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[Alexandr Korol]

why was I cut this way, why was I there? For some reason, the system led me to this New York. Plus, I looked completely different there, and I lived a completely different lifestyle, had different values, everything was different. My favorite place there in New York was Columbia University, I walked around there endlessly. Plus, there’s a big church I like, where peacocks walk, a white peacock strolls around. I walked there a lot. I liked walking there. I thought about why I have this fate and life, why I am from Petersburg, why I seem to exist, but it’s like I don’t, and everyone else has figured it out. And that I could have gone to study at Columbia University 10 years ago. Why didn’t I do it? Because I didn’t know about it. Why didn’t I know about it? Because I had a different circle of people who didn’t tell me about it? Well, maybe. Maybe because I had completely different values, and I was focused on something else? Well, maybe. Plus, again, propaganda influences everyone differently, but... I had quite a few friends who, all through childhood, talked about how they wanted to go to America. And I laughed at them, telling them, why would they want America. But in the end, it turned out that I was in America, and they weren’t, and only after me did they come. Even though they wanted to go there so badly, I never wanted any part of America. I said, “Why? I like Russia. I love Petersburg.” Yes, I saw the difference. You know, I like the history of Russia, I like Tsarist Russia, I love my Petersburg. But I honestly admit, when I was in New York, I couldn’t hold back my words about how different people are from each other.

Imagine this, let’s draw conclusions for yourself. I return to Petersburg from New York for the presentation of my first book, and before I even get home, I’m sitting in a taxi in traffic. A person in front of me gets out of the car, starts hitting the car next to him, pulling the person out, and starts beating him. This happened at the “Gorkovskaya” metro station, at the intersection. And I realize that every time I came back from New York to Petersburg, people would be drawn to me, they would say, “You radiate warmth, goodness, and self-sufficiency.” People calmed down when they were near me when I came back from New York. And when I hadn’t been in Russia for long, under the influence of New York, I came back to Russia, to Petersburg, and people said I radiated confidence, goodness, and money. And what’s interesting is that