Feeling kinda melancholy, fam. … Shouldn’t really start my posts like that … I fly too close to the sun with my casual posting style. I can see all my former editors checking in to read this post and shaking their heads in shame. Have they taught me nothing?
“We are an anti-Fascist country committed to tolerance and the ‘friendship between nations,’ idea” they explained.
"You mean the Democrats?"
What was it Sun Tzu said? 'Know yourself and know your enemy'? These boomers are spectacular in their ability to fail at both. On either side of the iron curtain, it seems. WWIII is going to be less gladiatorial death match and more playground slap fight between the fat kids - victory going not so much to the swift or the strong as to the least incompetent.
Allegiance tests are everywhere. No secret police in poland but utter a bad word about the cocaine comic here or worse still a kind word about Putin, and drone swarms emerge from the sky and start shooting yellow and blue flags at you.
Poland is russohysterical and always will be, so I'm off to Hungary. They've secured their Russian gas for the winter.
Hopefully you'll be able to return to your rightful ancestral land at some point in the not too distant future.I assume you've already tried this,but are you able to apply for Russian citizenship?Seems like it's gonna be necessary for you to have it to be in Russia.
P.S. those spooks are straight retarded.Boomers man,not even once.
This is depressing, because while I was lucky enough not to have to deal with anything higher than local cops in Russia (that I'm aware of) I have friends who have had to deal with the spooks in the US, and yet they seem equally clueless (and somewhat more violent and less polite than your experience.)
About a month before I fled to St Petersburg to live for just under two years, having basically been convinced "America's over" in 2004 (guess I got that one right), I was reading the biography of Fr Seraphim Rose. Apparently he had been invited to go to multiple countries by Church acquaintances, but always responded "I have everything for my salvation right here" (his monastery in California.) Reading that after four months of preparing to go to Russia felt like I had been kicked in the gut. Perhaps fleeing the country was a waste of time, but I had already committed to it, so I did.
What I learned was, despite being 1/4 Russian via my grandma, I'd always be an "American" to everyone, and that was ok; I had assimilated well enough and even the old ladies at Church were impressed by my halting Russian (disuse means it stinks now) but the worst of it was the feeling of being alone. I had a few Russian friends, a few expat and transitory friends, but everyone was busy. And most nights, I'd be sitting in some cafe, drinking a beer and feeling like an obvious "other" and knowing, deeply, that I was alone.
But the bigger lesson would come after returning to the US: Fr Seraphim was right in a very stark sense for me. Maslow's Hierarchy taking precedence means having to establish subsistence, shelter, all that stuff, and build your tribe locally. After losing everything, realizing you never perhaps truly had anything is a killer. At the risk of sounding like a Metallica song, in the end, where you lay your head is home for the moment, and what you can build while you're there is your, er, opportunity metric (like a measuring stick for opportunity? There's probably a term for this). Never thought I'd be harvesting vegetables in a city back yard, but here we are. Never thought I'd have a family or be on top of a household again either.
Hope you find a safe home soon, and presumably that will be where the spooks keep at least a safe distance, or at least stay quiet.
A popular travel blogger on YT named Bald and Bankrupt was recently likewise deported from the FSU. He'd just left Birobidzhan in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast headed for Vladivostok when a lady cop requested he come to the station for questioning. Claims he spent a couple of nights in jail and was then deported to Estonia. Promises he'll have more to say about the experience in the future, but mentions he was told not to come back.
I can imagine the police found him to be a suspicious character based on superficials. His vlog is never political beyond an evident fondness for the architecture of the Soviet past and casual flirtation w/ older ladies (babooshkas) by inviting their memories of when life was better. Still he's traveled far and wide thru eastern Europe and the FSB, speaking good Russian. Likely they sized him up as a potential spy. I've sized the British born Benjamin up as a crypto-J, but hardly threatening to Russian political interests.
The truth I think is that none of them want this (the war and civilizational turning) and they absolutely fear and hate what is to come. Nationalism and Populism mean a redistribution of power and also a change in practices.
Very discouraging! - I've got to figure out that bitcoin thing - I have an account - ... I'll take another run at it next week. I agree: "It's very important that people with our views learn how to do it. "
Sorry this happened, but not totally surprised knowing that you are Ukrainian. Why, when they asked "do you mean the democrats?" did you say "sure, the democrats?"
Especially given the democrat's rabid hatred of Russia & their incitement & fostering of the coup and war in Ukraine?
Be careful where you go in Europe. I've seen a few reports out of different countries that the refugees are wearing out their welcome anong the average citizens. And with energy shortages & hyperinflation, the Euros aren't likely to be real open
Eg, the UK took in a bunch through a "share your home for 6 months" program. 6 months later, the Ukrainians are now homeless due to 1. The gov failing to pay the monthly stipend promised to the hosting families, & 2. Complaints of attitude & behavior issues
For their part, the Ukrainian(s) interviewed said they'd expected the war to be over & returning home by 6 months
You mentioned before that leftists put a bounty on your head publicly over the internet, so that excludes the West, and your best bets would be going to Hungary or more intriguingly, Turkey.
But from the outside - so not really knowing your circumstances - I'd say why not to go back to St. Petersburg and leverage the acquaintances you made in the university there to get a job, live a quiet life and accumulate time spent in Russia in view of advancing your chances of getting Russian citizenship.
If you get a university job, you'd be respectable enough for the FSB not to pester you again, lest they want you complaining about their ways in the stratosphere of academic circles.
I don't think the situation is getting better for dissidents in the east, either. People used to say that Bob Dylan was a prophet, and it sure seems to be that everybody must get stoned.
How common is it for Belarusians to think the Democrats are their friend? Is that spook typical or an outlier?
Very retarded outlook but the things our spooks believe are just as crazy and destructive in the US.
I have been an expat for over a decade in 4 countries. I don't miss the US but the idea that you can readily be booted out of a country if you aren't a citizen and don't have equal rights is definitely a downside.
But then if I go back to the US I will have a government that explicitly hates me so at least I haven't been hated in the 4 expat countries.
I am one of those boomers you hate. If I was a younger expat I would live in a country that isn't part of the American Empire where I could easily get citizenship.
I have also found that to have a normal life as an expat you need to marry into a culture because outside of a few nations like the US people in most countries don't form new friendships past their early twenties and in some places such as Mexico they don't form friendships past elementary school so you are just going to socialize with other expats
«they threatened me with immediate deportation to Ukraine. In effect, they were condemning me to the tender caprices of the SBU and, at best, to conscription and becoming meat fodder for the Donbass front»
The difficulty for you is that if you go to most NATO countries you risk to be sent to Ukraine because you are subject to draft in the AFU, given your age, and most likely all NATO countries are sending lists of military age ukrainians who evade the prohibition to leave the country. If I were you I would not risk it.
More or less the only "neutral" countries that can take you are Albania, Austria, Serbia, Switzerland, Moldova, and perhaps Armenia or Azerbaijan or one of the "stans". Cyprus and Ireland are EU but not NATO, but I don't know whether they would send you to Ukraine.
“We are an anti-Fascist country committed to tolerance and the ‘friendship between nations,’ idea” they explained.
"You mean the Democrats?"
What was it Sun Tzu said? 'Know yourself and know your enemy'? These boomers are spectacular in their ability to fail at both. On either side of the iron curtain, it seems. WWIII is going to be less gladiatorial death match and more playground slap fight between the fat kids - victory going not so much to the swift or the strong as to the least incompetent.
Wow. Interesting experience. Dugina assassination clampdown.
Allegiance tests are everywhere. No secret police in poland but utter a bad word about the cocaine comic here or worse still a kind word about Putin, and drone swarms emerge from the sky and start shooting yellow and blue flags at you.
Poland is russohysterical and always will be, so I'm off to Hungary. They've secured their Russian gas for the winter.
It's soon to be chess beside a frozen Danube.
Hopefully you'll be able to return to your rightful ancestral land at some point in the not too distant future.I assume you've already tried this,but are you able to apply for Russian citizenship?Seems like it's gonna be necessary for you to have it to be in Russia.
P.S. those spooks are straight retarded.Boomers man,not even once.
This is depressing, because while I was lucky enough not to have to deal with anything higher than local cops in Russia (that I'm aware of) I have friends who have had to deal with the spooks in the US, and yet they seem equally clueless (and somewhat more violent and less polite than your experience.)
About a month before I fled to St Petersburg to live for just under two years, having basically been convinced "America's over" in 2004 (guess I got that one right), I was reading the biography of Fr Seraphim Rose. Apparently he had been invited to go to multiple countries by Church acquaintances, but always responded "I have everything for my salvation right here" (his monastery in California.) Reading that after four months of preparing to go to Russia felt like I had been kicked in the gut. Perhaps fleeing the country was a waste of time, but I had already committed to it, so I did.
What I learned was, despite being 1/4 Russian via my grandma, I'd always be an "American" to everyone, and that was ok; I had assimilated well enough and even the old ladies at Church were impressed by my halting Russian (disuse means it stinks now) but the worst of it was the feeling of being alone. I had a few Russian friends, a few expat and transitory friends, but everyone was busy. And most nights, I'd be sitting in some cafe, drinking a beer and feeling like an obvious "other" and knowing, deeply, that I was alone.
But the bigger lesson would come after returning to the US: Fr Seraphim was right in a very stark sense for me. Maslow's Hierarchy taking precedence means having to establish subsistence, shelter, all that stuff, and build your tribe locally. After losing everything, realizing you never perhaps truly had anything is a killer. At the risk of sounding like a Metallica song, in the end, where you lay your head is home for the moment, and what you can build while you're there is your, er, opportunity metric (like a measuring stick for opportunity? There's probably a term for this). Never thought I'd be harvesting vegetables in a city back yard, but here we are. Never thought I'd have a family or be on top of a household again either.
Hope you find a safe home soon, and presumably that will be where the spooks keep at least a safe distance, or at least stay quiet.
A popular travel blogger on YT named Bald and Bankrupt was recently likewise deported from the FSU. He'd just left Birobidzhan in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast headed for Vladivostok when a lady cop requested he come to the station for questioning. Claims he spent a couple of nights in jail and was then deported to Estonia. Promises he'll have more to say about the experience in the future, but mentions he was told not to come back.
I can imagine the police found him to be a suspicious character based on superficials. His vlog is never political beyond an evident fondness for the architecture of the Soviet past and casual flirtation w/ older ladies (babooshkas) by inviting their memories of when life was better. Still he's traveled far and wide thru eastern Europe and the FSB, speaking good Russian. Likely they sized him up as a potential spy. I've sized the British born Benjamin up as a crypto-J, but hardly threatening to Russian political interests.
The truth I think is that none of them want this (the war and civilizational turning) and they absolutely fear and hate what is to come. Nationalism and Populism mean a redistribution of power and also a change in practices.
It offends there soul because to threatens them.
That is F-up, wishing you all the luck you need!
Good luck out there.
Hopefully the war continues grinding out the madness in this civilization.
That's gay as hell. Hopefully it all works out and that's the end of it.
Very discouraging! - I've got to figure out that bitcoin thing - I have an account - ... I'll take another run at it next week. I agree: "It's very important that people with our views learn how to do it. "
Sorry this happened, but not totally surprised knowing that you are Ukrainian. Why, when they asked "do you mean the democrats?" did you say "sure, the democrats?"
Especially given the democrat's rabid hatred of Russia & their incitement & fostering of the coup and war in Ukraine?
Be careful where you go in Europe. I've seen a few reports out of different countries that the refugees are wearing out their welcome anong the average citizens. And with energy shortages & hyperinflation, the Euros aren't likely to be real open
Eg, the UK took in a bunch through a "share your home for 6 months" program. 6 months later, the Ukrainians are now homeless due to 1. The gov failing to pay the monthly stipend promised to the hosting families, & 2. Complaints of attitude & behavior issues
For their part, the Ukrainian(s) interviewed said they'd expected the war to be over & returning home by 6 months
You mentioned before that leftists put a bounty on your head publicly over the internet, so that excludes the West, and your best bets would be going to Hungary or more intriguingly, Turkey.
But from the outside - so not really knowing your circumstances - I'd say why not to go back to St. Petersburg and leverage the acquaintances you made in the university there to get a job, live a quiet life and accumulate time spent in Russia in view of advancing your chances of getting Russian citizenship.
If you get a university job, you'd be respectable enough for the FSB not to pester you again, lest they want you complaining about their ways in the stratosphere of academic circles.
I don't think the situation is getting better for dissidents in the east, either. People used to say that Bob Dylan was a prophet, and it sure seems to be that everybody must get stoned.
Serious regrets.
How common is it for Belarusians to think the Democrats are their friend? Is that spook typical or an outlier?
Very retarded outlook but the things our spooks believe are just as crazy and destructive in the US.
I have been an expat for over a decade in 4 countries. I don't miss the US but the idea that you can readily be booted out of a country if you aren't a citizen and don't have equal rights is definitely a downside.
But then if I go back to the US I will have a government that explicitly hates me so at least I haven't been hated in the 4 expat countries.
I am one of those boomers you hate. If I was a younger expat I would live in a country that isn't part of the American Empire where I could easily get citizenship.
I have also found that to have a normal life as an expat you need to marry into a culture because outside of a few nations like the US people in most countries don't form new friendships past their early twenties and in some places such as Mexico they don't form friendships past elementary school so you are just going to socialize with other expats
«First, they detain me in Smolensk, Russia»
https://twitter.com/MatasMaldeikis/status/1537043521261211651
«they threatened me with immediate deportation to Ukraine. In effect, they were condemning me to the tender caprices of the SBU and, at best, to conscription and becoming meat fodder for the Donbass front»
The difficulty for you is that if you go to most NATO countries you risk to be sent to Ukraine because you are subject to draft in the AFU, given your age, and most likely all NATO countries are sending lists of military age ukrainians who evade the prohibition to leave the country. If I were you I would not risk it.
More or less the only "neutral" countries that can take you are Albania, Austria, Serbia, Switzerland, Moldova, and perhaps Armenia or Azerbaijan or one of the "stans". Cyprus and Ireland are EU but not NATO, but I don't know whether they would send you to Ukraine.