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[Alexandr Korol]

I was on my layover in Moscow sitting in a restaurant: I felt an overwhelming
sense of love, joy, and compassion for all people. I simply wanted to hug
everyone; that was my reaction. The people were diverse — at one table sat
a group of men who had been drinking, all dressed in black, talking very
loudly about how serious and “important” they were. I saw how this irritated
and even frightened many other people, but not me. I felt happy for them.
And for those who were irritated, I felt a sense of concern. Nothing
annoyed me, and I was very surprised by this.
Once I arrived in Saint Petersburg, during those first few days while
communicating with people — simply going to get a photo taken, going to
the doctor, the notary, the Rosgvardia, the tax office, the Unified Document
Center — I visited many different places. And as I went through all of this, to
my surprise, not a single situation — not on the road, not with taxi drivers,
not in traffic jams, nothing at all — affected me. Not a single waiter, not a
bartender, not one person crossed me or touched a nerve. Not a single one.
Although my friends were asking me directly every single day, “Well, how
is it? Well, how are things?”, as if they were waiting for me to say that
everything is terrible and I need to run. But I would tell them: “I don’t know
why you are all complaining. The people are very good, very soulful, and very
intelligent — truly intelligent — very vigilant, and very attentive.” I felt deep
empathy when I saw someone at their job worrying intensely that they
might have done something wrong. Or when they made a tiny mistake, they
were so afraid of failing that they would literally shake. I saw this in almost
every other person — how hard everyone is trying. This is very important:
how hard everyone is trying, almost with a kind of fear, striving not to let
anyone down. You know, having lived in various countries and traveled the
world, I draw this conclusion and I am in shock when I make the contrast:
what good people there are in Russia. In terms of effort, responsibility,
and hard work — in many countries, this was lost long ago, and in others,
they haven’t even grown or arrived at it yet. These were my first conclusions,
which made my friends look at me with wide eyes, saying with surprise,
“Wow, incredible,” that I had such a reaction. That was the first thing,
how it all began.