MOTHER'S DAY, WAR, AND COLD WAR: MAY 8

MAY 8 

MOTHER'S DAY 

WAR 

& 

COLD WAR 

MOTHER & DAUGHTER 

NOVOSIBIRSK (RUSSIA), USSR, 1984 

May 8, 1945, is celebrated as V-E Day (May 9 as Victory Day by the USSR and now Russia) -- the end of World War II in Europe. 

On May 8, 1984, the Soviet Union announced that it would boycott the Los Angeles Olympics in the summer of 1984, ostensibly because it feared for the safety of its athletes. 

The real reason was generally understood to be retaliation for the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. 

A couple of months later I was wandering around the USSR by myself ("wandering" meaning following an itinerary I had chosen for myself, but specified and paid for in advance) for seven weeks; in Siberia, in Novosibirsk, I took the photograph above. 

And why had the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Olympics, so dear to "Moscow's" heart?  Because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on December 27, 1979 (with Soviet troops not withdrawing until February 15, 1989). 

On October 7, 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.  This war has already lasted longer than the Soviets'; with Bin Laden dead and 9/11 presumably avenged, what next? 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY