silv :)

VERY rough timeline:

- grigori and irina's age gap is (i googled this so feel free to correct me) is around 20 years and we know ilya was born in 1991— to me. alexei is six years older idc so that means first baby by 1985 (we can safely assume they were married by 1984)

- so we're in the 1980s, and a woman in her 20s is marrying a man in his 40s for ?????? this would NOT make sense as an "irina mooching off an older man" situation because the ussr had a social parasitism law (yes, people could bypass it/use loopholes but this was still the law)

- so what could they stand to gain?

(some context as to why i think this next point makes sense for them:

we see that ilya plays hockey in the 90s and 2000s (by this point russia is capitalist, hockey is expensive, and people had no financial stability) and his father was a police officer (aka poor) so it's not an insane thing to assume that money-wise they weren't doing so hot)

HERE is when i need you to understand i've taken creative liberties. stay with me okay?

irina brings generational wealth and political advantage while grigori brings in legal/social standing

(2 relevant facts about Irina's cross, taking into account she was born in a relatively well-established ussr:

- the cross is gold. these luxuries were theoretically permitted yes but the average person didn't have access to them — basically you had to be upper class to actually partake

- the ussr was atheist with, at times, persecutionist policies against religious ideology. it's not far off to assume that her family was traditional and proud of their russian heritage to still find importance in orthodox christian symbols (a religion that's huge in the culture) (YES post ussr religion was encouraged again but this was economically a rough as hell time, no one was spending their money on gold jewelry in the 90s)

imo, it's not unreasonable to assume that irina was from a "socialite" family with mid-ranking parents within the party or a similar admin role that permitted the preservation of wealth

grigori however, was a police officer for the ministry of internal affairs— we can see wwii family medals in the show's funeral scene (we assume his father fought in the war) but that earns more military respect than tangible liquid wealth

- SO MARRIAGE: by marrying a pretty woman in her 20s from a well-connected, refined family, grigori gains social capital/wealth but by marrying her off to grigori they gain legal security and social capital within military circles (which are always relevant let's so fr)

great! they're married! now why is this important

- OKAY SO! 1985! no parasitism law. since we're making assumptions here we can assume that irina studied for university (this part is completely personal opinion but i hc her as having done something arts and russian literature:)), got married, got pregnant (this would be how we can safely assume she didn't work as seems to be the case by what little we know from canon?)

- everything goes to shit in russia in the 90s rip! we can see from what the show implies that they're not super rich but still they send Ilya to hockey hm okay

several things at play here:

your country is rebuilding a sense of national identity. hockey is a great way to do this and is super encouraged! great! you send your son since your husband is in the police and they've started funnelling support into clubs yay

hockey equipment is expensive as hell ESPECIALLY for a growing boy who needs constant upgrades so already your husband who is a government employee and bringing ZERO money in is spending it. you're relying pretty heavily on accumulated wealth and selling assets to make this work (that nice family dacha vacation home? goodbye!)

okay yay your son is a prodigy you're gonna keep going with this— guys do you know how fucking expensive this is? yeah financially you guys are fucked

you have an older son so like fuck him— you funnel him into public military schools because its free (i can expand on this) and it's kind of too late to make HIM into a sports prospect prodigy so.

thank god you even have a house btw but your family had a nice big apartment in the political district and it's okay because the government let's you keep pre paid assets even in the transition to capitalism so. there's that!

- if you're grigori: work is brutal, your whole national identity you were so proud of kind of crumbled, you're barely bringing money home, your wife is hauling your son to practice every day for hours and you guys are barely paying it and jesus christ you are up to HERE

- you're alexei: your mom is depressed, your youngest brother is the prodigy that needs to work himself to th bone and you're the oldest son who has to follow your father's footsteps and go to whatever school you can and kind of tough it out. you're also a teenager which is problem enough tbh but lowkey you did see your country kind of spiraling a little bit

(my personal headcanon was he was a good brother and man but after irina's death, the general stress of the house and social climate, and the military draft (mandatory 2 years of service if you're over age and not studying!) he kind of reaches his breaking point — add this to the fact he would then likely join a police corp where drugs and corruption was rampant to withstand the truly horrid working conditions and yeah,,,,,)

- irina's depression: you're a woman from a nice family that's grown up with a deep appreciation for culture, you're social and artistic and young

you get married off to an older military man and are effectively shackled to this country. you have two kids with him. and this is fine, you can handle it

except the late 80s happen and suddenly it's 1991 and everything goes to shit and your husband is a government employee — financially you're so fucked. you're a bird in a cage and it's not even a gilded cage you're kind of going crash over here you have two kids and one of them has this hockey career that's actually kind of huge on the entire family

on top of this you kind of rely on selling your family heirlooms, what the hell else is there to do? (hence why ilya wouldn't have much left of her especially if post suicide grigori is like okay man it's the 2000s i want everything GONE money's tight my dead wife disgraced us and she's not here to argue anyway)

(i could go much deeper into all of this but yk. overview)

- NOTES!!! i did make hcs but i also wanted to fit some of the vibes, details and timelines of canon

i really want to stress that i personally got a vibe of decadence and financial poverty from ilya's family which can see contradictory with his later flourishing career but i think this fits :)

i do have to source and research this a lot better this was a stream of consciousness with what i have. im in finals season ok it's late and im tired

discussion welcome if anyone read this im lowk screaming into the void

And this. Another butt pat POV