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By Jennifer Cohen

June 24, 1999 | Sergei Khrushchev, 63, son of the late Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet leader during the height of Cold War tensions between the United States and Russia, passed the U.S. citizenship test on Wednesday. Nikita Khrushchev, who once said Russia would "bury" its arch-rival, the United States, was given to dramatic outbursts -- during one famed speech at the United Nations he took off his shoe and pounded it on the table to emphasize a point.

The somewhat calmer Sergei Khrushchev missed just one of the 20 questions on the citizenship test. His wife, Valentina Golenko, got all of them right. They will be taking the citizenship oath on July 12. Khrushchev and his wife live in Providence, R.I., where he is a senior fellow at the Watson School for International Studies at Brown University. Earlier this month, he spoke with Salon about his decision to become a U.S. citizen, his father and his fondness for cavernous home improvement stores.

Why have you and your wife decided to become American citizens?

We've been here for eight years. I think if you are living in the country, you have to be a citizen.

What does being an American citizen mean to you?

American citizen means that we are citizens of a real democratic country. It is a very unusual experience for us who lived in a different society.

During the Cold War, what did it mean to you to be a Soviet citizen? And what does it mean to be a Russian citizen today?

The Soviet citizen or the Russian citizen -- it is no difference. We're just committed to the glory of our country and want Russians to have a better life.

Are you going to register to vote?

About 30 years ago I decided not to vote, and at last I changed my mind and voted for Yeltsin. It was a bad choice. But maybe I will try to have this experience in a very different environment.

When you were studying for the citizenship exam, did any of the questions strike you as particularly odd or interesting?

Some questions I think [are too difficult to be] asked. For example: Who wrote the American anthem? I don't even know who wrote the Soviet anthem.

When you were younger, before you ever came here, what was your image of what America would be like?

Most of our images came from the literature -- from Jack London, Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser. Most of these writers we read and we thought it is not easy life. Really, we thought you are much poorer and maybe that you are living worse than we are in Russia. All the same, at that time if you would ask some Americans about Russia, they would seriously expect that they could meet bears in the Moscow streets.

Are there any American products or material goods that you have developed a strong attachment to? Is there anything that you really like?

Yes. I like Home Depot.

Why?

Ohhh. Because you can buy everything. I just brought one of my Russian friends to Home Depot and he said, "Let's go out because I will be crazy in half an hour." It's true. You can go there and get anything that you can imagine. I like to garden and build something, to do something. It is my favorite store.

Are your children in America now?

No, no, no. Our children are grown and live in Moscow; they're Russians.

How often do you go back to Russia?

I prefer my children to visit me than to go there. In eight years I have been there four times, but my wife visited much more, a couple of times a year.

Are any of your children planning to join you here?

No. It is difficult to come here if nobody invites you [agrees to act as a sponsor]. I came here because the university invited me. They have their own occupations there in Moscow. They think that they are happy there. My oldest son, Nikita, is working in the Moscow News -- it's a publishing house, and they just published this Khrushchev memoir, the four volumes that I edited. My middle son, Ilya, is working for a small American company, selling communication equipment for companies. And the youngest son, Sergei, is now defending his Ph.D. dissertation in Moscow University. The oldest is not married, but Ilya has two children and Sergei has one son.

How did your children and grandchildren react to your decision to become an American citizen?

You are trying to find out something that does not exist. My personal decision changed nothing in our relations, because they said, you want to live there and you want to be a citizen, and we prefer to stay in Moscow and we want to be the Russian citizens. We really did not discuss it.

You are trying to still talk in the terms of the Cold War. In the Cold War it would have been a very complicated decision, because if you immigrated from Soviet Union, it was the same as if you committed suicide in Russia. You will never return, you will never meet your relatives, you will never meet your friends, you will never come home, you will never see the Russian streets, you will never see Russian birch trees, you will never, never, never, never. And now it is very different. In this decision, I can go there whenever I want, as many times as I want. To be with who I want. It's not such a decision of losing something, it is the decision of gaining something.

Does being the grandchildren of Nikita Khrushchev have any special meaning for your children? Does it give them any kind of special status?

My oldest son, he feels a very strong responsibility and he cares about his grandfather Khrushchev's legacy, and he studies in archives, and he now cares about his grave, and he was a driving force about publishing his memoir in Russia and also my books. I think the youngest, he not care at all and the middle, he just in the middle. When he have time he care, but it is difficult to ask him to do something.

If your father were alive today, how do you think he would respond to your decision to become an American citizen?

We cannot try to bring the other people from other historical periods at this time. It's the same would I ask you, what will be the opinion of General Washington about the Gulf War?

Did your father have a bad temper at home?

No, he never lost his temper in the family. He was very nice person with the family. He spent a lot of time talking about all his new ideas and the construction of the buildings and the agricultural ideas. We went to theaters, rowing on the boats. Sometimes he liked to threaten outside world, but it was not part of his nature. He was not so much politician as a manager.

So he never banged shoes at the dinner table?

He did this for Americans, not for himself.

What is the one biggest misinterpretation about your father?

It is this one you just said -- that he make his decisions under the influence of his temper, his emotions. Never. He could show his emotions to the outside world, then return to his office and become very different because it was part of his, how to say, image that he want to show. He thought it very useful to him to look dangerous, so all other countries will be more careful.

If you had stayed in Russia, if you were still there, what do you think your life would be like?

Like any employment, my pension in Russia $20 a month and the prices there similar to the Americans. So it would be very poor life.

Do you think that Russia could become a totally functional democracy in your lifetime?

My lifetime? I don't expect I will live so long. I think it will take about half a century. In the long term I am very positive.

salon.com | June 24, 1999

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