Comment: The rest of this American cultural refugee's story has since been published by Fort Russ, so we're re-running it with Part 2 included.
Katehon recently ran an article about the Russian Federation possibly offering to open it's gates to cultural refugees from the western world. I decided that I should author a piece about this subject - because I am in fact myself a cultural refugee from the western world who lives in Russia.
© Rob / Flickr The Motherland Statue in Volgograd, Russia
My first few visits back to Europe were - well, enjoyable, but they did not quite "fit" me. I had seen Denmark, Sweden, France, Holland, and Switzerland. While all were quite nice, a variety of factors led me to visit Russia next. When I got on my first plane to Russia, I didn't know what to expect, as my Russian-Polish ancestors who left there so long ago never had much good to say about it, though I grew up with my grandmother drinking Stolichnaya (during the Cold War!) and her cooking borscht and pelmeni. I grew up wearing Topachki (similar to slippers, but a lot of people, myself included, use sandals - mine are Adidas, of course). It was during my first visit to Moscow that I really felt a strong sense of "home", and knew that Russia was the country for me.
Why did I need to leave the USA? A lot of factors, but essentially I will say it has to do with the dislike of individualism as the state religion. Individualism, we are told in the West, is freedom to be "yourself". But what does that really mean? Are all societies who are non-individualistic by their nature, anti-freedom? Can freedom only exist in the narrow sense of being free to dye one's hair weird colors without comment, or burn bibles, or get piercings all over their faces? There are other forms of freedom: the freedom to have an opinion on politically incorrect subjects, a freedom one does not have in America... the freedom to start a traditional family... the freedom to buy antibiotics without a prescription when you are sick... the freedom to be a normal person who likes "traditional gender roles" if one chooses... the freedom to live in a country with one's own people as the majority instead of mass migration replacing them... the freedom to walk down the street with your children and not see naked dancing men groping each other... How about those kinds of freedom?
Freedom is not the only thing to make a society good and, while it is necessary, community is necessary as well. A Russian friend will drive in the middle of the night to help you; no matter the cost. People at the Rynok (market) talk and discuss things and genuinely care what you say, not just wait for you to stop speaking. I have had Russians come to me when I was destitute and homeless during my second trip to Russia, and pay for hotels for me, give me money, food, free rides in their taxis. I had been homeless for a bit and rather than go home I stayed here because I wanted to be a Russian citizen so bad that I endured homelessness and poverty and joblessness many times to stay in this country.
Russians laugh at me; they say, "You're insane, you can just got to USA and live a good life!" But will I? I will not because my soul doesn't belong in that place. Now my Russian friends shake their heads and smile because they see how stubborn I am. They know I'm not leaving. I thought about this recently on a trip to Volgograd, where the city's significance would cement the reflections I have had recently...
Part 2
The Motherland Calls in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad
My entire extended Eastern European family, that I know of, is dead (though my family name survives, I mean the immediate relatives and cousins). They were murdered by fascists and Banderists during the war. My grandfather fought on the American side against Japanese fascists, and so being in the place where the Battle of Stalingrad was had great significance for me.
As I walked up the hill to "The Motherland Calls" statue, I looked at the graves of noted dead, from 18-year-old girls, to Russian men, to Russian Jews, to Chechens, Kazakhs, and Dagestanis, all with the same granite tombstones, quietly commemorating their deeds, all who equally gave for the rodina. At the top, labeled "sniper", lay the final resting place of Vassily Zaytsev, who killed hundreds of enemy soldiers - who I had seen a movie about in America called Enemy at the Gates.
Seeing his grave like all the others, equal - that moved me almost to tears as I knew who he was long before seeing the grave. He was buried here though he died in 1991. Above them all stood the proud, defiant, warlike manifestation of "Mother Russia", holding a sword and beckoning the country to fight to the death.
Russia has become one of the few European countries to openly hold in contempt so many pseudo-values that are ever-present in the Western world, while opposing the globalist forces that want to force absurd sentiments on every culture, and at the same time tear down every shred of stability for a devotion to pseudo-ideals such as "democracy" (at all costs), "equality" (at all costs) and "humanitarianism" (a euphemism for cheap labor) - those very ideals that destroyed the Middle East in less than a decade, and the push for the mass migration and widespread LGBT influence that is eroding European culture as a whole. It is this ideological backing, added to my personal experiences of community, that cements what Russia means to me.
Life here is far from perfect, but the things I never had in America, such as a real bond with the community, I do have here. I can express opinions that are not "pc", and I feel a part of a country and a place. I feel like I belong to it, rather than the miasma of untempered anomie that the Western world feels so imbued with. Once I was in a fight with some guys here - and onlookers rushed to my aid. I couldn't believe it. People helping each other? When I get on the marshrutka, one has to pass one's change up. If you sit near the door, you have to pass up a person's change, and then pass back the remainder to them. If there's lack of room, people will pick up a person's child, and put the child on their lap without even asking the parent. If an old person needs help with anything, one rushes to help them and they smile. One gives their seat. It's just normal. Expected.
The deepness of Russians and their emotions, understanding the depth of human expression is another factor. Russian people often seem stone-faced to outsiders, but in reality emotions are a private thing in Russian culture. People feel them quite deeply, but they don't express it so openly. One has to get to know another to express it. But once one does, it means something. It's not just empty banter.
These small things mean the most to me, more than anything else... and combined with knowing that my new country is fighting the evils that my country of origin keeps spreading around the world - that lets me sleep well at night. I wear my St. George's ribbon on my bag - I got it on Victory Day in 2015 - with great pride. I can't say everyone else will have my experience. Learning a new language and learning to read a different alphabet than Latin is not easy. Learning Russian cultural sensibilities and intricacies can be hard as well. Things are often chaotic in Russia. But at the end of the day, I know that I belong here. I can't say it would be the same for all Westerners, but I can tell you it is this way for me.
Reader Comments
. . . your only 'reason' I don't expect things would go all that well for you.
Expat is a general term covering a broad range of persons living outside their country of original citizenship. And yes, some of them are living in their new country because of cultural reasons. Expats range from long term travelers or workers on assignment that have no intention of ever living permanently or assimilating at all where they are traveling or posted to dual citizens or permanent residents that have established a connection to their new country that for all intents and purposes really does make them citizens or citizen-like. Personally, I am a permanent resident which gives me the same rights as a citizen in my new country and I will be able to vote in the country's next presidential election. I have a family and extended family through marriage with a citizen but still technically fall under the general expat definition. So I am still a guest? I wouldn't let a guest have the right to vote or the same rights as a citizen.