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August Is a Cursed Month For Russia
If Russia could somehow skip this month, maybe we’d all be better off
Another potentially transformative event has occurred in Russia and yes, as usual, August is in the air.
To begin with, August is the official watermelon month in Russia. In the eyes of the average citizen, it is sheer lunacy to eat watermelons sooner than early-to-mid August.
“Eating them before August can make you sick,” I was reassured by more than one friend over my years living there.
Watermelons are sold through the end of September. It was late September 1991, the first time I experienced the massive piles of ripe watermelons for sale near city metro stations.
Russia had just survived the coup attempt in Moscow and Mikhail Gorbachev was back in the Kremlin trying to figure out his role going forward in a country that was rapidly breaking apart.
The only thing I noticed that was plentiful and seemingly everywhere were the massive watermelons. The air was so sweet with their smell, I recall. The snap a good one makes when cut into filled the air with hopeful energy.
The attempted coup began on August 19, 1991. It was on that day the end of the Soviet Union officially commenced.
