were not a part of the Russian psyche. He spoke of the hard line, the propaganda and Party history. It was the first time I had ever heard humour expressed behind Lenin! We spoke of the terror behind Stalin and the repression that existed. He believed in the role and goals of the revolution and what it had achieved but he also told me where and why it had failed. Under his words, he was immensely proud of being Russian and spoke of Russia with love, pride and sadness.

I believe it is hard for an outsider to gauge and generalise about the ideological zeal and fidelity of the Russian people. If anything, this person showed me that ideology, belief, faith and myth are the things that hold a Nation together. It was the first time I actually looked upon a Russian as a ‘person” and not an ‘enemy’. He told me to temper my reading of Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov and Medvedec with other famous Russian writers such as Chekhov, Pushkin and Gogol and that all had something to offer in the understanding of his country and its people.

Now when I contemplate our conversation, his comments and our relatively short though involved discussion, having read the writers he had suggested, I begin to understand what he was attempting to tell me about Russia and of the deep-seated influence history has had on the Russian character. I’ve come to the conclusion that Russia may not evolve into a democracy, as we know it. I believe that they have the ability to adapt without fully surrendering the comfort and stability that order provides and that the strong authoritarian strain in the Russian body politic will remain. I do not believe their society is completely ready for the give and take, political tolerance and compromise and self-restraint that democracy requires. It may take many years if not generations to evolve. I often wonder what happened to this unnamed man, who crossed my path in 1981, who opened my eyes and mind. Did he foresee something of the events to come? I wonder what his thoughts are regarding the changes since 1989?