You're listening to Rough Translation from NPR.

A few years ago, long before the recent invasion of Ukraine,

I heard a story that stuck with me about life in Russia.

The poet and writer, Lenore Garalik, told me about this pattern that she'd noticed

among her Russian friends.

These were middle-class Russians in big cities, mostly,

who, at least back then, lived in this sort of westernized bubble.

They're drinking coffee from Starbucks, buying furniture from IKEA,

and jobs at multinational companies, and consuming mostly independent media.

But the most important thing is they have what I would call the western mind,

which is very important.

People who read a lot, travel a lot, share liberal values.

You should never think in one package, but in many ways, they share liberal values.

And then she says this thing happens when their children get to school age,

and they go to public school with other Russian children.

And then the child comes for the first time from the kindergarten

with a black eye or just crying because he or she is bullied.

Do you know what 90% of the bullied boys will hear from the teacher?

You're a future soldier.

How will you survive the army?

Because everybody knows what happens in the Russian army.

And then the children burst the bubble.

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