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Article: My journey into the past; His family have their roots in Russia - but visiting there this week, one columnist felt like a stranger. How will second-generation Britons feel in years to come?(Column)
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- December 1, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: JONATHAN FREEDLAND
I'VE BEEN in a country that should have felt like home - and yet it couldn't have felt more foreign. I've spent the week in Russia, the country my great-grandfathers left behind just over a century ago. I walked the streets, listened to the language, watched the faces, searching for a flicker of familiarity. But I felt as much an outsider there as I would in Congo or China.
That hardly makes sense. Both my father's grandfathers were born in Russia.
The one whose story I know best, Berel (later Barnet) Mindel, grew up in a tiny rural hamlet, Dunilovich, on a patch of land that would be claimed in the course of his ...