A common trope in Southern literature is white and Black children playing together throughout their youth until the white kids reach an age where they're expected to embrace bigotry and segregation and leave their friends behind.

Was this a common experience or is it just a useful story-telling device that's become a trope?

Though tactics shifted, the generally consistent Cold War ideology of US policymakers seems to have been that the Soviet Union was their irredeemable arch-nemesis, an existential threat which must be opposed and ideally destroyed. Even détente looks like a practical strategy for coexisting with an enemy, without any hope or dream that the two countries would ever be trusted allies. (Correct me if I'm wrong!)

Did the leaders of the USSR also view the Cold War in such zero-sum terms? Or were Soviet policymakers more open to eventual cooperation and friendship, or at least peaceful long-term coexistence?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

The military commanders of eastern Europe during the immediate aftermath of WW1 were mostly ex-members of the Russian imperial army, and if not then the German and Austro-Hungarian ones.

Considering that the new nations and factions all battled with each other (e.g. Polish-Lithuanian war, Polish-Ukrainian war, Estonian and Latvian wars of independence) in many cases ex-Russian Imperial army servicemen were fighting each other.

I remember a case where a Ukrainian collaborator during WW2 was able to get favourable treatment for his troops because he happened to know the Polish commander he surrendered to, having both served in the Polish army prewar.

Did things similar to that happen during the interwar era? Were any old friendships across ethnic and political lines kept even as nationalism swept over?