By Sarath Obeysekera

There was a time when life did not come with apps, algorithms, or air-conditioned opinions. It came instead with cabbage.

Not metaphorical cabbage—but real, stubborn, Soviet cabbage. The kind you harvested yourself whether you were an engineering student, a future military officer, or a confused foreigner wondering how you ended up in a place called Orenburg fixing gas equipment in sub-zero winds.

The University of Life (with Compulsory Farming Minor)

In the days of the Soviet Union, education was not confined to lecture halls. If you didn’t go to university, you went to the military. If you went to university, you still learned military thinking. And regardless of your academic brilliance, at some point you were sent to a kolkhoz—a collective farm—to harvest cabbage, potatoes, or anything else that refused to grow politely on its own.

Imagine today’s students being told:

Before your degree, please report to Monaragala to harvest pumpkins.”

There would be protests on Instagram within minutes.

But back then, nobody protested. You just picked up the cabbage—and perhaps, unknowingly, a work ethic.

Language Lessons, Soviet Style

The Russians had a remarkable way with language. Their vocabulary could be… expressive. Words like blyad and pizda floated around like punctuation marks in a heated conversation.

Yet, the real genius was the supervisor who replaced all profanity with one magical word:

Pamidori!” (Tomatoes!)

Instead of shouting insults, he would roar:

Pamidori! Pamidori!”

And somehow, nobody was offended. Imagine if Sri Lankan traffic police adopted this:

Pamidori! Move your three-wheeler!”

Road rage would disappear overnight.

Cuisine of Champions (and Survivors)

Dinner was simple, predictable, and unforgettable:

• Cabbage (again—inescapable)
• Kalbasa (minced meat sausage, heroic in its greasiness)
• Black bread (dense enough to stop a bullet—or at least a complaint)

And then came the real highlight: vodka.

Not your premium, imported, crystal-bottle variety. No. This was the legendary cheap spirit—sometimes whispered to be distilled from substances that may have once powered machinery.

At 3.62 rubles a bottle, it was less a drink and more a national institution.

To accompany it, there was zakuska—the noble chaser:

• Salted fish
• Pickled tomatoes
• Gherkins that could wake the dead

And in true weekend spirit, there were adventures: catching land-based krevetki (crab-like creatures), boiling them over open fires, and consuming them with enthusiasm that defied hygiene standards.

Hardship Without Misery

Here is the surprising part: people were not miserable.

They worked hard, lived simply, and laughed loudly. There was a sense of shared struggle—an unspoken agreement that life was tough, but it was everyone’s tough.

Compare that to today, where comfort is abundant but contentment is scarce.

What Did We Learn?

Not communism. Not ideology. Not politics.

We learned:

• Discipline without supervision
• Skill through doing, not theorizing
• Respect for labour—whether in a classroom or a cabbage field

And perhaps most importantly, we learned that happiness does not always come from comfort. Sometimes it comes from:

• A shared meal
• A bad joke shouted as Pamidori!”
• A cold night made warm by camaraderie

A Thought for Today’s Sri Lanka

As Sri Lanka debates its future, with movements like the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the National People’s Power offering frameworks and theories, one wonders:

Do we have the will to build character along with policy?

Because no system—capitalist, socialist, or otherwise—can succeed without a generation that knows how to work, endure, and laugh at hardship.

You cannot teach resilience in an air-conditioned lecture hall alone.

Sometimes, you need a cabbage field.

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Final Reflection

From the frozen yards of Orenburg to the structured efficiency of Norway and the polished systems of the United Kingdom, the journey was not just geographic—it was educational.

But the most unforgettable classroom?

A Soviet lorry, a shouting supervisor, a bottle of cheap vodka, and a plate of cabbage.

Pamidori! What an education. 🍅