I Wanted to Be Happy in the USSR
I Wanted to be Happy in the USSR is a story of migration from the Global South to the Global North seen in the fate of a single family. It starts when the Guinean-born man George Blemu comes to the Soviet Union as a medical student in 1979 where he marries a Ukrainian woman and settles. The USSR’s official policy of “friendship among peoples” made for a safe place for George Blemu to settle down and have a family. Not for long, however. After the dissolution of the USSR, Russia saw a sharp rise in the nationalist and later anti-migrant sentiment followed by a dramatic increase in ethnic and racial violence. Since the early 2000s, George has been attacked in the street on numerous occasions and, in the most egregious episode, he was shot and stabbed by the very people who were supposed to protect him – by the police. His daughters Anne and Marie have not been spared either – constant bullying and repeated beatings made school their daily hell. The stifling atmosphere of anguish and fear took a grip of the entire family and made the outside world feel hostile and dangerous. The only hope that remained was to get out of Russia but repeated failed attempts at applying for asylum abroad sank them into utter despair. Pushed to the edge of survival, they put everything at stake as they packed their bags and booked a tourist trip to Norway.