Stanislav Krapivnik: Why I Left the U.S. and Returned with My Wife and Children to Russia

There is probably no more controversial topic among Russian immigrants, especially émigrés, than why they or their parents left the Motherland and how it colors their perceptions of Russia even now, decades later. It doesn't matter whether their parents or grandparents emigrated during the late USSR or from an impoverished post-Soviet collapse Russia suffering through her Time of Troubles in the 1990s, this topic remains politically and culturally fraught. Especially if a Russian who had lived abroad affirms their decision to return in recent years since the Russian Spring reannexation of Crimea or amid the present conditions of a hot Second Cold War between NATO (via its mother of all proxies) in Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Some people scoff, but other people of Russian or post-Soviet national origin feel threatened by such choices and what it says about their own unease with the USA of the current year. As anyone who experienced 1988-1991 in the USSR as an adult or teen firsthand can recall, a nuclear armed superpower can crack up rather quickly.

The views expressed by Stanislav Krapivnik below are his own, but they are not uncommon among many Russians who since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, have decided the West led by the United States is on borrowed time, facing an economic and potentially civilizational cataclysm.

Above we have posted a Russian TV clip that was aired during the 2020 riots in the U.S. We now know elements of the U.S. National Security State aided and abetted this civil unrest, alongside a Twitter Files-exposed campaign of Internet censorship, as part of bringing 'Color Revolution' tactics home from Eastern Europe to be wielded against President Trump and his supporters. More fundamentally, the Pandemic year of 2020 and Summer of Floyd riots indicated how broken much of American society had become in the years since the Bush/Obama Administration Wall Street bailouts and accelerated Fed/Treasury money printing.

We publish this piece knowing full well it may prove the most controversial article we'll post at the ESW Patreon, and it may attract the attention of Current Year Regime tattler journalists. So be it.

Life in Russia is clearly not for the vast majority of ESW prospects and clients. But Stanislav's writing covers an important soul-searching topic, including for Americans who may have never considered Russia as a migration destination or imagined the Russian Federation as a place for their families to move today.

-- James Smith

Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, ExitStrategy.World

Memorial Day Weekend 2024

Video montage credit: from the ending scene to Brother 2 and the June 2020 'Summer of Floyd' riots by Russia's Channel One

June 8, 2020

Source: Meduza

On Sunday evening, June 7, Russian state television aired Alexey Balabanov’s classic films “Brother” and “Brother 2,” marking the 20th anniversary of the latter motion picture.

Without explanation, Pervyi Kanal replaced the closing credits of “Brother 2” with recent footage of race riots and police violence in the United States, scored by the Nautilus Pompilius song that famously concludes Balabanov’s film — “The Last Letter.” As the chorus “Goodbye, America” repeats, the movie ends with videos showing Americans looting stores and tipping and setting fire to cars, and police officers beating, ramming, and trampling protesters.

The violent footage aired at exactly 9 p.m., according to the news outlet Fontanka, and lasted roughly a minute, leading directly into the evening news broadcast of “Vremya.” The segment is available at Pervyi Kanal’s website...

"The Last Letter" (Goodbye, America) by Nautilus Pompilius (Наутилус Помпилиус), USSR (1987). Most famously featured at the ending to director Alexei Balabanov's film

Brat 2 (2000)

Когда умолкнут все песни,

Которых я не знаю,

В терпком воздухе крикнет

Последний мой бумажный пароход…

Гуд бай, Америка, о…

Где не был никогда.

Прощай навсегда.

Возьми банджо,

Сыграй мне на прощанье.

Мне стали слишком малы

Твои тертые джинсы.

Нас так долго учили

Любить твои запретные плоды.

Гуд бай, Америка, о…

Где я не буду никогда.

Услышу ли песню,

Которую запомню навсегда?

When all songs fall silent,

Those tunes which I don't know,

In the harsh air will shout

My last letter will [be in the] mail

Goodbye America, oooo,

Where I have never been.

Goodbye forever.

Take the banjo

Play to me a goodbye.

The fit is too tight

Of your ripped jeans.

They long taught us

To love your forbidden fruits.

Goodbye America, oooo,

Where I will never be.

Goodbye forever.

I'll hear a song that

I will remember forever.

-- adapted by the editor from Lyricstranslate.com

Sojourn to the Motherland

I have been asked an unfathomable amount of times, both by Americans and Russians, why I moved back. Answering the same questions, even in two different languages gets tiresome. However, over the past five years, things have changed. From Russians, who have rediscovered their pride in being Russian and have started to figure out that not only is Russia no worse than the West but is actually in many many cases better and more advanced. And from Americans who more often now state “I’d like to be able to move there too [but I'm too old, am tied to my job or relatives here, etc]”

So how did this sojourn come about, you must be asking yourself? I was seven years old when my parents, political dissidents, left the Soviet Union and emigrated to the US. That was back in 1979. As far as I can remember, I did not want to leave, but who asks a seven year old for their opinion?

Soviet Immigrants Arriving in Future Industrial Disaster Site East Palestine, Ohio, 1979

We arrived in the US into a small town in Ohio, the now, thanks to a train derailment, chemical spill and toxic burn off cloud, infamous East Palestine, Ohio. After that, we moved to the South.

Growing up in a then-small city of Charlotte, North Carolina was not easy. I was the only Russian kid for miles around. In the city of 500,000 there were less than 50 native Russian speakers, which does not equate to Russians. The height of 1980s Cold War propaganda and movies like Red Dawn surely did not make my life any easier. This may explain why I did not adequately assimilate to American society.

At NCSU Amid Self-Loathing Russians and Conversion to Orthodoxy

When I went to university at North Carolina State University, I started meeting more Russians. But these were now the initial wave of immigrants from the post Soviet Union and they hated Russia and hated being Russian, while I was moving in the exact opposite direction.

It was at this stage, that I discovered Orthodox Christianity, something my parents did not tell me about growing up. It was during Russian literature courses that I stumbled upon the Orthodox Faith of my forefathers. I had been baptized a Lutheran, but that Protestant faith was very thin in me and I had been soul-searching for something more real. Roman Catholicism seemed closer to spiritual reality, but I just could not accept the Pope and Papal Infallibility. These doctrines just did not sit with me, I cannot explain why. Then I started reading about Orthodoxy and that was that, I knew I found it, that simple. I made my first trip to an Orthodox church, a Greek one, and I was home, spiritually. My physical homecoming was a whole different issue. Before me were another eighteen long years prior to my arrival in Russia as an expat turned repat, coming back to the Motherland.

US Army Service, Marriage and First Inklings Something Was Going Awry with the USA

In that time, I finished three degrees, served out eleven years in the US military as an Army officer. I met my wife on one of my deployments, in the Republic of Georgia of all places. We married, had kids and I became director of Russia supply chain in the oil-gas services sector. I was solidly upper middle class, had great career prospects, three kids and counting. But I had a dread every day that if I died, my bones would lay in a foreign land and I would rest in peace. Insane you say? Maybe so, but it was a very real dread.

American LGBT Cult, Financial Rot and Looming Ethnic Conflicts

Additionally, I saw with a cold gaze where America and the West were scuttling to. I was told I was a conspiracy nut when I said that this LGBT wave would not stop, that they would be coming for the children. People laughed. I decided to not stick around and allow my children to be propagandized into what we consider a Satanic cult of sin. For all that, not even in my wildest nightmares during those Dubya White House years, could I have foreseen the physical and mental mutilations of children that are now considered transgender “affirming” care by the present Globalist American Empire Regime. Black Lives Matter and people kissing BLM radicals' boots was also further down the deep trench then my sickest nightmare had ever dared to venture. But I knew that such ethnic conflicts were coming, I had read enough, seen enough of the post-Yugoslav Wars scars in the Balkans and the post-Soviet Caucuses to understand that things were rolling that way in 'the Land of the Free'.

The infrastructure and education collapse that is the modern US, with an illiteracy rate of 21%, with over 1000 train derailments in 2023 alone and societal rot everywhere, gave me all the indications I needed.

I have a minor in Economics, which of course does not make me a professor, but it does give me enough knowledge to analyze and understand trends and a knowledge of economic history to put it all in perspective. I came to a firm conclusion, back in 2005, even before The Big Short-depicted Mortgage-Backed Toilet Paper Securities Bubble began to burst in 2007, that the US economy was going down, and going down hard. Whatever would rise up from the coming socioeconomic crash, would arise on a swamp of blood. I was not planning on leaving my children in a broken American education system, with a corrupt immoral imperial elite in Washington, endless wars regardless of whether they were waged directly or by proxy, and no real future. Besides, I also never really assimilated to the U.S. and that was my own choice.

Weighing the Decision and the Basis for My Choice

Even with a powerful drive to return to my roots and my culture, it took five years to find a way back, as I was lacking Russian citizenship and had American debts. I green-fielded a procurement sourcing office for a foreign corporation in Yekaterinburg. That was in 2010. My wife was at that point highly dubious as to where I was taking her and our three children. Since 2019, she has been thanking me for our move. Most of our Russian friends in the U.S. were shocked at the news we'd moved and thought me bereft of my wits. But a few others told me privately that they envied me and my resolve and wished they had the courage to go back. Regardless of others opinions, being a rational actor, I had more than just love for the Motherland backing my decision. I did a long hard look around and compared the USA, Western Europe and Russia and based my decision on the following factors.

Russia has:

traditional sane society and hard-earned over the past 25 years social stability (check)

future economic outlook sitting on the world's largest reserves of hydrocarbon and mineral natural resources plus abundant farmland (check)

earnings potential with more reasonable cost of living (check)

education quality for our children (check)

I was aided in this evaluation by the fact that I travelled often for my job, across the U.S. and the EU as well as spending almost every third or fourth month in Russia. I had access to eyewitness and personal testimonies from the people I worked with, native to those parts of the world.

Social Stability: Russia is a predominantly Slavic (83%) and Orthodox country, where family values, Christian conservative values are not just normal, but are promoted by the State with bedrock support from the Church. By the mid-2000s, it was obvious for me to see where America was heading, though as I stated before, even I could not predict the depths of woke DEI and LGBT+ insanity the U.S. has plumbed. When it came to de-Christianization masquerading as secularism, Western Europe was leading the U.S. by about a decade. Russia was moving along in the same direction in the 1990s and early 2000s, only about twenty years behind. I placed my bet that the Russian leadership would wise up and arrest the descent. Thankfully, I was correct in that bet.

Deeply-Rooted Patriotism Amid Western Russophobia: The course correction was slow but already underway when the Special Military Operation (SMO) kicked off in February 2022. The SMO has had many profound effects upon Russian society, much of which is missed or ignored in the West. The owners class would not want to give the wrong ideas to their peasants, but they couldn't stop the forces that have been unleashed, neither in Russia nor in the post-West.

Since the outbreak of the SMO, several important things have happened. First, uncontrollable Russophobia has removed its liberal mask and has raved mindlessly across the collective West. These ravings have spread from Berlin--which has deeply hidden the Germans' lingering sense of humiliation from getting crushed by those 'backward and barbaric' Red Army untermenschen since 1945--to the darkly Masonic boulevards of Paris, to the seat of Russia-hatred dating back to the Crimean War in the 1850s, from Parliament to Whitehall and the British politicians’ masters in the City of London.

And then of course, there's Washington's bottomless hypocrisy and endless double standards. The latest absurdity being sanctions threats in Congress versus the International Criminal Court as its been indicting Israeli leaders for Gaza war crimes, which have come this week just months after these same Congressmen and Senators were celebrating the ICC criminalizing Russians rescuing Donbass children from terroristic Ukrainian Army shelling. These same Congressmen seeing Kiev losing the war are now getting desperate and calling for stepped up American-supplied and US/UK intel directed strikes against pre-2014 Russian soil. Such foul words and disgusting deeds have turned the vast majority of Russians away from the West.

Recent Changes in Russian Culture Towards Genuine Social Conservatism

Even those blindly in love and following Western pop culture have had to deal with and rationalize the in-your-face hatred, not just for Putin, not just for Russian statehood with yapping Baltic chihuahua politicians fantasizing about breaking up and looting our country, but for the human beings who bear the name Russian. After the SMO many Russian artists saw their performances cancelled, solely due to being Russian. Secondly, the majority of the hardcore liberals, upon whom the West placed its bets to destroy Russian culture before the SMO and to overthrow the government after the SMO started, fled Russia. Not so much because of actual persecution but because of fear of possible persecution and an open door to the West, to flee as “Putin’s victims”. Between 2022 and 2023, social tensions eased considerably and the country took a hard turn towards conservatism. Being patriotic, being religious and having children suddenly became the very "in" thing to be.

Sure, some Russian Hollywood elite wannabes still do some outrageous and mindless things, but society’s reactions are very different now than they were just a few years ago. Before Russians would just shake their heads and go on, now there is public outrage and demands for consequences. An example of this was the Naked Party, where the liberal social elites had a drinking party at an exclusive night club and were, well, naked or pretty close to it. One C list celebrity showed up wearing a thong jock strap with a sock over his junk. If these cretins had enough sense to keep it to themselves, no one would have known, but instead they broadcast their deviance on social media, flaunting it to the world. The public rage and backlash was palatable and those who had contracts with Russian government channels quickly lost them.

The Russian government recently passed a bill criminalizing any sexual exposure of children, the famous “anti-homosexual” bill that never once uses the word homosexual--it's not illegal to be gay in Russia. The bill forbids all sexualization of children. Likewise, child genital and hormonal mutilations, known in the US as Transgender Care, is forbidden by Russian law.

Russian Immigration and Labor Law--Recent Changes for the Better

For decades, immigration has been a tense issue in Russia. As an ethnic Russian it was actually rather difficult for me to get legal citizenship. As my friend Tim Kirby has stated many times on his YouTube and Telegram channels, this issue has been eased by recent legislation, but not resolved. There are many new ways to get Russian citizenship, but its still not a clear process. Since the early 2000s, Russia was flooded by Central Asians, as migrant laborers, the vast majority of which was low skilled. These low-wage workers were used by various companies, just like in the US, to bypass the mechanics of the labor market and artificially lower wages across the country.

This has been a very significant source of tensions that have been growing with the onset of the SMO. Various small bands of ethnic mafias have activated themselves with the ignorant belief that all the Russian men are at the front or dying off and that these bands will become the new masters of Russia, as in the 1990s when ethnic mafias ran many of the food markets. Various incidents of violence have been resonating throughout Russia, especially with the high adoption of Telegram. The refusal of any of these migrants, many of whom acquired their residency illegally through fraud, to serve in the Russian Army, has proven to the majority of the people what most already suspected: these immigrants and even new citizens, had come here to earn and to get government’s generous family benefits, but held zero loyalty to their new homeland, which to them is not theirs.

Due to migrant aggressions on the streets and in public transport in certain cities ethnic Russians have responded by forming neighborhood watch self-defense associations, which muster locally, whenever an incident is occurring. The government, understanding that the situation had become very dangerous and that this could lead to pogroms, responded by starting mass deportations of illegals and quasi-legal migrants from Moscow and the regions. The government also began checking the origins and legality of newly acquired citizenships, as well as enforcing the law of military registration that all males up to the age of 50 must register at least for the inactive reserve.

Another sound move that reduced Central Asian migration by the State was to cut the generous child benefits to only children born in Russia to citizen parents. Since this law went into effect in January 2024, there's been a large wave of Central Asians leaving Russia. Additionally, the COVID pandemic, which saw the vast majority of construction industry employed migrants leave, proved to all Russians that the mantra of the big business oligarchs and regional minigarchs lobby, that Russians were not willing to do dirty jobs, was a lie. As soon as wages were forced up by market demand, Russian workers flooded into these jobs.

Russia's Future Economic Outlook and Most In-Demand Professions, Including Farmers

The Russian government has been working hard on investment and rejuvenation of old Soviet industries for the better part of the past 20 years. Before my eyes, would-be suppliers whom I would never have thought of doing business with, were transformed with glittering new buildings and machinery. Mass investment in infrastructure projects has placed Russia well ahead of any of the decaying Western economies. The SMO with its Eastward (to China) and Southward (to India) pivot in Russian trade flows has accelerated this process. The financial side of sanctions and counter sanctions has staunched the capital flight of Russian wealth from Russia. This change in turn has resulted in major and long-overdue internal investments.

Overall, the Russian economy is now running at full employment and is in desperate need of more trained professionals, farmers and technical experts. Lawyers, PR spin doctors and unskilled labor is no longer in much demand. But welders, engineers, software programmers and yes, farmers, are the top professions in demand for the 2030s-40s.

Russia is not against immigration, but it is coming to terms with just what type of immigrants the Russian Federation actually needs and wants.

Earnings Compared to Cost of Living in Russia

This is a bit more tricky. Sure, if you are a foreigner from a high-income country like Switzerland moving to Russia and maintaining a similar income level, you will live like a king.

However, for those who are going to be living off Russian-earned income, things are a bit tighter. First of all, credit card offers are not coming in the mail every month here and your spending power depends on actual earnings, not debt. Nationwide the average income is reported at 60, 000 rubles or about $560. Such low wages can of course vary and many professionals earn between 120,000-300,000 rubles. Such income levels with re-enlistment bonuses and combat pay or other extras for specialists are achievable by military officers fighting in the SMO.

Income tax is a flat 13% and if you are a small businessman and make under 90 million rubles, your income tax is 7%, self employed people pay 3%.

Basic medicine is covered by government insurance, which means state clinics. These clinics vary from brand new state of the art to run-down Soviet legacy buildings. Quality of care generally depends on where one lives in the village or a major city and if you are going to a specialty clinic. Private clinics are everywhere and medical care and doctors who make house calls, is actually quite affordable. One can say its cheaper to pay out-of-pocket then to buy expensive supplemental insurance.

For example, chest x-rays that cost $400 to $500 in the U.S., in a private Russian clinic will run you around $30. Filling a cavity will set you back $55, while in the U.S. its around $200 to $300. A colonoscopy in a private clinic, where they will actually let you recover vs the U.S. 'outpatient' approach of just tossing you on the street as soon as the anesthesia has barely worn off, will set you back 20,000 rubles or $300 to $350.

Russian Food is More Affordable and Healthier than in the West

Even though there's a saying that "Moscow is not Russia", one of the things former Fox News host Tucker Carlson found in his brief tour of the Russian capital was that food is cheaper and healthier than in the U.S. Russian food products are much cheaper and generally of better quality than in the EU as well. GMO are banned, vegetable oils used in dairy products have to be clearly marked and separated and since the law came in have all but disappeared. A loaf of healthy grain bread in the U.S. costs around $5 to $6, while in Russia a loaf of white or black bread will set you back around between 50 cents to a dollar.

Russian Telephone and Internet Services Are Cheap

Telecommunications are ridiculously cheap. A basic phone plan with 1000 minutes and 56 gigs of bandwidth will run the consumer around 800rubles or $7.50. High speed cable internet runs between $8-15. Not only that, but free wifi zones are everywhere in big cities and on much of the public transportation. Apartment or housing costs, however are harsher than in the US, the ration of average house/apartment cost to average yearly salary runs around the 12,5:1, this is actually lower then it was five years ago. Still, this is a very high ratio, even with all the low interest, first time house owner incentives.

Even with Lots of New Chinese Cars, the Price of Automobiles Remains High Compared to Wages in Russia

Likewise, automobiles are as expensive or more so then in most western nations. This has been the case before the SMO and has only been exasperated since, though it is trending downward to affordability. However, if you live in a city, public transport and car sharing fills the gaps fully. Everything else comes in on a comfortable range and allows for living within one’s means, without incurring debts.

Education Quality in Russia is High

Education in Russia cannot be compared with that of the U.S. or with most other modern nations. The U.S. suffers from an illiteracy rate of some 21%, in Russia it's around 1% to 2%. My oldest daughter went to a charter school in Texas. In the 8th grade, she finished the 9th grade math program. Then we moved to Russia and found out the Texas 9th grade math program was equivalent to the first semester of 6th grade for Russian kids. The course load is several times higher than that of the U.S. Kids go to prep school just to prepare for kindergarten, seriously. In kindergarten, they start a second language whether English or Spanish and by the 6th grade, they start studying a third language like French or German.

Recently laws were passed to ban the use of smartphones as a distraction from classrooms. Things are definitely moving in the correct direction. There is a reason why Russia graduates more engineers per capita than any other nation in the world, and more than the USA which has more than double the population. In short, while not perfect, Russia is winning in all of these categories hands down and has been continuing its acceleration in the correct direction over the past two decades.

Conclusion/Contact Me

Russia was my personal choice to begin a new life for our family on so many levels--it can be yours as well.

Contact me via my editor at ESW, or follow me at my Voice of Truth Youtube @MrSlavikman and Telegram channel @stasydaiobratno, and I can tell you more.