Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City’s new mayor in early January while the city’s most liberal citizens cheered. But Yelena Cherry, who grew up in the far East region of the Soviet Union and now lives in New York City, has lived through this nightmare before.
Throughout her childhood, Cherry was taught to believe that Americans were bad. The only news channel they were able to watch was propaganda, straight from Moscow.
“We had to believe whatever they showed us,” Cherry told IW Features, explaining that the negative portrayal of Americans was intentional. “And poor Americans, they had no hope, of course, because capitalists are very bad guys, and they’re so rich, and the poor people are just starving—clever, you know—homeless and fighting for their life.”
Fast forward several decades later and New Yorkers voted for many of the policies that marked Cherry’s childhood. A worldview that she escaped is now espoused by Mamdani and his agenda.
But the realities of communism are far darker than Mamdani and his supporters seem to think. To survive, Russians traded with each other, and as Cherry described, hiring a plumber or electrician often meant providing two bottles of vodka along with whatever the service cost.
“If you didn’t steal, you would not make it in your life. Why? Because everything belonged to the government,” Cherry explained. “If you don’t have anything to offer, you will not get anything.”
Then, in 1999, Cherry moved to New York City.
“I didn’t try to escape from Russia, but I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t see exactly, because I didn’t have anything to compare it to,” Cherry said. “I just came straight to New York, and of course, 1999 was a different time, but I fell in love with the city.”
Upon arriving, not only was American culture foreign to Cherry, but she didn’t speak English.
“My language was completely different. I couldn’t have a conversation,” Cherry said. “But I still loved it.”
Cherry has lived in New York ever since, and has witnessed the deterioration of what was once one of America’s greatest cities, beginning with an uptick in crime. According to Cherry, the change began around 15 years ago.
“I remember when I was working before, and now I feel absolutely sad that I didn’t have to think about that [crime] and I didn’t have an incident where somebody tried to rub me or something,” Cherry explained. “I don’t know, I didn’t feel unsafe.”
One day last year, Cherry was walking through the city and came across volunteers who were canvassing for Mamdani. The volunteers kept offering Cherry brochures on Mamdani’s policies and plans, which she continued to decline. One volunteer struck up a conversation with Cherry.
“She started to talk about affordability in New York, but I said, ‘Someone has to pay for it. You want it for free, so many people want it for free,’” Cherry said. “There is no one country where socialism has succeeded. With socialism comes a lot of control from the government.”
Cherry continued: “It’s not like democracy. Socialism or communism, it’s exactly like a dictatorship.”
Cherry tries to share the story of her life in the Soviet Union with those who will listen, in an attempt to warn them about the dangers of communism. Ultimately, most say the stories must be “exaggerated” and “people just cannot believe it was that bad,” Cherry said. They hear the promises of free services and refuse to consider the consequences of massive state expansion.
Under the “Affordability” tab on the Mamdani campaign website, for example, the mayor’s promises include city-owned grocery stores and fare-free buses. Under the “Early Childhood and Education” tab, Mamdani promises no-cost childcare.
Mamdani has claimed the public grocery stores will not pay rent or property taxes, and that the fare-free buses will somehow generate more than $1.5 billion in economic benefits for the city.
Yet, even politicians from Mamdani’s own party are unsure on how he will achieve this feat. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has repeatedly said she will not raise taxes to endorse Mamdani’s policies, exposing a rift in the New York Democratic ranks.
That being said, even if Mamdani’s plans never come to fruition, the policies still reflect the spirit of socialism Cherry is so concerned about and experienced first-hand in Soviet Russia.
After Mamdani won, Cherry described the feeling as “devastating.”
“We went through this in the Soviet Union. We can live through it here too, but it will be difficult,” Cherry said. “I hope he will not do this. I mean, he will not succeed, because it’s impossible to do what he’s trying to do, what he’s promising to do. I think people will wake up and see that this is nonsense.”
When reflecting upon her former life in the Soviet Union, Cherry said that what stands out the most is just how little opportunity the former regime was able to offer its citizens, many of whom never managed to better their circumstances. That’s a struggle most Americans simply can’t conceive of.
“No matter what’s going on here, America is still the best country,” Cherry said. “There is not much better anywhere else. It’s still the best country.”
