By Ally Morrison
Rita Meikson and her son, Ilya Blokh, were the driving forces behind a recent event at Railroad Park that gave Birmingham residents the opportunity to show support for Ukraine and its people.
Residents who are part of Birmingham’s Ukrainian community and residents who are not stood together during the event to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Meikson particularly wanted to show her support because she is Russian.
“I know there are a lot of Ukrainian people in Birmingham, and I want to show them that we care,” Meikson said. “Being Russian, I want people to know we aren’t on Putin’s side. When it started, I had this feeling of guilt. I left Russia 30 years ago and never once voted for Putin or his government. But still, being from Russia, I felt like part of the guilt was on me and I wanted to explain to American people and to my students that it was Putin who started the war. Not Russia’s people.”
Meikson, a Russian language teacher at Alabama Waldorf School, emigrated from Moscow in 1992 with her family. Her husband, Alexander Blokh, originally is from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which has been enduring Russia’s shelling of civilians in recent days.
He took a job as a math professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham shortly after the family entered the country.
Blokh spoke last week about friends of his who were in Ukraine at the time of the Russian attack.
“A square in Kharkiv known as Freedom Square was bombed and some people lost their lives. When you look at photos, it looks like World War II. I had only seen this kind of thing in movies, and now I’m seeing it in the city where I grew up and attended school,” Blokh said.
“One of my friends managed to leave the city,” he continued. “She decided to leave after a shell casing fell into her backyard and a few windows at her apartment complex were damaged. Another very close friend of mine responded to one of my messages saying he was hiding in his basement with his mom because the previous day had been bad. He hasn’t responded to my messages since.”
Settling in Homewood
Meikson and Blokh met in Kharkiv. Meikson explained the two went on a trip to Estonia with friends and then spent a lot of time traveling together. Two years later, the pair were married.
After moving to the Birmingham area, the pair were looking for a place to live.
“When we were looking for a home, neither of us could drive,” Meikson said. “We never had a car in Russia. My husband was looking for good school systems we could walk to, and he planned to take the bus to UAB.”
They settled in Homewood.
“When we lived in our first home, we would walk everywhere. The people of Homewood were so good to us. They would give us rides, and we made so many good friends.”
Ilya was 9 years old when he came with his family to the U.S. He grew up in the Homewood and eventually moved to Chicago, where he would study computer science at Northwestern University. He now lives in Berlin, Germany.
He and his mother attended another event in the park several years ago, which spawned the idea for the recent show of solidarity.
“A couple of years ago we participated in a gathering at Railroad Park in support of Alexei Navalny, a Russian leader who was poisoned and put in jail,” Meikson said. “I told my son, let’s do something like that. He composed the message and informed people. We did it together.”
Taking the Message Into the Classroom
Meikson explained how the turmoil in Ukraine has established new challenges inside the classroom where she has spent 17 years.
“When it all started, it was so shocking. For me it’s painful. I have to face my students, and they have a lot of questions. I told them they could ask me anything, and I tried to explain the situation to them. It’s been hard because they grew up in different circumstances. They ask me why Russian people don’t impeach Putin, and I told them he is a dictator. There is no law in Russia.”
Meikson said she offered her students a chance to write letters of support to Ukrainian children, and her students took the opportunity seriously. Students were persistent in asking what they could do to help.
“I make Borscht, a Ukrainian dish, with my students every year,” Meikson said. “We came up with an idea to make the traditional Ukrainian dish and sell it to parents and faculty as a fundraiser where all of the money can be donated to help Ukraine.”
In a letter published by the Alabama Waldorf School, Meikson expressed her support for the people of Ukraine.
“My family and I stand with Ukraine,” she wrote. “We hope that peace may be restored as soon as possible.”
