“I was born in a country that no longer exists,” Igor Tulchinsky tells me simply at the beginning of our interview. “The Soviet Union.”
Tulchinsky, who was born in what is now called the Republic of Belarus, left his home at the age of 11. It was the 1970s, when the Cold War between the communist East and the USA-led West was at its most dangerous. Many believed the third world war, and maybe even nuclear conflict, was coming as the two super-powers battled for control and influence around the world.
His parents, both accomplished musicians, were allowed to leave with 1 ruble, worth anywhere between 20¢ and 50¢ according to black market rates (no Soviet citizens could gain the official rate of 1 ruble to $1.30). “My father spent it on a piece of gum as soon as we crossed the border,” Tulchinsky tells me. “And symbolically it was Polish gum, and it melted in my mouth as I chewed it.”
His childhood experience taught him that life was often about risk. And that without risk, results are often poorer.
“My parents took very big risks,” he says. “In those days, when you applied to get out, you could get permission, or you could get a denial. If you got into a denial process, you were without a job. Everybody thinks you’re a traitor, and you just kind of live in the shadows. But thankfully, that didn’t happen, and we went to Italy, applied for refugee status in the United States, and received the status in about four months.
