Many of you by now know that i was born in Russia...But i dont think many of you know why my family left Russia....I am Jewish by religion...When i was in school i was harassed to the point that i would go home in tears.....Iwas called K name ..which is the same as calling black people N name....My dad was threatened almost every night by some thugs who lived in our neighborhood that they will k**l him and his family one day...So my sister and i couldnt go out at night that much...My sister wasnt harassed as much because she was very young......My dad applied for visa to go to Israel,because we couldnt say that we are going to America since both of our countries were in bad standings with each other 1979.....But in school i told everybody that we are going to Finland for my dad's work...He was chemical Engineer....I couldnt say we are going to Israel because of harassment..But all of a suudden people who h**ed me whole heartedly all of a sudden became my friends and ordered bunch of Levis Jeans to bring back,since we only were going to be gone just for one year...Fooled them!!!! ...So one morning we left everything behind and were on our way to this beautiful country...Our first stop was Austria, we stayed for 2 weeks...Then by train we went beautiful Italia..We stayed there for 3 months....We abide all the rules..We had physical before entering USA..We abide by the rules and were fleeing the persecution...I forgot to mention that my cousin couldnt get into University because of his religion even though he was straight A student his whole life...My point is we are all fleeing from something,the point is we have to do it legally....BTW we have waited for exactly 5 yrs before we had permission to leave and only because we said we were going to Finland for only 1 year....That was 40 years ago this year!!!!

Many of you by now know that i was born in Russia...But i dont think many of you know why my family left Russia....I am Jewish by religion...When i was in school i was harassed to the point that i would go home in tears.....Iwas called K name ..which is the same as calling black people N name....My dad was threatened almost every night by some thugs who lived in our neighborhood that they will k**l him and his family one day...So my sister and i couldnt go out at night that much...My sister wasnt harassed as much because she was very young......My dad applied for visa to go to Israel,because we couldnt say that we are going to America since both of our countries were in bad standings with each other 1979.....But in school i told everybody that we are going to Finland for my dad's work...He was chemical Engineer....I couldnt say we are going to Israel because of harassment..But all of a suudden people who h**ed me whole heartedly all of a sudden became my friends and ordered bunch of Levis Jeans to bring back,since we only were going to be gone just for one year...Fooled them!!!! ...So one morning we left everything behind and were on our way to this beautiful country...Our first stop was Austria, we stayed for 2 weeks...Then by train we went beautiful Italia..We stayed there for 3 months....We abide all the rules..We had physical before entering USA..We abide by the rules and were fleeing the persecution...I forgot to mention that my cousin couldnt get into University because of his religion even though he was straight A student his whole life...My point is we are all fleeing from something,the point is we have to do it legally....BTW we have waited for exactly 5 yrs before we had permission to leave and only because we said we were going to Finland for only 1 year....That was 40 years ago this year!!!!

Many of you by now know that i was born in Russia...But i dont think many of you know why my family left Russia....I am Jewish by religion...When i was in school i was harassed to the point that i would go home in tears.....Iwas called K name ..which is the same as calling black people N name....My dad was threatened almost every night by some thugs who lived in our neighborhood that they will k**l him and his family one day...So my sister and i couldnt go out at night that much...My sister wasnt harassed as much because she was very young......My dad applied for visa to go to Israel,because we couldnt say that we are going to America since both of our countries were in bad standings with each other 1979.....But in school i told everybody that we are going to Finland for my dad's work...He was chemical Engineer....I couldnt say we are going to Israel because of harassment..But all of a suudden people who h**ed me whole heartedly all of a sudden became my friends and ordered bunch of Levis Jeans to bring back,since we only were going to be gone just for one year...Fooled them!!!! ...So one morning we left everything behind and were on our way to this beautiful country...Our first stop was Austria, we stayed for 2 weeks...Then by train we went beautiful Italia..We stayed there for 3 months....We abide all the rules..We had physical before entering USA..We abide by the rules and were fleeing the persecution...I forgot to mention that my cousin couldnt get into University because of his religion even though he was straight A student his whole life...My point is we are all fleeing from something,the point is we have to do it legally....BTW we have waited for exactly 5 yrs before we had permission to leave and only because we said we were going to Finland for only 1 year....That was 40 years ago this year!!!!

Many of you by now know that i was born in Russia...But i dont think many of you know why my family left Russia....I am Jewish by religion...When i was in school i was harassed to the point that i would go home in tears.....Iwas called K name ..which is the same as calling black people N name....My dad was threatened almost every night by some thugs who lived in our neighborhood that they will k**l him and his family one day...So my sister and i couldnt go out at night that much...My sister wasnt harassed as much because she was very young......My dad applied for visa to go to Israel,because we couldnt say that we are going to America since both of our countries were in bad standings with each other 1979.....But in school i told everybody that we are going to Finland for my dad's work...He was chemical Engineer....I couldnt say we are going to Israel because of harassment..But all of a suudden people who h**ed me whole heartedly all of a sudden became my friends and ordered bunch of Levis Jeans to bring back,since we only were going to be gone just for one year...Fooled them!!!! ...So one morning we left everything behind and were on our way to this beautiful country...Our first stop was Austria, we stayed for 2 weeks...Then by train we went beautiful Italia..We stayed there for 3 months....We abide all the rules..We had physical before entering USA..We abide by the rules and were fleeing the persecution...I forgot to mention that my cousin couldnt get into University because of his religion even though he was straight A student his whole life...My point is we are all fleeing from something,the point is we have to do it legally....BTW we have waited for exactly 5 yrs before we had permission to leave and only because we said we were going to Finland for only 1 year....That was 40 years ago this year!!!!

Interesting story. I'm sure there are many more who escaped during those years and their stories are not so different to yours. Of course you understand that you did not flee Russia, you fled the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), a totally different entity than the Russia we all know today. There is no longer an 'iron curtain' detaining what should be a free people from moving across Russian borders like there was in the Soviet era. This is my whole point, the 'bad guys' are no longer in charge.