Russians who once left the country are starting to return en masse. In Germany alone, the number of Russians willing to go home has exceeded half a million. Why life in a well-fed and prosperous country turned out to be different for them, as it seemed, and how the Russian hinterland became nicer, I found out NTV correspondent Ekaterina Guselnikova.
Caps with earflaps, rare "Seagulls" and Chukovsky's tales on the shelves - such a corner of Russia on German soil. The Regen family are regular visitors to the Russian fair.
Anna Regen: "I would like to go back to Russia."
Anna Regen hardly remembers Russia, and she speaks Russian too, with difficulty choosing words. Parents moved to Germany when their daughter was only 3 years old. Together with two million Germans from countries the former USSR they poured into their historical homeland in search of better life.
In the 1990s, the homeland of distant ancestors seemed to the Russian Germans to be a kind of painted beer restaurant. With accompanying revelry, fun and sausages. But everyday life in Germany was far from Oktoberfest. And truly native Russian dumplings beckoned back.
Alexander Remmich: "Needed where was born".
Alexander Remmich now only says that in Russian sayings. 5 months ago he and his wife exchanged three-room apartment in the prosperous German Hofgeismar in a house without amenities in the village of Aleksandrovka, near Omsk.
Olga Remmich: "There is no water in the house, stove, firewood."
Alexander is now working as a handyman. But since he is the only non-drinking man in the village, I am sure that this is temporary and that his qualifications will be surely appreciated by employers. In Germany, Remmich was a truck driver and earned two thousand euros a month. True, little was left of them.
Alexander Remmich: “Almost 700 for an apartment, 80 for gas, 70 for electricity. Tax for a car, etc. And there will be 300-400 euros for life ”.
The city Germans like it in the Siberian countryside. Olga milks a goat. Children feed the ducklings. The Remmichs say that the youngest daughter Lena in Germany suffered from asthma. And after a month of living in Russia, I forgot about the inhaler.
Olga Remmich: “Here are biologically pure products, here everything is different. Children do not eat chemistry, they do not breathe chemistry. "
And the Weisbecker family moved closer to Russian nature this summer. In Crimea, from where they left 20 years ago, emigrants were drawn not at all because of the climate.
Irina Weisbeker: “People with these sexual deviations, they are protected by all laws. The children and I are walking down the street, they will be kissing - two men or two women - and I cannot reprimand them. I will be fined. "
And in recent times when the country, the Weisbekers just got scared.
MOSCOW, June 25 - RIA Novosti, Igor Karmazin. A country of ideal roads and delicious beer - life in Germany seems orderly and well-off. After the fall iron curtain hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans decided to move from the post-Soviet republics to the homeland of their ancestors. V last years however, the opposite tendency is outlined - the Germans are returning to Russia. The settlers told RIA Novosti about the reasons for their rejection of the German order.
Sergey Rukaber, Karlsruhe - Crimea
I left for Germany in 1999, lived there for 18 years, we finally returned to Russia on July 31, 2017. Germany never became my homeland for me, I always kept in mind the possibility of a new move. The decisive factor was the reunification of the native Crimea with Russia.
In Germany all these years I did not feel at ease, many things were just wild for me. For example, from the first grade, a sex education lesson has recently been introduced in schools there. They talk in detail about sexual minorities, everything is presented in the spirit that such relationships are normal. My daughter once returned home after school and asked: "How is it when one aunt is with another aunt?" It turns out they taught lesbianism. I couldn’t answer anything, but went to complain to school. I was told that refusing this lesson could lead to legal proceedings with the police.
Many people think that making money in Germany is easier. Yes, my income was higher than the current one, but taxes are also much higher. As a result, now I get about the same amount in my arms as there. A typical story in Germany: you pay some kind of tax, and at the end of the year it turns out that you paid little, owes something else to the state.
I had a transport company there. At first, things were going well, but after the 2008 crisis, we were driven into very large debts. Here, in Russia, I opened an individual entrepreneur and do my own thing. I know how much I have to pay, no unnecessary paperwork, red tape. Communication with officials is minimized. In Germany, in 17 years I learned how to order, so here I immediately began to work legally - I registered, I got registered.
Communication between people in Germany is also different. I have no language barrier, I know German well. Friends stayed in Karlsruhe. There are a couple of families with whom we still keep in touch, we call back via messengers, via Skype. But most communicate with you while you are looking at your face. Turned away - they are ready to devour you.
Constant complaints about neighbors are considered normal. At eight in the evening, you have to sit at home, shut up and not move, in no case make noise. And I cannot tell the children to freeze, because some stranger uncle wants it that way. I told everyone: "Don't you like it? Bring to the nursing home, there you will have perfect silence." It was easier for me to pay the fine than to drill the children. After the first two complaints, they were simply warned. For the third time, a fine of 50 euros came.
At the same time, refugees have complete freedom of action. Once there was a situation: I saw off my parents at the train station in Karlsruhe. I arrived in my own car, while helping them carry their luggage to the train, some Arabs climbed into the car. I called the police, and they told me: "Is it hard for you to take them?" It is impossible to beat migrants, in any conflict with them you will definitely be guilty.
In Russia, I breathed more freely, but here, too, not everything is smooth. The main difficulty for my family now is the paperwork. There are many incompetent officials on the ground in Crimea who themselves do not know the laws or instructions. I have three children, they gave us a certificate so far a large family, but we do not receive any benefits.
© Photo: from the personal archive of the Rukaber family
© Photo: from the personal archive of the Rukaber family
Anton Clockgammer, Hamburg outskirts - Tomsk
I have lived for ten years in the town of Rendsburg in the north of Germany and for ten years now as in Russia. Life in Germany is very measured, it is known in advance what will happen in five, 15 years. Pedantry driven to nausea. Perhaps in adulthood, stability is more appreciated, but then I wanted more drive, freedom, ease. I was 20 years old and corresponded with Tomsk friends. Some of my peers have already held leadership positions, organized IP, LLC. My German friends at this age continued to play the console.
In Germany, there is no such clear division into private and public as we have. For example, I once parked by the pool and sat in the car for a while. Not even a minute has passed since I windshield the German grandfather knocked with the requirement to turn off the engine. According to him, I pollute nature. How do we reason in Russia? Of course, the first thought is, "What's your business?"
Relationships between people are also different. A typical case was at school. On the test, I did not understand one question. I decided to look at the problem from my bosom friend Denis. He noticed this and immediately complained to the teacher. We were seated, I was reprimanded. At recess, I went up to him and tried to explain: "Look, I didn't cheat from you. I just didn't understand the problem. You and I are friends. Why did you make such a fuss?" He answered like an instinct: "Well, you can't! You can't cheat." We could quarrel, completely quarrel, but I saw that he sincerely did not understand my question.
I still managed to serve in the German army. Nine months, went home for the weekend. It turned out interesting there: we served, served, and in the end it turned out that everyone with whom I had good relations were from the former GDR. We understood each other perfectly, we had general concepts about mutual assistance, mutual assistance. Compared to the draftees from the Federal Republic of Germany, these guys had a very different sense of humor. In Germany, the jokes are American, primitive. The funniest thing for them is if someone belched loudly, turned on the gas, said something about someone else's mother. The guys from the GDR had a more subtle, sharp humor, between the lines, with a play on words.
© Photo: from the personal archive of Anton Clockgammer
© Photo: from the personal archive of Anton Clockgammer
Although materially living in Germany is better. Now I disappear all day at work, I have 50 people under my supervision, I get three or four times more than the average earnings in Tomsk. My classmates in Germany do not manage anything, are responsible only for themselves, do not have higher education, work as ordinary electricians, plumbers, but receive the same two thousand euros. With this money, you can easily take a house on a mortgage there. Mortgages in Germany are much more affordable: the rate is two or three percent instead of our 12-13 percent.
Denis Schell, Hannover - Omsk region
I lived in Germany for almost 20 years, but in July 2016 I returned to Russia. During the two decades I spent in Germany, I realized that my homeland is actually here. Here I am free, I feel calm. In Germany, he lived for a long time in the vicinity of Hanover.
I have my own piece of land, my own cattle in the village of Azovo, Omsk region. There are huge taxes on farming in Germany. I was there washing pigsties, chicken coops. I had my own firm. In terms of cleanliness in Germany, the requirements are much stricter than ours. Even the barn should be as clean as a plate. The market is large, not everyone wants to work with the Russians.
In general, there are many prejudices against immigrants from post-Soviet countries. I am an ethnic German, I graduated from a school in Germany, I know the language well, I got a profession. But from the first days they called me Russian there. "From afar to see Ivan" - such a saying there. I thought it would pass over time, but before leaving, nothing had changed. I communicated mainly with the same settlers, although there were also local acquaintances. There are a lot of arrogant Germans, they do not want to know the "Russlanddeutsche" (Germans from Russia. - Ed.). I even partially understand them. Some immigrants do not behave very adequately, work miracles, do not take into account the local order. Trust, respect is lost.
Alexey Grunenwald, Cologne outskirts - Crimea
I have lived in Germany since 1993, now I have not finally moved yet, I am engaged in the execution of Russian documents. We are such a people that we have neither a flag nor a homeland. In Kazakhstan, we were fascists, although my ancestors moved in the days of Catherine the Great. In Germany we are considered Russians. I thought that if they call me Russian, then I will go to them. I thought about moving to Russia after the annexation of Crimea. In 2015, we flew to the peninsula for the first time, probed the soil. In 2016, they bought real estate in the city of Saki.
In Germany, I changed two professions. At first he was a realtor, then he started selling cars. The taxes there are simply extortionate - they rip off like sticky. Large firms are still doing well, while small businesses find it hard to make ends meet. Extortions for literally everything. I was very surprised, for example, when I received a receipt for payment for TV - 40 euros for three months.
All this rip-off is only for one reason - it is necessary to feed the refugees with something. They are resettled in every village, although they seem to be afraid of our Russians. A friend of mine once stopped at an intersection, which was being crossed by two Arabs. They stopped, went to the car and spent thumbs down the throat. An acquaintance of them showed the middle finger in response. A fight ensued. As a result, the police fined my friend five hundred euros, but did not touch the migrants.
The aggressive propaganda of sex minorities in Germany was very annoying. Some gay parades are constantly held there, homosexuals do not hesitate to shine on the streets with their bare asses. I simply do not have any censorship words about this, but children can see it too! In kindergartens, schools, they are told that a boy with a boy, a girl with a girl is normal. Many Germans, in fact, are also unhappy with this situation, not in vain for last elections many voices "Alternative for Germany", which family values and improving relations with Russia.
“Yes, I just love my homeland,” the driver Anatoly Sidorenko simply explains. “And I am my husband,” his wife-paramedic Tatiana echoes.
What prompted us to emigrate? - says Tanya. - I wanted a better life! After all, how we live: from paycheck to paycheck, which is not enough not only for vacation - we cannot afford to visit the neighboring region! The money is spent only to feed and shoe the children. The most elementary thing, we cannot even dream of anything else, although we work hard both at work and at home: a vegetable garden, cattle ... And still we can hardly make ends meet! Moreover, everyone from our village then left for Germany, so we decided: we will try! We tried ... We got together, they tore my heart. Do not believe someone who says that he does not miss his native land. It’s not true - everyone is bored! We watched Russian films through the "satellite" - the soul sang and cried ...
They settled us first in the camp. We learned German, and when the courses ended, we moved to a rented apartment and lived on "social" - benefits. You just compare the life of a German unemployed and a Russian hard worker in the countryside! Let's start with the elementary - open the refrigerator. There we had cheeses and sausages of several varieties, and yoghurts, and juices, and fruits, and meat. And here, how can I afford all this for myself and my children? On weekends - swing-roundabouts, those of ours who have already found work there, have the opportunity to go to the sea once a year. And in Russia, no matter how hard you work, we would never have risen to such a standard of living ...
And yet they returned ...
The husband could not stand it first: he only lasted 8 months there. He simply said to me: “I want freedom!”, But I understood that he could not cope with the language barrier: neither he understands anyone, nor him. "I'm nobody here!" - is talking. And in our village - a respected person. And after a year and a half, I also left for my husband: it is not good to break up a family.
Let me give you a simple example, - explains Anatoly. - We sat up late, until 11 pm, with the guys in the kitchen, as we are used to: arguing, singing, opening souls to each other. So one grandmother from the house took and knocked the policemen: they arrived, dispersed ... I can't do that! Here at my place I will go out on the bench, I talk as much as I want, everyone understands me ...
But even this is not the main thing, - says Tatiana. - I'll say a banality: one word - homeland. Why deceive yourself that it is better to live here? No, living here is worse. But without it, without Russia, it is impossible. This is such a state of mind that cannot be explained with dry words ...
I love my homeland - the way it is, - Anatoly picks up. - She raised me, taught me. I have lived here for so many years - I will not change it for any other. And do not ask why my love is to her. I don’t ask you why you love your mother ... So it’s with me: it’s in my blood. And don't look for rational explanations: they simply do not exist.
Returner Opinion
K. Severinov: "It was a challenge to myself"
Biologist Konstantin Severinov left to work in the United States in the 1990s, where he became a world-class scientist, received the title of professor and laboratory at Rutgers University (New Jersey). But in 2005 he returned to Russia: he is in charge of laboratories at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Gene Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
I came back because I could afford it. The post of professor in the United States brings me income, and my laboratory works there like a well-oiled machine. Everything is planned for years to come, this makes it even boring. Returning to Russia was a challenge to myself: can I create a normally working laboratory here from scratch when favorable conditions for this, it would seem, no? Let me tell you straight: doing science in Russia is not for the faint of heart. Therefore, there are so few "returnees" among our scientists. But it is extremely interesting to teach young people here, to show them what a normal science that meets world standards is. A broader task is also interesting - to participate in the construction of modern Russian science. She's not worried now better times... I like the phrase "citizenship", although it sounds pretentious. Someone has to build Russian science.
Up to 9 thousand Russian Germans return from Germany to Russia annually. About a third of them go to Siberia - to Halbstadt Altai Territory and in Azovo, Omsk region. " Russian newspaper I visited Azovo and wrote about how people's expectations are crumbling first in Germany and then in Russia.“There are more cars with EU license plates than local ones”, “Azovo is fattening on German money”, “Everyone speaks German in Azovo” - three myths are circulating in Siberia about the Omsk village of Azovo. And although it is not easy to hear German speech there, but here is the fact - from 5 to 9 thousand Germans a year leave Germany for Russia. Of these, up to two or three thousand a year go to Galbstadt in the Altai Territory and to Azovo in the Omsk Region, where the German autonomous regions have been recreated. To see how and why the repatriates are returning, the RG special correspondent went to the fastest growing german region Siberia - Azov German national municipal district(ANNMR).
“What a German“ gut ”...
The house of the headman of the village of Privalnoe Yuri Bekker is typically German. This is how its ancestors built it, who founded the village in the 19th century. The courtyard in Siberian style - with a well from white brick... There is a black plow at the well.
- I bought it from a friend, he wanted to rent it for scrap. I would also pass "to Germany". But I returned - and I cannot.
In the German Oldenburg since 2005, he survived "eternity" - less than five years.
“I left because everyone was leaving,” he clarifies. - My wife was crying, she has all the relatives there, and I gave up. Well, after all, the historical homeland. I tried to settle down there. He mowed grass on golf courses, carried mail, stoked fireplaces. But I cannot live without land. And in Germany there is no country life. And the way they understand it is a mockery. The plot of land should be standard - the lawn is not higher than the designated mark, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes can be planted only on a quarter of the area. I dropped a little more - fine. I wanted to have chickens, as at home, - they called me to the police. I tried to plant cherries, currants, raspberries on the plot, the neighbors stopped greeting me. The policeman explained: "We buy berries and fruits, they grow in the garden for the birds." I thought he was joking, but he writes out a fine. For planting too many fruits and picking berries in my garden.
The thought that “we must do our feet” Becker often tormented, but finished when he saw his niece roared. She, the pride of the family clan, was preparing for a university. The teachers praised her for her studies: "Gut, gut". The girl received a certificate, but it turned out that it does not give the right to enter the university. She is in tears, the teachers do not understand what the matter is: the bachelor's too higher education, even if it is biennial and without the right to engage in science.
“It’s like this: they’ll raise the stranger from his knees, but they won’t let him get back on his feet,” Becker frowns. - So it turns out that the German "gut", the Russian German - you will laugh.
Upon his return, Becker did not recognize his native Privalnoe. The club is overgrown with weeds, the sidewalks have almost disappeared as a species, the stadium is a wasteland. He, hereditary - after his father and grandfather - the village headman, where he agreed with the farmers, where he cleared the stadium on a voluntary basis, mowed weeds at the club, now he is trying to return the sidewalks to the village.
It is difficult for Yuri Bekker to explain why he returned. For four annual salaries in Germany, he was able to buy a house and land from his brother in Privalny. And here his salary in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, even for several decades, will not be enough for a modest house. And here it is necessary to mold a new life.
“Someone cuts everything off, like me, and comes back, someone hangs between the two countries. Someone cleverly "risks" issuing pensions in two countries, although for this you can run into a fine of 11 thousand euros. Someone simply returns to children, reluctance to end up in a nursing home in old age. Someone has a business in two countries ... But I, although a German, did not learn German there “...
I want to go to Russia as a milkmaid
The entrance to Azovo is like the border of the European Union with Siberia. Cottages in the Bavarian style, above them, like a town hall, a complex of residential three-story buildings. The gothic style of their towers and the patina of green roofs are confusing: is it Bavaria or Siberia? The streets of the still unoccupied cottages and the infrastructure of the town - a gymnasium, a hospital, a sports complex, sewage treatment plant- a gift from Germany to the Russian Germans who created an autonomous region in Azovo. But at the height of construction, in 1995, mass emigration began. Russian Germans to Germany: the almost 65 percent German region remained only 30 percent. He could have shrunk even more, but his German appearance was saved by the Germans - immigrants from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Basically, they live in the Eurocity.
- The cover, - Ulyana Ilchenko squints skeptically at the reflections from the roofs of the “town hall”, - but I bought it. She sold her house in Kazakhstan, got debts from brothers in Germany. And when I live, you can't boast: the roof is leaking, the walls have gone at the seams ... Unfinished, it is not finished even for the euro, unfinished.
And returnees from Germany react to the "Bavarian" cottages with a grin. Budgetary investments from Germany ended by 2005. Former head of the ANNMR administration Viktor Saberfeld, suspected of manipulating land plots, walks under criminal prosecution. Prices for "German" real estate have skyrocketed so that many cannot afford housing. Finally, mutual sanctions between Russia and Germany froze the next tranche of 2016 for autonomy - 66.3 million rubles from Russia and 9.5 million euros from Germany.
But the number of “returnees” is still growing. In 2015, more than a thousand people returned, in 2016 - 611, about 50 people came for reconnaissance. Now the district administration has 21 applications for resettlement from Germany.
And those who left write letters.
“Choose any,” the deputy head of the ANNMR, Sergei Bernikov, points at the stack of envelopes and closely follows the unfolded sheet with the inscription: “Lydia Schmidt, Baden-Württemberg”.
- Zemlyachka, - comments, - from the village of Aleksandrovka.
The woman has a typical request: she wants to go back, but since, when she left, she sold the house, she asks for municipal housing - “even a hostel with a toilet on the street”. Her children got to their feet, and even though she is 62, she assures that she is strong and wants to work as a milkmaid. “Will you take it? I want to go home to Russia. "
- They are there, on their "social" (municipal housing and social benefits - "RG"), - Bernikov abruptly jumps off the chair, - do not understand what they are asking for. There is no USSR. There are no municipal housing and dormitories. And there are almost no milkmaids. Capitalism and Farmers. And they do not provide housing. You need to buy it. And the competition in villages for work is higher than in Germany.
Therefore, Lydia Schmidt, most likely, will be given cautious advice - to go to the reconnaissance first. Like Natalia Merker and Katerina Burkhard. They came from Bavaria, and they introduce themselves: "I am from Karaganda", "And I am from Aktyubinsk." They learned about Azovo from their relatives, came to reconnaissance, toured almost all German villages. They liked Azovo least of all.
- They hold us for fools, take a mortgage, buy apartments under 200 meters, - Natalya Merker admits.
- My brothers in Germany got into mortgages for 15-20 years. And they would be glad to leave for Russia, but they cannot. And then the mortgage is also at 16 percent against 4-6 in Bavaria. The former party nomenclature picked up square meters for sale and wants to weld on us. Benefactors ...
Therefore, Natalia and Katerina in two villages looked after private houses, with plots, sheds, they expect to dig up money and buy them. “We are rural people,” says Merker, “we miss the open spaces, the cow-chickens…”. But to be afraid to return. “Everything is different,” Burchard admits. “But there, too, everything changes,” interjects Merker.
When she was little, she was afraid of a movie about the Great Patriotic War, school fees, rulers, history lessons. “As soon as I hear the word“ fascist, ”there’s a chill on my back. It’s like it’s me. And when in Munich I saw the Germans go out to the demonstrations with posters "We love you, refugees!", I again had a chill on my back. Refugees terrorize them - they blow up, rape them, and Germans take to the streets with chants: "Munich must be colored!" As soon as other Germans came out with the slogan “No Islamization of Germany!”, They were called “fascists”. And again I am at the same time with the "fascists", because I am Russian. I'm no stranger: here I was German, there I was Russian. But my children of the future, in which they will be offered to be someone in their homeland, I don’t want ...
“We are fleeing both refugees,” says Katerina Burkhard, “and those who are supposed to try them for criminal offenses, but they are judging us for lack of" tolerance. "
Katerina's son is in the fifth grade, and she has two drives to the police and the threat of representatives of juvenile justice - "to withdraw her son because of the mother's inappropriate behavior."
Mother nearly fainted when her fourth-grader son returned from sex education class with plasticine figures genitals made on the instructions of teachers. She goes to school. There they listened to her with a restraint bordering on contempt, and showed her school curriculum... And the woman now goes to the “Demo fuer alle” demonstration every year against early sex in school. They began to issue her with the police and threaten to take away her son.
But the citizen Burchard also learns to despise self-control: she does not let her son go to sex lessons. She admits: most of all I am glad that “just in case” I gave birth to a son in Russia and granted him Russian citizenship. However, after the organizers of the “Demo fuer alle” action in Münster began to be judged, I became depressed. Her acquaintances, Catholics from Demo fuer alle, emigrated to Canada and Moscow. And she looked after the village of Privalnoe in Siberia.
Summer at home
When summer approaches, Andrei Klippert from Bavarian Ludwigsburg asks his son and daughter: “Where are we going: by the sea or ...?” “To Baba Lena,” children rustle. And the family through Poland, Belarus and half of Russia in a BMW crossover, defiantly modest color "wet asphalt", going to Azovo.
- Pa-ah, but we won't leave Ludwig, are we? Elona's 12-year-old daughter asked on the way this summer.
- Why? - digging up the parental garden of Azovo, he says to me. - There is no such medicine as in Germany, and even preferential, in Russia. I will not find work here, except for a vegetable garden. In Ludwig, before the sanctions, I assembled turbines for Russia at the plant. Then they cut it down, but at the expense of the company I underwent retraining and I work on a computer line for the distribution of goods and mail in a large transport company... 2000 euros a month against 10-14 thousand rubles for work at the post office in Omsk, they are treated for nostalgia in the bud.
Although Elona's question took her father by surprise. He guessed that his daughter had heard his telephone conversation with her grandfather from Azovo. He, at the request of his son, looked after land plot and called to the bride.
“I don’t have money for a house in Russia yet,” explains Clippert. - It is believed here that if we come here from Germany by cars, then ... The car is just a bonus, and it is taken on credit. I have no desire to get over for good. My social home in Germany suits me. And in Azovo, I came to look at the future for myself and my wife. Suddenly we will return ... And let the children decide for themselves. The daughter dreams of becoming a German swimming champion. She has the nickname "Torpedo", the second place was taken at the competitions in the land of Bavaria.
After a pause, Andrei adds that many of them in the Russian community are restoring Russian passports. And almost everyone again began to teach children the Russian language and to visit their relatives more often - to Tyumen, Saratov, Orenburg - for the summer.
“And no one will recognize their homeland,” he laughs. - We relaxed there, and if anything, we swing the rights. And here everyone is counting only on themselves. And no longer on "shuttle" tours, but on their farms, cheese dairies, breweries ...
In Russian, they get pissed off from big losses, but it is clear that they have grabbed onto the matter wow ... I've bought eggs for the children at an ostrich farm in Tsvetnopolye, try it. And here they have learned to make such sausage, it is tastier than in Germany. The house-building plant in Zvonarevo Kut was not completed, and there are no vacancies anymore. In general, for retirement, I will buy a house in Azovo.
With all my strength I try to "catch" Clippert: why does he call Germany home and Russia home? “My dad is German, my mom is from Odessa, I’m a Siberian,” he laughs. - And Siberia, who owns whose, simply finds out: "What are you fighting for?" - "I want to get acquainted."
He is not offended that he does not look like a German. An ordinary Russian, just the fate called him a German. I threw it to Germany, but forgot my heart and head at home.
The entire article "Goodbye, Germany" can be read at
Since the disintegration Soviet Union from former republics In the USSR, almost one and a half million ethnic Germans moved to Germany for permanent residence. Emigrating in search of a better life, they had no idea how difficult assimilation would be in their historical homeland.
At present, the opposite picture is being observed - “Russian Germans” are massively returning from the FRG back to Russia and the countries of the former USSR: the way of life in Germany turned out to be unbearable for the immigrants.
Emigration statistics
The “Russian Germans” have become the main migrant contingent in the FRG since 1990 (first they left the USSR en masse, and then from the former republics of the disintegrated state). The previous 40 years, this plan was dominated by emigrants from Poland and Romania.
If you believe the statistics, in particular, the results of the population census in the USSR, conducted in 1989, then from the beginning of the 90s to 2011, more than half of the the total ethnic Germans - about one and a half million people. The "Russian Germans" left mainly from Russia (612 thousand) and Kazakhstan (575 thousand) - these countries initially had the largest number representatives of this diaspora - according to 1989 data, 89% of the more than two million German population of the USSR.
Today there is a diaspora of "Russian Germans" in any large city Germany - in Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Stuttgart: things are relatively good there with the arrangement and development of Russian infrastructure - shops, industrial enterprises household services etc. One of the regions of Germany where immigrants from Russia live compactly is Baden-Württemberg.
Socialization in the historical homeland
Most of the "Russian Germans" who moved to the FRG have dual citizenship - Russian and German, since they are considered repatriates.
The emigrants of the 90s - 2000s are considered the most problematic group among “Russian Germans”, because they are the ones who are most susceptible to the crisis of ethnic identification - these people seem to be no longer Russians, but not yet Germans. According to German sociological studies, most of these representatives of the emigre circles never integrated into the society that accepted them, did not adapt to it and preferred socialization to exist in closed structures - in their own little world.
Judging by the polls, the majority of the "Russian Germans" of the post-Soviet wave of emigration were deeply mistaken in their expectations about the attitude of the representatives of the receiving side towards them. In the USSR, future emigrants were called "fascists", "Germans" (the disastrous consequences of the Second World War imparted a negative connotation to this nationality as such). And in Germany, the settlers turned into "Russians", if not even into "Putin's secret agents." In this regard, "Russian Germans" in Germany are forced to constantly adjust their self-identification
Why is it so hard for them there
A significant part of the "Russian Germans" who moved to Germany since the beginning of the 90s are not highly qualified specialists in their fields of activity, who are able to confirm their own social status in another country. For many, after the move to the FRG, it turned out to be significantly reduced, and without the prospect of recovery. The next problem is the lack of knowledge German language, without which it is impossible to find a decent job.
It is extremely difficult for "Russian Germans" to integrate into Western society and adapt to it, including because of the peculiarities of the mentality of immigrants, who in Germany "in spirit" remain more Russians than Germans. Over the decades of their life in the USSR and in the post-Soviet space, immigrants have become accustomed to completely different attitudes and values. These principles are briefly reflected in our national proverb “what is good for a Russian, death is for a German”.
In the minds of our former compatriots, the peculiarities of social behavior acceptable in the state they abandoned, but completely inapplicable in the West - in our country, a person who knows how to give a bribe, buy a car or build a house is considered to be successful, denying himself the essentials, a citizen who does not trust credits acts wisely. For native Germans, the opposite is true.
In Germany, no one is grateful for the fact that a person came to work on time or, say, correctly packaged garbage in special containers - if a resident does not do this, the garbage collector may simply not pick up the waste as punishment. And then you will have to pay extra for additional utilization of solid waste - there is no question of throwing the package somewhere “into the ravine” (on the side of the road) - fines for such actions in Germany, which differ special attitude to cleanliness and order, very large.
"Russian Germans", like any emigrants, are forced to face a dilemma: either to accept the current order in the country where they arrived, or to lock themselves in their own little world without hope of assimilation.
How they became "Putin's secret agents"
Recently, the German press has begun active defamation of immigrants from Russia, thereby creating the image of the indigenous population of the FRG as "zaslanets" behind enemy lines ": official Berlin does not hide its anti-Russian policy, using, among other things, such methods to discredit Russia.
In April of the outgoing year, the large German edition Das Bild published the material "Putin runs secret groups in Germany." The author of the text, Boris Reitschuster, a German journalist who has lived in Russia since 1990 for a total of 16 years, claims that Germany, like the rest of Europe, is flooded with secret agents from Russia, whose main goal is to destabilize the situation in these countries. According to Reitschuster, these "secret agents" also include representatives of the diaspora of "Russian Germans"
The German press quotes the statements of the members of the German government, "expressing concern about the high mobilization potential" from the ethnic Germans who moved from Russia (according to the estimates of the German side, there are now about two million of them in the FRG). According to a number of German politicians, such a mass of people, if desired, can be “put under arms” without any problems: “These groups can easily be mobilized directly from Russia for demonstrations and other protest actions, such as those that have recently taken place throughout the country, and were clearly not spontaneous. "
"Aufviderseen, Vaterlyand!"
According to the police and the migration service for 2016, up to 9 thousand "Russian Germans" return from Germany back to Russia every year. A significant part of them go purposefully ... to Siberia: there, in the Altai in Halbstadt and in Azovo (Omsk region), German autonomous regions have been recreated, where more than 100 thousand people live in more than 20 villages today.