An Emigrant’s Observations: My Nine Years in Austria

English
By Anatoly
5 min. read

Every year on this day, I remember that emotional journey out of Russia with a one-way ticket. A lot of time has passed, but that move remains a source of enormous joy and pride for me. At 35, I began a new chapter in what has become a happy and eventful adventure in Austria.

It is hard to believe that nine years ago I boarded a plane and left my hometown of Krasnodar, where I had lived my entire life until emigrating. I still remember how incredibly hectic and stressful those final days were. I was travelling with several suitcases and, in a way, heading into the unknown, even though Julia was already in Austria and had been living in Linz for some time. Still, when you are 35, this is a genuinely difficult and emotional moment.

Krasnodar itself carried on as usual. Nothing had changed. The weather was wonderful: sunny and warm, as it usually is in October in Kuban. I also knew perfectly well that, despite leaving, I would have to return soon to take care of a huge number of unfinished matters involving property, documents, and other things. Back in 2017, that was still possible. We had started the process of emigrating soon after the whole “Crimea is ours” episode, understanding that we needed to leave while we still had the chance. We knew that life in Russia would only become more dangerous and difficult, and that leaving the country would become harder. Nine years later, I can say that my fears and predictions have come true beyond anything I expected. I could never have imagined that things would become so terrible and sad in my homeland. But that is how things are.

Julia and I have been through so much during these years in Austria. It has been an incredibly eventful time. We managed to bring our parents here so they could see Austria, and we lived through the COVID pandemic in a relatively safe country. Back in March 2020, much of my sense of safety came from the way people treated one another. I saw so much understanding and mutual support. People kept their distance, sometimes even crossed to the other side of the street to avoid getting too close, wore masks, and followed the rules. At the same time, we could still go for walks, and people simply tried to respect each other’s personal space. It was an incredibly supportive society, and being part of it during such a difficult period was immensely comforting.

Of course, our lives changed dramatically after emigrating. We were able to travel much more, attend concerts and festivals in different countries, and experience things that had previously seemed out of reach. Our work took on a completely different status and meaning. Our attitudes toward our health and our fears also changed. Our environment and our circle of friends and acquaintances became completely different.

So many interesting moments and events happened in my personal life that they turned my understanding of myself and the world around me by 90, 180, and sometimes even 360 degrees. Some experiences were very different from others, but I always felt that I was growing and developing, gaining a new understanding of myself and discovering another side of my personality.

Completing a full master’s programme in Global Marketing at the University of Applied Sciences in Steyr made me feel younger again. I learned a great deal about sales, marketing, and technology. I discovered theories, articles, and methods that had escaped my attention in previous years, and I became more interested in reading, learning, and exploring new ideas. After many years, that light, youthful, wonderful curiosity about life returned to me, along with the enthusiasm I remembered so well. Surprisingly, it gives me more energy. In general, I believe emigration awakens a curiosity about life in people, and that is incredibly important for our sense of purpose. We have been through so much together over these nine years. I am immensely grateful to Julia, and I am proud of each of us individually and of us together as a family.

Of course, February 2022 was, and remains, the most difficult, emotionally exhausting, and painful period of my emigration from Russia. Your homeland, which you thought you had managed to leave legally and somehow separate yourself from, still catches up with you. It refuses to let you go, accuses you, and does everything it can to make you feel guilty about your new life here in Austria. This is incredibly exhausting and difficult, and it will always remain a painful feeling of guilt and emptiness that has lived inside me for the past four years.

During my time in Austria, I have been fortunate enough to help Ukraine, refugees, and other people who have found themselves in difficult circumstances because of Russian aggression. I have also spent a great deal of time explaining to local Austrians what Putin’s Russia is, what the current war means, and how dangerous it is, including for Europe and Austria itself. But throughout these years, my desire to share my knowledge, experience, and determination with others has never disappeared.

At the same time, Austria has given me an incredible sense of safety, peace, and emotional balance. Yes, external factors — my own motherland — make me feel ashamed of my origins, my passport, and my nationality. But we are who we are, and however difficult things become, we must keep moving forward, developing, accepting ourselves, changing for the better, and learning from our mistakes. And this Alpine country helps us do exactly that. It genuinely offers opportunities for self-reflection and allows you to look at yourself, your past, present, and future from different perspectives. So I am grateful to Austria for the opportunities it gives me, someone from another country that, incidentally, is quite hostile toward it. Despite this, Austria still welcomes me and allows me to live, grow, receive an education, and enjoy an incredible level of comfort and quality of life.

Today marks the beginning of my tenth year in Austria. There was a time when this moment seemed so far away, unbelievably distant, as if it would never come. And now it has arrived. I want to say that these have been the happiest nine years of my life. There have been many difficulties, challenges, stressful moments, and worries. But none of that comes close to the amount of happiness and joy that has been part of our everyday lives.

And I want to keep living. I want to make myself and my wife Julia happy by having the opportunity to grow as people in a healthy way, to pursue our goals, fulfil our wishes, and follow our dreams. In Austria, this is genuinely possible.

Wishing everyone all the best.

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О проекте:

Меня зовут Анатолий. Я автор проекта «Жизнь эмигранта». В 2017 году я эмигрировал с семьёй из Краснодара в Австрию. Мы с женой работаем в маркетинге, а для помощи тем, кто хотел бы переехать, создали сайт Emigrants.life.
Проект «Жизнь эмигранта» ― это ежедневные новости о жизни, быте в Австрии и Европе. Переходите на сайт проекта Emigrants.life, подписывайтесь на наши страницы в Telegram , Facebook , Instagram, Twitter , а также принимайте участие в голосованиях в нашей группе в Telegram .

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