THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 28, 1996 TAG: 9606280039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MICHELLE MIZAL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 92 lines
DENIS BABICHENKO first saw the skyscrapers of New York eight years ago when he and his mom were on vacation from their home in the Soviet Union.
Little did he know that four years later at the age of 17, he would see America again, but this time as a refugee.
Denis, now 21 and living in Virginia Beach, recalls the hustle and bustle of New York - something he enjoyed. He especially remembers the atmosphere. It seemed so clean. In his hometown of Dnieprodzerginsk, pollution was so bad that smog seemed to filter from the 40-plus factories in the area 24-7.
But cleaner air was not the reason that Denis and his family - his parents, Mikhail and Inna, his brother Igor, and his two grandparents - came to Norfolk on March 23, 1992.
In Russia, he and his family were persecuted because they were Jewish. Denis remembers being teased at school - sometimes being called a ``greedy Jew.'' The Jews was so repressed that they were not allowed to have a synagogue in the city.
``I understood that I had no future there,'' Denis said, turning his blue eyes to glance out of a cafeteria window of Webb Center, Old Dominion University's student center.
Denis said that job discrimination was also big. ``My dad said that he thinks he didn't make it to medical school because he was Jewish,'' he said.
Denis' parents thought America was a better place not only for practicing Judaism, but also for career opportunities for him and his brother. By the time he came here as a teen-ager, Denis believed that, too.
But Denis did not always have a positive view of the United States. He hated it when he was growing up. It was Communist propaganda that formed his attitude that all Americans are ``capitalist pigs,'' he said.
Denis said that the Soviet media called Americans greedy people who treated workers harshly. He remembers seeing political cartoons like Uncle Sam stepping on Cuba.
It wasn't until 1986, when Mikhail S. Gorbachev took to the media to expose how Communism oppressed Soviet citizens, that Denis felt the shock of thinking all he had believed in was wrong.
The United States then became a fascination. Denis was surprised to see images of America on television, the food-packed grocery stores with no two-hour lines.
Now, to Denis, America is where there is true freedom of press, religion and speech. Although he expected freedom in America, Denis did not expect other things.
His family's first home here was a Virginia Beach apartment. When they moved into their first house, Denis was uncomfortable. He missed the easy access to people that came with apartment-living.
Denis has also had to get used to a very different culture, but one that is much less stressful, he said.
``In Russia, because of the big change in economics and politics you can't be sure whether you are going to have a job or enough to feed your family,'' Denis said.
He found some of the starker differences in school.
Denis' Soviet school was named School No. 16. All the schools in his hometown had numbers for names, and students graduated after 10th grade.
He attended school on Saturdays and had no choice about what classes to take. Everyone took the same classes. When Denis moved up a grade, all his classmates moved with him. And if Saturday schooling was not enough, exam days were formal affairs that required ties and dresses.
Instead of prom, Russian students have a graduation dance. After the ceremony, graduates danced until 4 or 5 a.m. and then took a 30-minute walk to the banks of the Dnepr River to watch sunrise.
Learning the English language was the hardest adjustment for Denis.
The high school in Dnieprodzerginsk specialized in British English. So at Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, Denis understood nothing.
``Someone would try to talk to me and I would open my mouth and try to talk. I would turn red and just say, ``Sorry I don't speak English, please don't talk to me,' '' Denis said, extending his palm straight out as if to silence the mouth of an invisible classmate - his cheeks turning red with the memory.
He gives credit to ``Jeopardy'' and ``Wheel of Fortune'' for his fluency.
Today, Denis feels like the American citizen that he will apply to be next year. He likes to play basketball and is a faithful fan of the Detroit Pistons.
He likes all kinds of music except country. Even classical music by Luciano Pavarotti has captured his fancy.
But when he's not listening to the latest Pavarotti or shooting hoops, Denis is busy aiming for bigger things.
Next year he will be a senior at Old Dominion University. His major is international studies; his minor is economics. When he graduates he either plans to go to law school, get a job in the field of international affairs or go to graduate school.
This summer, he's taking a class at ODU. He looks at home, sitting at the cafeteria table - a blue binder and economics book are on the table. Although he misses his friends in Dnieprodzerginsk, he has many friends here.
``Hey I know that guy, that's Tom,'' he says pointing to a student rushing out of Webb Center. He gives Tom a friendly wave. Tom returns it. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by CNB