Lemon Tsupryk Q2 #1: "Well, Just You Wait!" (and others like it)
“Zayats, volk.”
“Zayats, volk.”
The words you just read likely mean nothing to you; nothing more than nonsensical combinations of letters.
But, believe it or not, they are exactly what the nightmares sound like of Eastern-European kids who were experiencing childhood during or after June second, 1984—otherwise known as faithful day episode fourteen of “Nu, Pogodi!” (or “Well, Just You Wait!”) released to residents of the Soviet Union. Since then, any Russian-speaking child who grew up in the eighties or onward will echo the same haunted sentiment if you ask them; do you know that one episode with the robot hare?
I did not grow up in the Soviet Union, which is what my parents experienced. Neither was I born in Russia, like some of my friends were. In fact, I have never gone outside of North America.
And yet, I grew up on Soviet cartoons.
My parents, taking their 10-hour flight over the Pacific Ocean in 1999 with stuffed suitcases and fractured English knowledge, took with them a precious piece of home they didn’t need to encase in tightly-wound layers of bubble wrap. And when they had me seven years later, they brushed the dust off their childhood whimsy and let it light up our living room TV. I watched the story of a kitten named Woof; rooted for Cheburashka; cheered for Alice when she and her dad discovered the secret of the third planet. I was the observer of stories which carried parts of me—the American me—like dandelion seeds over the vast ocean my parents had worked so hard to cross, and planted them in soil I have not yet stepped foot on.
It can feel strange sometimes, having some of my roots settled so far away. I can only listen when my friends reminisce about Lunchables or cartoons like Wild Kratts or Sophia the First; I am a fish out of water in my own country of birth.
But on the other hand, a part of me is grateful.
Grateful for the distance between myself and this country that razed me; the one that seems to be plummeting downhill with every coming day. Grateful for getting to experience the staticky warmth of smudgy pictures moving frame-by-frame, accompanied by muffled voices that sound like they are floating out of a far-off gramophone, instead of the crisp sounds and colors of modern animations.
Upon peeking over the rims of my rose-colored glasses, I do see that a portion of these cartoons, like most media from the time, has racially insensitive cameos and aspects of Soviet propaganda; but I urge you to also look at something like Tom and Jerry (which is probably the only American cartoon I had watched a significant portion of), too, and find that this is not unique to the Soviet Union. Besides, there are things to be said about English-language media for toddlers (Teletubbies and the like) when compared to the more thoughtful things shown to small children in Russia 40 years ago.
But this is not what I want to talk about.
Instead, I want to point out that it’s not just me: parents who have left their childhoods in the Soviet Union, at one point or another, seem to have unanimously decided that these stories were worth revisiting—growing a generation of people, scattered all over the world, who are tied to the same media. People who will all shudder upon hearing:
“Zayats, Volk.”
“Zayats, Volk.”
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| The robot hare that scarred hundreds of children. Screenshot taken from the episode uploaded to YouTube, (The robot part starts at around 4:35, if you're curious). |
Hi Lemon! Your blog this week was a fascinating read. Oftentimes my parents go on about the shows they watched in their childhood. The shows always have the most bizarre characters and plots. I was thoroughly intrigued when you mentioned Alica and the third planet. I attempted to find out more about it, but unfortunately, I didn’t find anything related to it. The plots of the Soviet cartoons definitely seem more interesting than some of the shows I watched growing up. However, the PBS Kids shows I watched were peak entertainment. Clifford and Odd Squad are some underground gems.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes relate to the feeling you were talking about feeling distant from American culture, especially when people around you are discussing it so passionately. It’s truly a blessing though that we were exposed to both our parents’ culture as well as American culture. It’s kind of like being Hannah Montana’s (regular girl by day and popstar by night) saying, “the best of both worlds.” These Soviet cartoons are more than that, though. You were also exposed to Soviet-era ideas, which helps keep those important experiences to the culture remembered. I hadn’t realized that something as simple as a TV show could achieve that.
I also grew up on non-American cartoons! I did watch many of the “underground” shows Harshi mentioned in her comment, but my earliest childhood memories are not of Wild Kratts or Strawberry Shortcake; rather, I reminisce about animated legends of 哪吒, known in English as Ne Zha.
ReplyDeleteIn that sense, I get where you’re coming from when you say that it doesn’t feel like you grew up in the same cultural sphere as your peers despite only living in the U.S. I would go even further to assert that the vast majority of us experience this alienating feeling in our lives, being children of immigrants. Mainstream American culture will never encompass our full identities because we have been raised with the traditions of our motherlands, and I think that is a good thing. The nostalgic soviet cartoons you watched–even if they are political propaganda–should be cherished.
Unrelated: I took a look at your link, and the techno playing in the background of the episode was so groovy! Although I didn’t understand much of the episode’s plot, the music had me bopping my head the whole time lol.