My name is Sandra Allik. I lived and worked in the USSR from 1981-1984. I was a TV News producer for CBS Moscow and worked alongside my husband, Don McNeill, the on-air correspondent and bureau chief. We lived a very privileged life in Moscow. In the Soviet era our apartment building was a little piece of the West in the heart of what always felt like a dark and foreboding city. Our compound was called a “gilded cage.” Journalists and diplomats from western countries were assigned to live and work in the Stalinist-era structure, built in 1949 by German prisoners of war. We lived under tight security, with a Soviet guard at the lone entrance to the courtyard. Foreigners were allowed through, as well as Soviet officials, but ordinary citizens had to be accompanied by a resident. We had a comfortable two-bedroom apartment along with an assigned translator, driver, and maid. All of the Soviet employees were expected to watch us and report to the authorities. Our driver, we eventually discovered, was a major in the KGB. There were fourteen microphones found in our walls. The more sophisticated listening devices, however, were our telephones.
Because I am also an artist, I actively sought out dissident artists and was able to visit with them where they both worked and lived. I eventually became more closely connected with the two artists whose work I am selling here. I met the artist, Vladislav Zhdan, and frequently visited him in his one-room apartment that he shared with his mother. This was his “studio.” His life was not privileged. The room was filled from floor to ceiling with oil paintings, both beautiful and satirical at the same time. And then there were the drawings. I purchased seven of them and he gave me another as a gift. These are the drawings on this website. They are dated 1977 and 1978. I now wish I had purchased more.
I met the artist, Alexander Kalugin, just after he was released from “White Posts,” a mental hospital outside of Moscow. He had been incarcerated with a made-up diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia.” The Soviets routinely rid society of people considered undesirable by confining them. My husband and I did a story about Kalugin and his bizarre diagnosis that aired on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather. By “coincidence,” Kalugin was released shortly after the news story, as long as he provided a painting demanded by one “hospital” official and we provided a pair of Adidas sneakers, demanded by his guard. I had purchased the oil painting that is on sale here from his wife, Tamara, when Kalugin was still imprisoned because she needed money for herself and their two children. I also purchased the etching, “Memory.” The second etching, “Bubuka,” was a gift. All three pieces are dated 1983.
My husband and I returned to Moscow on assignment for two months in 1990, traveling from Estonia to Siberia, and then again in 1992 to finish up a documentary on Mikhael Gorbachev. I have often been asked, “What do you think about the Russians?” The truth is that I grew very fond of many of the people I met and became familiar with even while knowing they were supposed to spy on us. A love of culture and a wry sense of humor endeared the Russians to me. Some became good friends.
Both my parents were born on the island of Saaremaa, off the coast of Estonia, which was then part of the Russian Empire. My grandfather brought his wife and 13 year-old-daughter, my mother, to New York City after World War I. My father sailed away from Estonia after the war and never saw his family again. He settled in New York where he met my mother. Estonia had been dominated by Russia from 1710-1917. The country began seeking its independence after the Russian February Revolution of 1917, all the while enduring clashes between the Russians and the Germans until 1918 when it issued the Estonian Declaration Of Independence. Still in turmoil, however, the Red Army invaded and thus began the Estonian War of Independence from 1918-1920. The Estonian army cleared the entire territory of the Red Army in 1919 and in 1920 became a republic. The Russians reappeared in 1939 and Estonia was fully occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, forced to become the ESSR. A reign of terror ensued. WW II brought the Nazis in to occupy the country until 1944 and then once again the Soviets held power until Estonia declared sovereignty in 1988. The terrors, displacements, and murders that Estonians faced are now being replicated in Ukraine. I recoil in horror and fear as I watch Vladimir Putin’s assault on that sovereign nation. If he succeeds will Estonia be next? Again? It is my Estonian heritage that is energizing my desire to raise money to help Ukraine. But all of us need to do something. I know the efforts of http://assist-ukraine.org are making a difference and having a positive impact on Ukrainians fighting for their country and for their lives.
You can learn more about me at 11millerstreetstudios.com and sallik.com.