When I was in my early adolescence the papers were filled with the ominous threats of Nikita Kruschev, the Premier of the Soviet Union, and his crazy statements of propaganda. “We will bury you” was his most famous threat. He would allege U.S. “imperialist aggression” wherever there was a battle front: the Congo, Palestine, Libya, South Korea. The color “Red” was forever connected with words and acts of Russia.

It’s hard to forget the early resentments. The headlines never painted the Russians as people, but as “Communists,” a very alien brand of atheistic politics. It was hard to see their humanity.

Kruschev displayed his boorishness by pounding with his shoe at the meeting  of  the UN General Assembly. He made ominous threatening statements toward the U.S. at the World’s Fair in Flushing. He told Americans,

I can prophecy that your grandchildren in America will live under socialism — Our firm conviction is that sooner or later Capitalism will give way to Socialism. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.

Still our grandchildren are free. But I am not free of the disgust I felt for the Red Bear, as we used to refer to the Soviet Union. I still feel a reflexive anger when Vladimir Putin makes outrageous statements about my country.

And who is the main enemy for the U.S. and NATO? We know that too. It’s Russia. In NATO documents, our country is officially and directly declared the main threat to North Atlantic security. And Ukraine will serve as a forward springboard for the strike. If our ancestors had heard about it, they probably would simply not have believed it. And today we don’t want to believe it, but it’s true.” [MOSCOW, Feb 21 (Reuters) – extracts from a televised speech on Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine]

Unlike Krushchev, Putin likes to take the victim role, even as he invades Ukraine today. But the fury toward the United States remains, whether in aggressive or passive-aggressive language.  Somehow it feels personal when Putin speaks about the Ukraine.

While Putin is temperamentally and physically nothing like Kruschev,  I feel the continuity of anger and distrust toward him, lingering over the sixty odd years we have stood against the once Soviet Union and now Russian Federation. He evokes the Russian past going back to Lenin, when he speaks of entitlements to the land known as Ukraine. He wakens all the ambition to reclaim the Eastern European lands that goes back to World War II.

When I see Vladimir Putin, I see “Red,” the ongoing feud between East and West. It feels personal, but of course, it is any but personal. I know no Russians personally, even immigrants fleeing the oppressive foe for their own health and survival. The image of Russia continues to be the threatening face of Putin, a man with deep psychological needs by some accounts.

Looking at a wondering baby’s face on Facebook, Rev. Bill Pearlman commented to his wife, ” Imagine Putin once looked like that.” He shared this anecdote in his sermon on Sunday, as a way for us to humanize our enemies. I heard that message and knew it applied to me. I did not see Putin as human, and the nation of the Russian Federation had no humanity for me.

Any grudge that goes back sixty years cannot be healthy. It is a “crying shame” as someone in my family used to say. As flags and tanks are facing off in Ukraine, it is helpful to realize they were all babies once. Especially the Russians and especially Vladimir Putin. The battle may be unavoidable, and Putin may be implacable, but it is a “crying shame.”