By A RUSSIAN SPEAKING COMMUNITY MEMBER
War brings destruction, loss of loved ones, and cultural conflicts between people who were once like one family. In the context of the ongoing war, the internal experiences of Russian-speaking immigrants have become more acute. These people are stuck between cultures, facing feelings of guilt, fear, and isolation.
I interviewed Russian and Ukrainian immigrants to explore how their lives have changed since the war began. The main focus of the interview is on the consequences of the conflict in an emotional, social and cultural sense. Including internal conflict of identity, attitudes toward the dynamics of the society in which we live at the moment, and how people cope with the complexities of war.
To protect the identities of the individuals I interviewed, I have chosen not to use their full names, ensuring their privacy while sharing their experiences. K left Ukraine before the war began, L is a Russian immigrant who came to the U.S. after the war started, G has lived in the U.S. since 2017 and is now a citizen but originally from Ukraine, and A was born in the U.S. but spent most of her life in Russia. Each of them offers a unique perspective on how the war has affected their lives and identities.
How has the war affected your emotional state and your perception of the future?
K:I would say that at the beginning of the war, naturally, the emotional state of every person was just at the very bottom. Everyone did not know where to go, even when they were not in the country. At that moment, I had a family there, and you don’t know how to help. You blame yourself for this, you don’t know what to do, and how can you help, except financially. Then all people just got used to living during the war and realized that they couldn’t stop. As for the future, I can say for myself that I realized that it is very difficult now to plan anything for the year ahead because you don’t know what will happen tomorrow. For example, you lived in Kyiv, everything was fine, you had plans for 10 years, and you just had a bomb in your house, and what? Therefore, in terms of the future, it became very difficult to plan and very scary to plan for distant periods.
L: It, of course, destabilized it. And it was very disturbing. Now, in fact, in general, the perception of the future has changed. Because it is impossible to plan. You look at some things from different angles. Many decisions are ambiguous. Therefore, it is difficult.
G: The war has changed me negatively. It influenced my emotional state. Especially at the beginning, as I said. What about the perception of the future? Well… It doesn’t help me to be more optimistic about the future. But I try to remain optimistic and believe that everything will be resolved soon and we will be able to breathe freely and start the process of healing, the healing of my emotional state. I know people who have been greatly influenced by the war and their emotional state. And I think it’s very bad for these people in particular. What else can I add? Well, as I said, I was depressed for about six months. But then I decided that my inner state was more important, because I couldn’t change the situation that was unfolding now.
A: I would have already moved to Russia if everything was great. I want to settle down there. That’s why I think I’ll live here for a couple of years, work here, and then I want to go back to Russia. I think the uncertainty of the future started with COVID. We had COVID, and then Putin cured the whole country in one day, when the special operation began. I think from 2019 we are still in the unclear phase of what to do in life.
How has your communication with people who hold different views on current events changed?
K:With people with whom we have different views on the events, we just, unfortunately, do not communicate, since the topic comes up anyway, and there are constant conflicts. Accordingly, with people with different views on the whole situation, we just stopped communicating.
L: It seems to me that we parted with those with whom our views radically changed. But here it is worth saying that my views also sometimes change. Depending on the people I talk to.
G: I think it’s great to have different views on things. I don’t think that people who, for example, have different views are bad. But I don’t communicate with people who support radical positions or radicalism. I think that radicalism doesn’t have a place in our time. I don’t communicate with people who, for example, as I said before, are blood lovers, who like to kill others or wish death to those people who have nothing to do with the current events. I would say that I have become more considerate with the choice of people to communicate with. For me, their position in connection with current events is important. But I’m open to healthy discussions, but not throwing mud, if I can put it that way. I don’t like to communicate with all sorts of different radicals who wish death to me, my friends and my family.
A: I seem to talk to them less because I don’t know, they constantly raise this topic, and I don’t understand why they raise this topic. And so we all subscribed to all these telegram channels and saw the news, and I don’t know who needs to bring it up again. Well, those who have different views just hate me, just because I’m Russian. I hope I’ve become better at communicating with them.
