Stories of those who moved to Kazakhstan from Russia after February 2022. Part II.
Not in my name
I came first in March, had to get back, and found a job in August. I don’t plan to return.
“They killed my homeland. I don’t have a ground under my feet. Better to say, I do but it’s poisoned. And with all of this, it’s still alive but lives in some kind of parallel reality, it became something diabolical, so I have to get away. Not because it is dangerous for me but because I don’t want this to happen in my name. I don’t agree to connect my name with this”.
There is no sense in coming back
“We came to Kazakhstan at the beginning of March. I didn’t have much money. We slept in the waiting area of the airport, the railway station, and a hostel. Till I found this flat.
I knew from the beginning it was not going to get better, and I don’t want my child to grow up in a country where soldiers come to Kindergarteners to show the guns, where children as the game have to make a structure of the letter “Z” (pro-war sign in Russia), where they have to write letters to the soldiers at war and have propaganda lessons at schools”.
In 2017 a 9 years old boy was arrested for “beggary”; he spontaneously started to read Hamlet out loud on the street and people passing by were impressed, so some started to give him money. The boy often used to recite poems, theater activity was helping him in his fight against insecurities. Kristina was his stepmother.
At first, the situation was resolved and considered a misunderstanding. Kristina, the boy, and her husband of that time were free to go after a night at the police station. But in the morning a video of the young boy’s arrest became viral and the situation was in all the news. It was then considered a provocation, an attempt to show Russian police in a bad light. Kristina could get a custodial sentence for involving an underage person in begging, attempting to attack a police officer, and not following his orders. In the end, it didn’t happen.
“What’s next? Not going back. Some Russians make me feel that it’s pointless. Moscow is a bit different from other places like my hometown for example… People there simply refuse to listen to something that actually makes sense. Some people, unfortunately, believe in all of this; I was talking about all the damage the Russian army did to Ukraine; As an answer I heard “You are a Nazi”. Some believe this kind of news is fake. There is no sense to go back to Russia now or in the near future. Not for us”
Thing I miss the most is the trees
“It was quite tough at first. We came to a culture we knew nothing about, which at times led to certain miscommunication with the locals. We didn’t understand their jokes, they didn’t get ours, it was like a glass wall: Kazakhs speak Russian, just as we do, but the background cultural knowledge is pretty different. It caused somewhat of a shame. We’d love to answer every question of ‘why did you move here?’ with a long story of how we’ve been interested in the culture of The Great Steppe and how after long research we decided to choose this place as our home, but in the reality, it was just a 24-hour-made decision where the choice was to possibly die or to move anywhere, and we chose the second”
“Luckily for us, hospitality is very central to Kazakh culture, so eventually, we started to assimilate here. Plans for the future? To start living and not just surviving. If we are talking about half a year ahead, let’s hope the situation calms down a bit, then we would move to Almaty. More far ahead… probably to a completely different place”.
“The thing I miss the most is the trees. I would even call it acclimatization; I had to get used to the local landscape. It’s a Steppe.
If you are going on a long-distance train through the country, all you see is just endless plains till the horizon. I thought the word ‘nothing’ is a good description of what you see in Russia between the railway stations. But no, the real ‘nothing’ is here. If you are traveling at the night you don’t even see the border between the sky and the ground. Maybe you’ll manage to notice after a while, where in this dark canvas the stars start to appear. If you are lucky, you’ll see a lonely house with a small light in the window. Feels like you are in a spaceship”
It’s not possible to stay away from politics anymore
“We came here because it was clear that it won’t be possible to practice our profession in Russia. My girlfriend works for an international platform and all bank connections with Russia were cut off (not only bank, any kind of connections). We didn’t have many problems, our story is not the worst one. We feel better here than in Russia. Here I am treated as a human being ”
“I was not political, but right now it’s not possible to stay away from politics anymore. In my opinion, with the first wave (end of February, spring) more ideological people came. With the second wave those who are saving themselves, running away from mobilisation. Possibly also those who were tired of trying to make it better. In the end, everybody, who wanted to come and who had an opportunity to come, is already here.
What’s next? Not going back to Russia for sure. If we get lucky, then see the world. But my English could be better. You know English classes were at the first at school, so usually, I was sleeping. Let’s be honest: what is happening in Ukraine is awful (пиздец). Well, in Russia it is pretty uncomfortable, but in Ukraine, it’s REALLY AWFUL. And this lasts for 8 years, the war didn’t stop and Russian and Ukrainian media was telling completely different things. So we don’t want to pay taxes in Russia, we have no idea where this money is going. Actually, we know where. That’s why we don’t want to”
Eine Antwort zu „COUNTRYLESS II“
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