As a kid I remember a dusty train ride through the great Hungarian plain. I entered the carriage on a hot summer day, when a young soldier sat down across from me. He was uniformed, of the Soviet breed, with fire red hair and a big, solid military headdress. He never made eye contact, rather he avoided it totally and looked sheepish as a result. At the time, I was coming from the West (a Canadian visiting his grandmother), and was probably just as much of a novelty to him, as he was to me.

It was the Ronald Reagan era, and the Cold War was alive and well. I had a Walkman radio, one of the early kinds, that was rather bulky but it had a speaker and doubled as a radio. I sat there contemplating, then I tried to talk to the soldier, as if it were some kind of mission to make contact. Nothing. He sat stone-faced, as if he were given orders not to talk to the “locals,” let alone a suspicious young “Western capitalist.”

I listened quietly to a song by Sting, and the wods rang out something eerie. It was a critique of the Cold War clash, along with hopes that the “Russians love their children too.” Sting was talking about the boy who sat across from me.

I unplugged the earphones, and blared the music just as loud as it could be heard. The soldier obviously didn’t get the message. He didn’t even flinch and eye contact was never made.

What has become of this Russian boy, I wonder? Surely he went home like the rest of them, only a few years later. The Cold War ended, and with it, his mission. The Russians were given the boot, replaced by the now ever-expanding NATO military alliance. This month, it expanded yet again. Russia is nervous. Now, Hungary is a member of the European Union. The world changes.
I imagine for a few years that the soldier still shopped for Hungarian goods in Russian stores, the last memories of the country in which he, a soldier, lived as occupying power. But even that must have trickled to a stop, as Hungary’s attention and trade has since moved from the Russian frontier to the EU.

As Hungary enters the EU, we can look back at Russia, this time as an opportunity. Last year, Hungary began recognizing the importance of the sleeping lion that Russia is, on both political and economic levels. Old contacts were re-ignited in an attempt to re-vitalize trade. Perhaps, the Russian soldier in his troubled country is hearing more about Hungary once again, now the EU member.

The Russian frontier was burned after the systemic changes, both in terms of trade and politics - and mainly for political reasons. It is ironic that now, over a decade later, Russia is once again approached as an opportunity to rebuild what has been destroyed, and in an altogether new context: now from the European Union. Communication may well be initiated after all.

Andrew Princz
Editor