The Freedom We Forget We Have—and Take for Granted

Lately, I keep finding myself coming back to reading about my Uncle Vic, or stumbling across writings from or about him. Today, while I sit at work with no customers, I’ve been reading The Gray People—and I’m only on chapter three—and I’m already horrified by what people had to endure.

At the same time, my social media is filled with all kinds of loud, conflicting opinions—people saying if you don’t like this country, you should just leave. Others saying if you support Trump, you’re racist. And then the quieter ones, just reminding us to be thankful for those who fought for our freedom.

What feels so ironic about reading this book today is how many people who went to Russia in the 1930s genuinely thought they were heading into something better—a fresh start. But once Stalin took power, they realized just how wrong they were. He was so paranoid that even members of his own Communist Party were seen as threats. Nobody was safe. Not even Russian-born citizens.

So imagine being an American over there, helping build an automotive factory, thinking your contract protects you—only for that contract to be voided. You're stuck. And then Stalin has you thrown into a labor camp because he’s convinced you’re plotting against him.

My Uncle Vic’s brother, also my uncle, Leo, hanged himself in 1974. He couldn’t take it anymore. His wife had passed away, and the government wouldn’t even let him move in with Uncle Vic and his wife—or with his own daughter. After 40 years of hard work, he was left with just 100 rubles a month to live on. He was broken and lonely. Imagine being told by your own government that you can’t live with your family—that you aren’t allowed to move in with anyone at all.

Before Leo took his own life, he wrote a letter to my uncle. In it, he said that if Uncle Vic ever made it back to U.S. soil—because Leo didn’t think he would—he wanted him to kiss that dear soil of freedom for him.

So while America isn’t perfect—far from it—I think a lot of us take for granted what we do have here: freedom.

If people today acted and spoke the way they do now, but did so under Stalin’s Soviet Union, they would’ve been purged. That’s not an exaggeration—that’s literally what he did to people he thought were against him.

Stalin killed around 750,000 people during the Great Purge, all because of paranoia. And honestly, that number is probably way higher—maybe even double—because so many just disappeared or died working in the Gulags.

Reading this today reminds me just how fragile freedom really is. We get to speak out. We get to disagree. We get to criticize. But the fact that we can do those things—openly, without fear of being silenced or killed—is something that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Thanks for reading.
I’m only a few chapters into this book and already shaken by what people endured. Some stories just find their way back into your life when you need them most. This was one of those moments for me.

Until next time,
awkwardly graceful and endlessly reflective
—Cierra