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RUSSIANS
ABROAD
By Anna Maslov Who are the Russians abroad? How they relate to their native land, what do they think of Russia (where from a distance much more is visible)? Do they think at all about their native land, how do they preserve - and do they preserve - their Russian culture in Europe? Russians continually come to Europe. Basically these are young people who arrive for study, work, research, or those who are married. Many of these are people who have not reconciled with the present complicated situation in Russia. "Russia is restless, people are impolite, intolerant", a Russian student of Munich University says. The goal of many students is obviously to study abroad, to live and remain here for the sake of a material well-being and government stability. "A plus of Germany is that everything is practically insured, socially, politically, physically, ethically and even economically. It is simply necessary to know your rights and how to use them. The longer you live in Germany, the more you get used to the German ways and eventually you don't even notice them." a female student from Düsseldorf remarks. For them in Germany there are no special difficulties with adapting, they have an easy time entering German society. Coming here, they bring with themselves culture of modern Russia, in many respects inconsistent and, unfortunately, in many respects godless, which one can also say about modern German culture. As a result, one can often hear such statements: "I support German traditions, Christmas and their other holidays. Why not, it's pleasant for me." When asked what Russian traditions do they support when living abroad, the majority says "New years, March 8th [Woman's Day - tr] and February 23rd [The day of the Red Army - tr]". Nevertheless, there are those who consider the 8th of March and the 23rd of February as remnants of the Soviet epoch. Russia they consider as the native land where they were born, where there were relatives, friends, and this, as a general rule, is what they miss. There was also such an answer, "I think of Russia constantly. I've missed and still miss our Karelian nature, my mom, my friends and acquaintances, our songs... " Often it is said that the native land is more easily loved from far away. A collaborator of a Dutch university explains it thus, "From a distance the native land is easier to love. There is an opportunity to simply love it, avoiding reciprocations of love which there, in Russia, the motherland land carries out through the state, which doesn't always do a good job. This is the basic type of love with which permanent émigrés, or temporary émigrés dreaming to become permanent émigrés, love Russia." Many note that there is a lack of something which brings together Russians and western Europeans. Russians have a hard time finding friends, as they understand them, amidst Germans and the Dutch. In essence they befriend the same kind of Russians or people from the former CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States, a union of nations of the former USSR - tr]. It is more accurate to say that they socialize with western Europeans, they study and work here, but do not consider them friends. Maybe the understanding of friendship differs? "I have no German friends" is a very frequent answer. Without rushing to conclusions, it seems that our and their sense of what friendship is differs. We say "Give up your own life, but help a friend out of a jam". One would like to think that in this we still see our life in Christ's commandments. However, we've forgotten where they're from. Some people attribute this to the USSR, "…during the USSR a new society was created - the Soviet people - which had a deep understanding and respect to the culture of each nationality. In meeting people abroad who have Ukrainian, Byelorussia passports and citizenship of other CIS countries, I am practically not feeling any cultural barrier. Russia is my motherland because it continues to try and represent itself as the political inheritor of the Soviet Union, and because I have Russian citizenship" says a student of physics from a Dutch university. No, we need to look back, as we are continuing to suffer the repercussions of 1917. We can understand this thanks to the white Russian émigrés of the "first wave". They live in their own separate diaspora, follow old Russian traditions founded on Orthodoxy. Everyone knows that pre-revolutionary Russian culture is a culture that is in many things religious, Orthodox. They were able to preserve this island of old Russia in Germany, for example. One cannot call these people "Ivans who don't remember their nationality." The Russia of these émigrés has remained the same as pre-Soviet Russia, expressly with all of its traditions. They preserved the Russian language, family traditions, something that is difficult in a foreign country. It is impossible to consider one's motherland the geographical point "Russia" where these traditional values have been lost. For them only the spiritual Russia is left, "My motherland is the Orthodox church, regardless of where." Some of them note "I'm not a Russian, I'm not a German, I have Russian roots." The church, not western culture, helped them to not fall spiritually and preserve their traditions. Remember how our classic authors described the principals on which the life of the Russian nobility was founded. It is precisely the Russian nobility that left the country then. In the west, the nobility is not imprisoned. Modern Russians have a hard time understanding how it is possible to still live in such a way. For instance in Germany, they [white Russian émigrés - tr] continue to study and work, but they live a spiritual life that is the Orthodox Church. It must be recognized that these people are few. The Russian nobility, and following them the light of the Russian intelligencia, scientists - does this not make one contemplate, why the most intelligent, educated, and gifted people leave abroad? This happens because of a lack of spiritual peace. Theft, an all eclipsing passion for money, criminality, corruption, and all of our unhappiness are a sign of godlessness. God knows how many crimes were committed in the USSR. We are all responsible that we have raised our kids this way, and that now they are continuing to ignore God's law. We must indeed look back, in repentance. We still don't understand what kind of a spiritual treasure we have. "Mi v Rossii i Zarubezhye" |
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