Western Russian Mission Statement

hi.

I’m Helga. My name on official documents is a bit different, but I don’t really go by it if I can help it.

It seems to me like, slowly, a new generation of Russians is growing - ones that had the opportunity to discard immediately the ideologies dominant in the country in favour of those they deemed more humane and less cruel. I’ve met a lot of them recently, and by all measures before I turn 25 I am still one of them.

By and large, our ideas parallel Western progressives, but grown in different and often hostile environment - as we often point out, Putin has an approval rating of something like 86%. The biggest thread i’ve noticed in posts my Russian friends make is “jesus, why is everyone around me so freakin hateful?”, and so the first priority for everyone is not changing the world, but instead living in it.

I believe the shared and universal experience of survival and ideological isolation can bring interesting perspective to issues well-chewed and well-sorted in the US and EU conciousness, so my aim with this column is to share said perspective as well as get some peace of mind from it.

see if you enjoy the ride.