Way to Russia Talk Lounge

lusenish

Why do people always see everything in black and white? It's known the thuth is usually grey. Wink

Last weekend I had an interesting chat with one of my acquaintances. She expressed a popular point of view of many Russians.

After the collapse of the USSR (and maybe before it as well) Russians started to think West was a much better place to live than our country, there are less problems, the salaries are higher, so are the living standards. Our country is corrupted, no money, no quality goods, in short - there is positive perception of the West and negative of Russia. Many people emigrated from Russia to live in the States, Germany and so on.

My mother moved to Germany about 12 years ago and she's not always satisfied with her life there, and sometimes she considers returning back to her nativeland. Now she has a son, 11 years old, and he seems to be quite interested in Russia and our culture, he studies the language and I think it is quite possible that one day they will move to Russia.

But my acquaintance insisted that no Europaer would immigrate on his own will to Russia, because it's better to live in the West.

It would be interesting to learn if you know anyone who moved to Russia (except for Asian and Caucasian people) and what were the reasons for that.

Paul Holmes · Lounge Wizard Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 1011

There is an interesting documentary on a Canadian who lived in Moscow for ten years. After 10 years, he gave up, because he found that the Russians never truly accepted him as an equal or even close to being such. He was considered to an outsider, because he was never Russian.

trevish · Just Starting Joined: 20 Jul 2008 Posts: 1

*bump*

Interesting thread! And this is my first post here, too! Razz

While it may be true for the moment that not many Western Europeans would be interested in moving to Russia, but that might change in the future, especially as Russia grows stronger economically and depending on how the situation in Europe develops. I have thought about once moving to Russia some time in the future, but it depends on how things are over here in Europe.

By the way, Paul Holmes, what documentary was that? Is it available online? I'd love to see it.

Absurd · Frequent Guest Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 28

Ender · Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:33 pm Post subject:

Soundbrigade · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:51 pm Post subject:

I never ever felt like an outsider when I lived in Russia. But I had my wife and her relatives, all our friends and my working mates that took real good care of me (us). The directors of the company I was working for were real bastards and my Russian collegues saw that I had no benefits that they didn't have, so when the company was going down we could understand each other as we were all in the same position.
Even now, I feel very comfortable when I visit Russia but I always try to be humble and really show that I feel a great deal of affaction for Russia and Russians. It is a good help to know the history, to be able to speak Russian and adopt to Russian standards and habits.We sometimes make a joke about returning to Russia when we retire and have the Swedish govt. send our pensions there.

A few days ago we bumped into friends (she is Russian he's a Swede) and she said - How come I feel good when I am back in Russia and get so depressed when I am back in Sweden?
My wife also feels that life outside Russia is very hard for her as a Russian. But she states that Russia has changed soo much that she doesn't feel at ease when she goes there.
Maybe Swedes and Sweden are complicated, but we heard some complaints from a Russian who lived in Italy and my wife thought she talked about Swedes. - No, I am talking about the Italians.
A collegue of mine who's from Germany doesn't really feel comfy in Swede, but maybe she is treated badly or at least people are showing a slight cold facade because some people in Germany started a war on Europe 70 years ago and somehow hold all Germans responsible for that. And Swedes keep Russians responsible for a lot of stuff though we, by now have evidence they were innocent of whatever it was.

james wilkins · Just Starting Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 1

While it may be true for the moment that not many Western Europeans would be interested in moving to Russia, but that might change in the future, especially as Russia grows stronger economically and depending on how the situation in Europe develops. I have thought about once moving to Russia some time in the future, but it depends on how things are over here in Europe.
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james wilkins

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