“As the regime was getting more restrictive after 1968, I was basically waiting for a moment to emigrate. As soon as I saw that Czechs were giving it up… If they hadn’t, I would have stayed. But why should I, a Russian citizen, get into trouble, when the Czech themselves have given up? That was still quite a long time to go before the Charter 77.”
“They locked us in a cell. After a while they called us, but I already knew how to deal with them. ´Who are you?´ - ´I am Konstantin Ruchadze, a Soviet citizen.´ Suddenly they didn’t know what to do about it. ´Where do your parents work?´ - ´At the Soviet embassy.´ This was not true, obviously, but I knew how to outsmart them. Their faces turned stiff. I almost pitied them (laughing). After a short time they told me I could return home.”
“I was quite lucky. I sneaked out between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Czechs were afraid to do something about me because I was a Soviet national, and on the other hand, the Soviets were not interested in me because I no longer lived in the Soviet Union.”
“Of course, when they ask me, I tell them who I am. I am not a member of any community, Czech or Jewish or any other. I take something from everything and I am in touch with all of them. If I am with the Czechs a lot, then I begin missing something Dutch or something Russian. And on the other hand, when I am with the Russians a lot, I start missing some Czech things. I am simply a puzzle composed of all these cultures. It is just not possible anymore to identify with only one ethnic group; if I did, I would miss something else.”
“Originally I adored the West, but then I found out that in the West there were other problems, like everything being centered on money. That’s another thing that prevents man from being free. Eventually I returned to myself, I discovered myself – I was no longer a Russian, or Czech or Dutch, but I was I, Kosťa Ruchadze with all my experiences and the school of life which I have passed in six different countries. What is important to me are the fundamental values which are secondary in today’s world: love, friendship, faith, God, eternity, adventure, spontaneity, heroism, basic human qualities.”
Guitar player, composer and music producer Konstantin Ruchadze is a true globetrotter. He has been living in a number of countries. He has spent a longer time in six countries, including the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain, and for a short time he also lived in Georgia, the country of his ancestors. He was born in 1950 in Moscow to a Georgian father and a Jewish mother. He spent his formative years in Prague in Czechoslovakia from thirteen (1963) until twenty-one (1971), when he decided to emigrate. He was playing in bands called Captains Souls Blues Band and Blue Devils. In 1968/1969 he played in the club in Strahov and took part in demonstrations in August 1969 aimed against the Soviet occupation of the country. In 1970 he formed a band called Ruchadze Band. At present he lives in Amsterdam, but he frequently visits the Czech Republic, where his mother and friends live and where he is engaged in many music-related activities.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
