Obviously the historical baggage in this case may have been an additional factor, but I think it's not uncommon for people to see the members of other nations - particularly if those nations are far away or inaccessible, as the Soviet Union was - as a faceless mass until we read/see something that sort of serves as a meeting with an individual member of that group. And then we're like, oh yeah! They're individuals too!
I've also had this experience with time periods. It blew my tiny mind when I realized that there was no monolithic 19th century opinion, but a WIDE variety of views. You'd think that the whole Civil War thing, where Americans disagreed about things SO HARD that they went to war for four years, might have clued me in, but apparently that was too subtle.
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Date: 2019-09-25 12:22 am (UTC)I've also had this experience with time periods. It blew my tiny mind when I realized that there was no monolithic 19th century opinion, but a WIDE variety of views. You'd think that the whole Civil War thing, where Americans disagreed about things SO HARD that they went to war for four years, might have clued me in, but apparently that was too subtle.