BOXING BROTHERS ON COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA:

In the documentary, there’s a fascinating moment, Vitali, where you’re 17 years old and you travel to the United States for the first time with a delegation of Ukrainian boxers. You talk about all the propaganda you experienced growing up in the Soviet Union. What were you expecting when you arrived on U.S. soil?

Vitali Klitschko: My whole life I was told that the U.S. was a horrible country. That everyone was aggressive and that crime was out of control and that everywhere you went people were shooting each other in the street. I also was told that Americans wanted to go to war with the Russians and make us their slaves. At some point, I always believed, I would have to defend my home country against crazy Americans who wanted to control the whole world.

Wladimir Klitschko: Just to give you the full contrast, these days we have an American training camp director from Pacific Palisades, California. I explained to him that when I was 12, I was shooting AK-47s, handling hand grenades, running through underground tunnels, practicing drills, and studying how to get along with tank attacks. He said, “What? When I was 12, I was driving to Disney World to visit Mickey Mouse. What the hell were you guys thinking?” Well, we were preparing. We’d basically been brainwashed.

So when you arrived in America, how did you reconcile what you’d heard with what you saw?

Vitali: I was in total shock. I couldn’t understand why people were so friendly — more friendly than Russia! Good food, beautiful beaches … I felt like a little kid, in awe of things. I always thought there was only one type of cheese, you know, the thing we’d always called “cheese.” And in a grocery store, I saw a hundred kinds of cheese! It was amazing. My mouth was hanging open. When I came home, everybody wanted to know what the U.S. was like. At the time, it was easier for a Russian to travel to the moon than to the United States. When I explained what I’d seen, it made quite an impression on people.

Wladimir: He brought me back a special gift — a bottle of Coca-Cola. In the Soviet Union, everyone had heard of Coca-Cola, but nobody had tasted it! I was so happy.

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