Michael Idov

To anyone whose ambition outpaced their patience, Russia was thus a space-time shortcut, a wormhole to success.

Being Jewish meant zip in the way of religion; it meant a funny last name (Zilberman—check), a funnier nose and/or hair (check and check), and the stigma of “rootless cosmopolitanism,” a sticky Stalin-era formulation guaranteeing that no Jew would ever be considered fully Russian.

Imagine a culture where Joy Division somehow usurped the place of Wham!, and you have 1987’s U.S.S.R.