Campaign Rewards Creator FAQ Community Story WHEN I was in third grade, my grandpa told me a tale quite unlike his usual bedtime stories and parables. Sitting beside my bed, in his thick German accent, Grandpa spoke about growing up in Crimea. Russia. But my family was American. We couldn’t be Russian. It was 1969, and Russian meant only bad things: the Cold War, Cuban missiles, China, and communism. I did not want to be Russian. That wasn’t all.