Intervention 43[The mother]— You are leaving now, we do not know when you’ll come
back.
[The soldier]— Maria, my love, please take care of my parents and live
with them peacefully. When I come back, I hope that we will all live
together happily.
While I ride on this train, I am strained by my thoughts of my family. This
train does not know of my suffering. During the trip, we pass by the waves
of the Pacific. As we arrive in Vladivostok, I see the tall brick houses and
the street lights [Lev Chugai remembered only three couplets].The second song is the Korean “RFE Drinking Song,” which was sung
by Koreans when drinking vodka, makkolli, or soju with appetizers such as
kasha (rice porridge), cuts of meat, and vegetables.^52 These songs attest to a
Russian- Korean hybrid culture as seen in the Korean “Maria,” the Korean
Red Army soldier, and Rus sian drinking customs adapted using vodka and
soju (a Korean spirit) that was prob ably first evident in the late nineteenth
century in the RFE’s urban areas.
It doesn’t matter if you are angry or happy
or if you are a man who drinks expensive liquor,
As time passes, people get grey hair, that’s life
the same thing happens to all of us.
Without exception, when one is drunk, the world spins, round and
round.
Those who eat barley and the man who eats expensive cuts of meat,
we are all the same, all hair eventually turns grey.
One man is the same as any other man.
When we are drunk, all of our heads are spinning, round and round.
Educated or not, when standing naked in the bathroom, we find that
we are all the same.
Without exception, we all get grey hair and the world spins round
and round when we are drunk.^53As we have seen, many urbanized Koreans in the RFE were quite well assimi-
lated and Russified. They had developed a hybrid culture that was distinct
from that in Korea, which was evident in their songs and popu lar culture.
They would now encounter another test of their identity and allegiance (at
Free Cit y).