Victor was born in the spring of '44
Went off to school, and learned to serve the state
I was born in '49, a Cold War kid in McCarthy time
Victor was sent to some Red Army town
Children lived in Levittown, hid in the shelters underground
And so my child and I came to this place
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and never saw his father anymore
A child of sacrifice, a child of war
another son who never had
a father after Leningrad
followed the rules and drank his vodka straight
The only way to live was drown the hate
a Russian life was very sad
and such was life in Leningrad
stop 'em at the 38th parallel, blast those yellow reds to hell
Cold War kids were hard to kill, under their desks in an air raid drill
haven't they heard we won the war? What do they keep on fighting for?
served out his time, became a circus clown
The greatest happiness he'd ever found
was making Russian children glad
and children lived in Leningrad
till the Soviets turned their ships around, tore the Cuban missiles down
In that bright October sun we knew our childhood days were done
and I watched my friends go off to war, what do they keep on fighting for?
to meet him eye to eye and face to face
He made my daughter laugh, then we embraced
we never knew what friends we had
until we came to Leningrad
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