Alexandr Korol

At first, I actually wanted to delete everything, but my team said, “Alex, have you lost your mind? People will forget about you completely. Your readers will be lost. Just leave the pages, we’ll manage them. We’ll post something now and then. Just don’t go on there yourself if it’s unpleasant for you to read it.” And from that moment on, I began to withdraw more and more from society. And it’s true — it has a massive influence. If I hadn’t distanced myself, I probably would’ve ended up thinking that there is no voice, no inspiration, and that I’d already written everything I could. But what happened was the opposite. Because I withdrew, I opened up even more — it was like I returned to myself even deeper. Because I’m often alone anyway — almost always — but when you’re still “online,” it’s as if you’re not truly alone. Your mind stays connected — to people, to their thoughts, to their karmas. And then that was it — you disconnected from all those people, you were with yourself — and right away, the voice goes: “Hello.” And you’re like, “Oh — hello.” So in a way, the pandemic actually played in my favor. Of course, it was terrifying that so many people, especially the elderly, passed away — that was truly awful. It was awful that so many people went bankrupt. It was on a massive scale. But you know, when it all began, I actually felt a sense of joy, because I thought: maybe people will become kinder after this — but instead, they became meaner. I really believed the opposite would happen. You know, when something huge and frightening occurs in the world, you’d think it might bring people together, soften them somehow, make them realize that life isn’t about money or success, that we should appreciate the little things and be more humble. At first, for me, it actually fueled hope for a brighter future. And of course, naturally, I also had the thought — what if this is what I had been waiting for all along? Because throughout this whole journey, I’ve always had a sense that something was going to happen in the world. I didn’t know what — something frightening, or maybe not — but something. And I thought, “What if this is it? What if, after this, people become more enlightened, kind, spiritual, and they’ll all start reading my books?” But in the end, it turned out to be the opposite. I was riding the Sapsan from St. Petersburg to Moscow in business class with someone who’s had a chronic nasal condition his whole life, so he kept sniffling. And what happened? Some guy stood up and nearly hit him, started yelling. Everyone panicked, started putting their masks on. I said to him, “He has a chronic issue, calm down.” And the man looked at me like