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.
To be clear, I consider myself a cultural refugee, not an expat. An expat is a person who leaves a country and resides in another country not as a citizen but as a guest. A cultural refugee is a person who enters a country to become part of its culture because his origin culture is diseased. I work my best to assimilate to Russian cultural norms and, given my Slavic origins, it is not particularly difficult. As my ancestors dreamed about leaving Europe for a better life in the USA, I dreamed about leaving the USA for a better life in Europe.
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.
Comment: See also: Bend the bars: US inmates organizing nationwide strike in protest of prison slavery