Brilliant essay. Exactly as I feel. You have done very deep dive in our past and our present. I left USSR in middle of 90x after graduating from Chemistry Department of Moscow State University. I stopped believing a communist narrative in middle school, after I learned about Chernobyl from "enemy voices". I never was in Mavzolei and never went to red parades (including May Day parade right after Chernobyl disaster). I am Jewish and have my own jeans story in soviet school. My parents read prohibited books and hoped that the evil empire will fall one day and we will go to America With a start of covid narrative I went to a familiar life of underground parallel structures. Homeschooling, friend's round tables in our kitchen, reading prohibited articles and books and spreading them as much as I could among acquaintances - all came naturally to me. A big plan of building a new great dystopia became apparent and I stood up as I could. Thank you for leading the fight. I hope the fact that America accepted us will serve the country well.