Today is the Anniversary of Wrestlemania III & the Historic Match Between Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan

V.

This should have published yesterday, when the actual anniversary of the most famous Wrestlemania of them all took place on March 29, 1987.

It has become the big annual event for pro-wrestling, the Super Bowl, if you will, for the sport, or entertainment, or whatever you want to call it. In the decades since it first came into being, Wrestlemania has had numerous huge, iconic faces and personalities take part, including Andre the Giants, Hulk Hogan, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, the Undertaker, Mr. T,, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, Chris Jericho, and John Cena. A few of those names are quite famous outside of wrestling circles.

So, I thought that this day, which also happens to be the anniversary of probably the biggest Wrestlemania of them all - Wrestlemania III - would be an appropriate time to discuss the biggest match from that biggest of all Wrestlemanias. I am talking, of course, about Andre the Giant versus Hulk Hogan.

I know that so-called professional wrestling is not real, so please do not think that that is beyond my understanding as I write this.

However, my family (at least the males) followed it regularly when I was a kid. That included my grandfather (although I am not sure the extent to which he actually followed it, although he was familiar with some of the major wrestlers of the WWF at the time), my father, my brother, and myself.

There were some wrestlers that I enjoyed more than others at the time and, looking back on it now, there were some wrestlers that I would appreciate much more when older than I did at the time, just in terms of sheer entertainment value.

One example of this was "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. At the time, being a kid, I enjoyed wrestling and accepted the story lines. Yes, I understood then, as now, that it was fake and staged. However, each weekend, it was relatively easy to suspend disbelief and simply enjoy the show, and I believed in Piper's character. He was an arrogant loudmouth, which seemed like a big no-no at the time, even if he did back it up in the ring (usually, anyway).

But the talent that went into his persona, the work behind his seeming lack of likability as a "heel", actually betrayed a lot of talent. At the time, viewing him as a bad guy, I did not fully appreciate his "Piper's Pit." Yet, some years ago, when nostalgia for all of those WWF memories came to me, one of the first things that I made a point of watching were those "Piper's Pit" episodes. I found them actually more enjoyable as an adult than I had as a child, ironically.

Another character that I came to appreciate more as an adult than I ever did as a child was Don "The Magnificent" Morocco. My father certainly appreciated that guy's talents (particularly with talking), because he mentioned him numerous times, and that is the one wrestler that I remember my father and grandfather having a conversation about, with my father saying that he was unbelievable and talented. There was also a clip many years later of another wrestler, Glenn  Foley, who spoke about how he had intensely disliked Don Moroco as a child, but did not know exactly why he disliked him. Only later, as an adult, did he recognize how much talent went into that act of being a heel like that, and he came to appreciate that man's talent later in life. Same here. I did not like him as a kid, but as an adult, I definitely came to appreciate him.

There were other wrestlers that I enjoyed now much more than I did back then. Another was Rick "The Model" Martel, who was the obligatory resident, arrogant and obnoxious Frenchman (actually, he was Québécois, but that did not seem to matter so much in the WWF). There came a point when every French wrestler was a bad guy, and being from a Franco-American family, that was both a source of humor and mild annoyance (more of a rolling of the eyes kind of thing).

Another wrestler that I came to appreciate in terms of their entertainment value later on in life, rather than when I actually watched wrestling, was Mr. Perfect. His wrestling persona came across as just such over the top arrogance, that it is actually quite amusing to watch all of these years later. This was quite typical of the entertaining acts that wrestling had, and perhaps still has (again, I no longer really follow it).

My favorite wrestler of all, then and now, was Andre the Giant (his real name was André René Roussimoff ). As his name suggests, he was truly a giant, although he was probably not quite as big as he was billed in the WWF.

By the time of the big match with Hulk Hogan in 1987, Andre was officially 520 pounds, according to the WWF. It is worth noting, however, that after slamming Andre, a feat which many believed impossible, Hulk Hogan said that Andre had felt like he had weighed around 700 pounds.

Now, the sad part of this was that his weight actually worked against him. When you look at clips of Andre in the seventies and early eighties, he is athletic, and can move very well for such a big man. But he slows down, his back clearly bothering him. By the time of that big match with Hogan, his back is clearly bothering him. There are clips of him from just a few years later where Andre is essentially bent throughout, his back pains clearly recorded in his movements and posture.

Andre the Giant had been the most iconic wrestler of the 1970's, and he remained one of the most famous faces of wrestling in the 1980's, as well. Still, it was Hulk Hogan, and not Andre, that became the WWF Champion, and held the title for most of the decade. Hulk Hogan was the new face of wrestling, but Andre, at least officially, had never been defeated.

Really, the story line was just too appealing, and it was just a matter of time before those two men locked horns.

Inevitably, they did. But the story had to fit, and so Andre went from being a "face", having always been a likable, gentle giant of sorts, to a "heel". Like all of the Francophone wrestlers, he was a bad guy.

He played the part very well, too. He never smiled anymore, even though his smile had always been iconic, and a symbol of how well-liked he tended to be.

In the meantime, Hulk Hogan, who was already phenomenally popular, became even more so, due to the enormity of the sudden rivalry with such a behemoth. The WWF story line incorporated a subtle nationalistic aspect to the rivalry, as the "real American" Hulk Hogan aimed to become the first ever to slam Andre in the ring, as well as the first to ever defeat Andre, at least by pinfall. Technically, Andre had lost by disqualification before, although the WWF billed him as undefeated.

The match took place on this day, March 29, 1987, in the Pontiac Silverdome. According to official estimates, 93,173 people were in attendance on that day, a record for an indoor sporting event in North America that still stands today. I remember that it made the news on every major regular station (cannot speak for cable, since we did not have cable back then).

So, I wanted to both remember and honor the memory of that huge match, as well as the memory of Andre the Giant, still my favorite wrestler, on this occasion of the 28th anniversary of that epic event. Maybe wrestling got huge in the nineties and beyond, but I was not really watching it as consistently as I had in the eighties, as a kid. But it had an effect on me, and I remember enjoying it immensely as a kid - enough to write about it now, as an adult, obviously! So, here is something that I wrote just a few months ago about the build-up to that match, which also includes some videos.

The Build-up to WrestleMania III Epic Match Between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan

 (originally published on December 15, 2014)

I know that it is not real, and I stopped following it a long time ago. And I knew it was not real as a kid, too.

But back in the eighties, wrestling was really a lot of fun, and my family (at least the males) followed wrestling, and enjoyed all of the drama and back stories.

It seems that our favorite wrestler was Andre the Giant, which is not a surprise, since he, like us, was French.

He was not often seen on the Sunday morning wrestling shows. Nor was Hulk Hogan, for that matter. They rarely wrestled on this shows, although they made some guest appearances and interviews every now and then.

Andre had been billed as unmovable and unbeatable over the years, and the claim was that he had never been defeated in the ring - at least not by being pinned.

Of course, Hulk Hogan was the WWF Champion, and had been for a long time. Andre had never had a shot at the title, because they were both good guys. They were allies and friends, and so never had a chance to wrestle against one another during that era when they were both, in their own way, the kings of the ring.

All of that changed, of course, in 1987. Andre became a bad guy, and turned oh Hulk Hogan. In a series of steps, the two had episodes that, ultimately, let to their huge match at WrestleMania III, in Detroit, Michigan, in late March of 1987.

The build-up lasted several weeks, and anticipation grew. Wrestling may have done a solid job of propaganda before, an surely has since. But I do not believe that they ever did as good a job of it as they did leading up to that match. Everyone wanted to see it. Everyone wanted to know what would happen. These were the two biggest icons in wrestling!

I remember that I made a bet with a few kids, because my father had expected Andre the Giant to win, with Hulk Hogan probably winning his title back in a rematch. That sounded like an attractive and plausible storyline, and so I placed the bets.

Foolishly, in retrospect.

Of course, we did not have cable, and that may even have been on pay-per view.

I found out the results the next morning, at the bus stop to school. Heard that Andre had lost, and felt crushed. Betrayed, even.

Andre had been slammed, which sounded impossible. After inquiring whether or not he was badly hurt, I was told that Andre had gotten up, eventually. Bu only after several minutes.

As it turned out, that was not true. He rolled out of the ring fairly quickly after being pinned, although his back was surely screaming in pain after being body slammed like that.

Eventually, they had a rematch. And, yes, Andre won the rematch. I actually suspect that the WWF could have drawn out the drama, and perhaps had two huge matches like that WrestleMania III if, indeed, they did have Andre win that first match. Even though the rematch was big, being the main match on Saturday Night's Main Event, it nonetheless paled in comparison to WrestleMania III.

Even though I am now obviously fully an adult now, it is fun sometimes to go back and revisit some of the things that seemed so important back then. And I ran into this article (see link below) that got me on the topic, and made me want to revisit some of those big events that led to the historic match, which was probably wrestling's highest point ever. After that, there are some video clips of the drama that led to the big match, then the big match itself, and then the eventual rematch.

Enjoy!

http://yahoo.thepostgame.com/blog/throwback/201412/wrestlemania-iii-andre-giant-hulk-hogan-pontiac-silverdome-attendance-wwe



Andre appears with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, the first sign that he has become a bad guy (what wrestling terms used to be called a "heel"):





Andre attacks Hogan













Finally, the match itself, which set an attendance record for largest crowd for an indoor sporting event (unless you consider wrestling entertainment, rather than a sport):



After the historic match, Andre and Hogan clashed once again in 1988, starting with Andre attacking Hogan on Saturday Night's Main Event:






That incident led to this title match on Saturday Night's Main Event, where this time, Andre took the title, but then immediately gave it to the Million Dollar Man:





Hogan discusses the match years later:



Andre did not stay a bad guy, as he slapped Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and returned to his customary role as a good guy:





Here is a clip going way back to when Andre and Hulk Hogan allegedly first met:




An old match between Hogan and Andre from 1980, held at Shea Stadium:




Sadly, the announcement of the death of Andre the Giant in January of 1993:

Yet Another Clip of Gorbachev Warning About the Dangers of NATO Expansion

Earlier today, I posted a short video clip of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warning that expanding Western interests, particularly in the form of NATO, would be dangerous. At one point, he warns that humiliating the people of a country - in this case, obviously the Russians, who were really struggling with their country in chaos at the time - was never a good idea, and would always lead to consequences down the road. 

I think that he was right. The West is not as much the victim of this current Russian war in Ukraine as they like to play out. Indeed, it often feels to me that Putin was tricked into the war by the West, in one of the few, but obviously most serious, public miscalculations that Putin has ever made.

Please take a look at this video, and see if you do not agree with Gorbachev, that the prospect of continued NATO expansion closer and closer to the border of Russia was bound to escalate into some kind of serious conflict, which it now has.

Gorbachev Video Clip Shows That He Warned How Quickly & Easily Tensions Between Russia & West Could Escalate and Explode Into Violent Conflict

Here is a short video clip of former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, a widely respected leader, who warned back in 2014, shortly after the first recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine, about how quickly and easily tensions can escalate between Russia and the West.

He seems to be warning that the West is not entirely innocent in this regard, a position that I entirely agree with him on. 

Take a look, and watch the video. I think that he makes some very interesting points. 

Recent Wall Street Journal Piece Urges NATO To Defend L'viv From Russia's Military

        

L'viv

I started writing this a few days ago, after first running into this Op/Ed piece published in Wall Street a few weeks ago. However, L'viv was shelled this weekend. As of right now, it seems to be a message by Russian forces that nowhere in Ukraine is safe from the war. So I just wanted to mention that, since in the rest of the writing (which again, was written over the past few days, before the L'viv attacks, western Ukraine had largely been spared the horrors of war. 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has felt more real to me in certain ways than other wars. Some might suggest that this is because I a citizen of a European nation. That is true. Perhaps other wars felt far away, in regions I have never come close to in the Middle East or Africa or Asia, or off the coast of South America. Even the war following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia did not feel quite this close, despite that being on the European continent. Mostly, it is because Ukraine feels much closer in certain ways. As mentioned earlier, I am a dual citizen of both the United States and France, the latter obviously being a European nation. Yet, the other major background I have is Ukrainian. So there is that. Also, it just happened that my girlfriend, my son, and I visited Ukraine less than three years ago. 

A little back story: my girlfriend and I met in 2012. My girlfriend is Polish, and specifically, she is from the rural, southeastern region of Bieszczady, right along the Ukrainian border. We finally decided to go to Poland together to visit her small hometown. The first time that we went there together was in June of 2013. I had wanted to cross the border into Ukraine, but we never did. Then the second time, in 2019, my son came along with us. This time, I was a bit more insistent that we should visit Ukraine, and we finally did. 

We eventually took a day tour to L'viv, which is considered Ukraine's cultural capital. I had been doing some research on it for years, ever since hoping to pay it a visit in 2013. There were organized day tours leaving right from her hometown to L'viv daily during the summer, and they were not too expensive, somewhere between 120 to 150 zloty per person, or about $30 US to $40 US at the time, as I recall. When we went back to her hometown in 2019, this time with my son, I was absolutely committed to pay a visit to L'viv. 

Sure enough, this we finally did on August 21st. We would have to be ready to be on the bus by around 5:30 in the morning or so. We were the first people on the bus, although it would actually get quite crowded before long. It left very early, because it was apparently not uncommon for it to be around three hours to cross the border, and an additional three hours on the way back. It might be less, but they told us we had to be ready for it to be at least that long. When we got to the border, all questions that I had were answered in a stark manner.

Technically, I believe that Ukraine was a country at war at that point, already. There had been tensions with Russia in 2014, although that had been short lived, and a much smaller scale war, hardly making the screaming headlines that the current war has done. Most of the fighting were in predominantly Russian-speaking provinces in the eastern part of the country, while we were crossing on just about the western extremity. Yet, there were soldiers carrying assault rifles and wearing full camouflage walking about. The Polish border troops were armed, as well. It was unlike any border crossing that I had ever experienced before. When we got through, maybe after an hour and a half or so, we saw a sort of pedestrian bridge with armed soldiers watching us and all travelers on the road. Later in the day, I would get a reminder of this strong military presence, as I saw more uniformed soldiers waking around in L'viv than any major city that I can remember seeing before, anywhere. It was not for a military parade, or anything. It was just a normal day. 

Yes, it was a normal day in L'viv that day. And other than all of the people in camouflage who were everywhere, seemingly, it was easy to forget that Ukraine was, technically, still a country engaged in a war. Don't get me wrong: the war was not as "hot" as it is right at the moment. Russia had taken Crimea just a few years earlier, true. But Russia had not outright invaded the nation, like it did earlier this year. Also, there was separatist activity in the eastern provinces of the country. But in western Ukraine - and remember, L'viv is the largest major city in western Ukraine - you hardly saw any real reminders of all of this. The one thing that I can specifically remember seeing in the city that served as a real reminder of the recent tensions was Putin's face on toilet paper that was being sold as a tourist novelty. My girlfriend still regrets not having gotten a roll even to this day. 

One thing surprised me about our visit, and that was how hot it is. The impression that I had of Ukraine, as well as of Russia and Belarus, is that they are cold weather country. You almost cannot think of those countries without thinking of how brutally cold it gets there in the winter. While that is true, this was August. And frankly, it must have been either the hottest, or at least one of the hottest days of the year there. It was oppressively hot and humid, and the sunshine was relentless. In other words, it was not at all what I had expected, and sometimes made the visit a little more challenging, especially when our water supply began to grow a bit low for comfort.

The city of L'viv is beautiful. We visited the old Lychakiv Cemetery, where a lot of Polish citizens from the days of Polish rule there are buried, as well as the Armenian Cathedral, an old synagogue. In the old town, there were beautiful, narrow cobblestone streets with sidewalk cafes, much like so many other European cities. We visited the busy, and on that day sun-bathed Rynok Square, which seemed like a tourist mecca for the city. But the absolute centerpiece in L'viv is the Opera house, which is modeled on the Palais Garnier, which also known as Opéra Garnier, in Paris. There were beautiful fountains in front. It was far and away the busiest and most instantly recognizable symbol of the city, and it's image was featured on most of the touristy things there, such as the magnets and postcards that were available. 

As mentioned earlier, most of the time spent in the city was guided, particularly the Lychakiv Cemetery, Armenian Cathedral, an old synagogue (the name of which escapes me) and the Opera house, which was at least as beautiful inside as out. However, we did get some free time. We ate, and we went to a coffee shop, where my girlfriend got some coffee. We got some chocolates, which is also a specialty for the city. It had charm, did L'viv. Yet, it was not nearly as built up as a tourist trap as other European cities we had been to.

On that day, we enjoyed ourselves. Again, it was surprisingly sunny and hot, almost uncomfortably so. But it had been a good day, and I felt pleased to have gone. Also, my assumption was that maybe we would be going back in the not so distant future. I would be up for it, anyway. But who could have known then that Ukraine would be the site of Europe's biggest war since World War II at that time? 

Now, I am glad that I made such a point of going to L'viv, of crossing into Ukraine. Who knows when, or even if, the opportunity to visit the country will happen again?

My girlfriend and her family had not been to Ukraine, with one exception. There was some bad blood between Poles and Ukrainians, with many older people outright remembering raids by the UPA (the Ukrainian Insurgent Army) into the region where she lives, including her village specifically. Her parents outright remember these raids. Men had been rounded up and killed in a number of Polish towns, and as I understand it, some buildings in her home town were destroyed, burned. The town of Volhynia (now in Ukraine) was hit particularly hard, as 600 people were killed, and the entire village burned to the ground. All of this was pretty much new to me the first time that we went to Poland, when she revealed much of this, and how much the people there remember these episodes, which took place during the late years of World War II, and the immediate years after that conflict had ended. This is an episode that many westerners, myself included, really are not as familiar with as we should be. But it obviously stirred bad blood between Ukrainians and Poles, who already had centuries of bad blood between them. Those feelings did not simply go away, and they continue to exist right to this day. 

This perhaps also explains why the Polish people who went on the tour with us were given a Polish-themed tour of L'viv. That might not seem to make sense at first, given that L'viv is a city in a foreign country, Ukraine. But remember, Poland was split up between Nazi Germany the the Soviet Union during World War II. After the Russians liberated these regions of eastern and central Europe, as everyone knows, they pretty much stayed and took over. A little more on that in a moment. But the point is, the Soviet Union essentially just kept eastern Poland, and incorporated it into Ukraine. Poland was given added territory to the west, in regions formerly belonging to Germany. It is a bit complicated, but in short, the Soviets added territory to Ukraine, which was then a part of the Soviet Union, but is now an independent country unto it's own, although Russia is contesting it presently with this war. Meanwhile, Poland lost this territory, but gained other territory at the expense of a defeated Germany. 

Another country that many Polish people - and people throughout eastern Europe more generally - have a bad history with, and a fear and suspicion of, is Russia, of course. Look how ready many eastern Europeans have seemed to get up in arms over Putin and this Russian invasion. My girlfriend had spoken occasionally about the possibility that Russia would invade Poland, an idea that seemed crazy to me at the time. It seems a little less crazy to me now, but only a little. I still feel that Putin is more coldly calculating than outright crazy, or anything like that. She responds that I just don't know. True. But I also asked her if she thought that the invasion of Ukraine was going as well as Putin and many Russians - as well as many of us around the world - had expected. When she answered no, then I asked her why she thought that he was ready to take on Poland, a NATO and EU country, next? President Zelensky is a very admirable man, and I agree with most of what he says. But he has kept warning the West that this war will soon spread to other countries neighboring Ukraine, including a number of EU countries. He even suggested that Russia would not stop until they reached East Berlin. But as much as I admire him, that was something that seems far-fetched. Those days are over, and Putin would have to go through several NATO and EU countries, while also cutting one (Germany, specifically), in half. Again, given how many problems that Russia has experienced so far in Ukraine alone makes that seem a bit unrealistic, frankly. 

Getting back to L'viv, I suspect that my girlfriend and her mom are happy that we went to L'viv for the visit. Their sympathies, as with most of the world, are very much with the Ukrainian cause. I also believe that the trip helped them to recognize that maybe Ukrainians and Poles have more in common than they previously had suspected. Indeed, the city of L'viv is a beautiful gem of a city. Maybe it felt a bit more run down, and certainly far less taken over by a tourist trap industry, than other European cities. But this actually gave it a bit of charm in and of itself, as well. On that surprisingly hot day, everything there seemed peaceful. The possibility that L'viv, or Ukraine itself, would soon enough be invaded and would see the ravages of war visited upon their land felt like a remote possibility.

Yet, L'viv itself has largely been spared the war, far more than almost every other major city in Ukraine. It seems that in the past week or so, there are a ton of news reporters who are now headquartered in L'viv, reporting on the war from there, the city in Ukraine that still has not quite been touched too much by the war. The very fact that it is a bit more peaceful there, however, seems to be grounds for some people to try and utilize it as the new central city for the western part of what they already seem to assume will be a divided Ukraine. 

In this recent piece (published earlier this month) in the Wall Street Journal by Daniel Henniger, he advocates for the city of L'viv to become more than just the cultural capital of Ukraine, but a de facto central city for a new, more westernized Ukraine, which he presumes will be split up into two countries - at least two countries. The West had better hurry, he urges, because so far, L'viv has not been hit particularly hard by the war. Before it is leveled like Mariupol or Kharkiv, they had better step in and save it, then make it a base of operations. That would make L'viv feel almost like a 21st century version of Cold War Berlin, a city that became a strategic center of that conflict, complete with a wall that divided the two sections of the city like a physical scar. That is not to say that L'viv would be similarly divided. But that is also not to say that it would necessarily be in the best interests of L'viv to be such a city, either. In fact, that whole strategy of pulling one side closer to "us" and letting Russia have their side is what got us into trouble, and near the brink of a nuclear war, back in the days of the Cold War. It also smacks too much of the divide and conquer strategy that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to in their infamous non-aggression pact, which gave Germany the de facto green light to invade Poland, which of course in turn started the European part of World War II. 

So I am not sure that I agree with this Op/Ed piece, frankly. In fact, my suspicion is that such thinking, this blind rush to try and grab whatever part of the country we can get and pull it over to our side of a new Cold War, is what led to this current conflict to begin with. And it would be a tragedy if such a beautiful city became little more than the rope in some political game of tug of war, played on an international level. 

Take a look at this piece, and see for yourself what this guy seems to be arguing. It feels to me that this kind of blind rush to grab what we can is, in fact, another mirror of Putin's own grab of Ukraine, which I still sometimes - hell, often, if I am being honest - feels like a response to the West grabbing as much of the former Eastern Bloc/Warsaw Pact countries onto their side of a new Cold War style conflict while they felt that they had the chance to do so. 

When I think about all of this, it makes me feel depressed, like we have learned nothing. It brings to mind a famous quote by Albert Einstein, and this seemed like a perfect quote to not only incorporate here, but to end this blog entry on:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” 

 - Albert Einstein.

Memo to NATO: Secure Lviv From Russian Aggression by Daniel Henninger, March 9, 2022:

The Allies saved West Berlin from the Soviets in 1948. They should save the Ukrainian city from Putin 2022.  

https://www.wsj.com/articles/memo-to-nato-secure-lviv-western-ukraine-russia-war-putin-zelensky-berlin-airlift-11646864113

The L'viv Opera:

My son, my girlfriend and her mom, and I pose in front of the L'viv Opera house. 

The L'viv Opera House interior:

The ticket for the L'viv Opera, which I kept.

Putin's face is featured prominently on toilet paper sold in L'viv.  We had heard about this,  and I could not resist taking a picture, even though I didn't want to actually buy it. 

Our trip to L'viv,  Ukraine Part Two:

Here was an image that stuck with me quite a bit from our day in Ukraine. On the way to L'viv once in Ukraine, as well as on our way back towards the Polish border from L'viv, we kept having to slow down for horse drawn carriages. This was not an isolated incident, as it happened four times, if memory serves correctly. And it was not done for tourists, because there were few tourists who came this way. Our tour bus may have been one of two or three from our particular region, and it was not a huge or full sized bus, or anything. It seemed quaint at first, until I also realized that this was probably a sign, a visible symbol reminding us that, at the time, Ukraine ranked as Europe's poorest nation. Yet, I suspect (but cannot confirm with any facts to back me up on this) that the region where we were may have been one of the wealthiest parts of Ukraine, since it was sandwiches between the Polish border on the West, and the city of L'viv, the country's cultural capital, to the east. I wish that I had gotten the first one that we would see that day, during what was still fairly early morning. That man had truly looked like he had come from a different era, with clothes that looked rural, and a big, bushy mustache that I had kind of always associated with people in particular from cold, eastern countries like this. I do not want to say that he reminded me of a peasant, since that would sound judgmental and possibly insulting. But he definitely reminded me of a different era in history, and made me suspect that perhaps Ukraine had not quite put that era behind them as much as, say, neighboring Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries that had since joined the EU and/or NATO, had managed to do.