Russian Connection.

This post was originally written last November 23, 2009 at 2:59 a.m.

Left - St. Petersburg under siege.

I've always wanted to see Russia. I am enchanted by its history, its personages, its palaces, Anna Karenina, Catherine the Great, Lenin, Tolstoy, the Bolshoi Ballet, and more.

It helps that I have great Russian friends. Iurie, Natalia, Larissa and of course, every one's dear 'ol friend, Olga. But from the many Russian words these friends have taught me, I could only remember two: da and den'gi. The spellings could be wrong but they mean No and Money.

I remember tagging along once with one of these friends, into an Orthodox Church somewhere along rural Ontario. It was a beautiful Church with lovely, historic icons.

Why we went there? There was a visiting Holy Man from Russia who brought along a piece of wood which was supposedly taken from the Cross that was borne by Jesus.

In Toronto, there's a growing number of Russian immigrants. They are mostly professional people, like Natalia and Larissa, an economist and a civil engineering, respectively.

In my line of work, I've met hundreds of Russians who came to Canada in search of a better life, much like the Pinoys, and some integrated easily while others, because of certain barriers, found economic and cultural assimilation difficult.

Natalia is one success story. An MS degree holder from Belarus, she's climbed the career ladder in Canada, but not without hardships, and now works as a Finance Manager, while continuing to study for her CGA designation.

Like many Filipinos who've adopted Canada as a second home and continue to cherish their own culture, Russians in Toronto continue to pass on their values and traditions to their sons and daughters, including their language.

What do we know of Russia?  

When I was growing up, all I knew about Russia was what I saw from Bond movies and then from Dr. Zhivago, and then much later on, from what Lenin and Marx preached. 

What we have now in much of Communist Europe and specifically Eastern Europe is unrecognizable from the days of the Cold War.  In Leningrad and Moscow, there are specialty shops reserved for the ultra, new rich where mink-clad women, not just Raisa Gorbachev, shop not just for clothes and cars, but for oil stocks and companies. 

But there are still sad stories I heard from friends, where new Mafia-like organizations, kill old women to get hold of their government-issued apartments. 

But Russian women, much like the Pinoys, are fashion-conscious unlike the office girls of North America. You spot them easily with their short skirts, blond hair, and three-inch stilettos.

My friend Olga used to say that Russians can form ten words from one single word, and from one name, numerous pet names. 

Like us Pinoys, Russians tend to have names which are commonly given to children.  For them, it is Ivan, Petre, Yuri, Natasha, Olga, Ana.  For us, it is Pedro, Maria and Juan.