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Gudrun and Peter Kotzan: "Sometimes I feel the need to sing Russian songs."
Gudrun Kotzan sits on a beige sofa from the 1970s and sings.
"Lenin always lives, Lenin is always with you."
Her voice is thin and breaks away when the 78-year-old tries to hit the higher notes.
She wears a dusky pink knitted sweater and a gray vest made of non-woven fabric.
Several issues of the newspaper "Neues Deutschland" are piled up on the living room table in front of her.
In the wall unit behind the sofa are five matryoshkas, Russian wooden dolls, sorted according to size.
The Pesennik, a Soviet songbook, lies on the table.
But Gudrun Kotzan doesn't need it, she knows all the songs by heart.
"I sometimes feel the need to sing Russian songs."
Your eyes shine.
30 years of German unity
This article was written as part of a project by the Evangelical School of Journalism (EJS) on the topic of 30 years of German unity.
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She received the songbook as a gift from a Soviet soldier.
She doesn't remember when exactly.
In her memory the events are blurred, at least those from GDR times when the Soviet troops practiced war with live ammunition near the small town of Lieberose in the south of Brandenburg.
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