en

The idea of writing this book was born during the conversation with an American friend of mine, Ken Swenson, whom I met during my years of working in  Intourist, the travel agency for foreigners, in Leningrad.  After I moved to Finland we lost contact and he found me ten years later. When he called me, his first question was: ``How is your life? Is it still a piece of cake?`` I didn't understand his question at first and then he explained to me that when we met in Leningrad so many years ago my favourite expression was 'piece of cake' as everything was so easy for me.  I started to tell him about my life in Finland and  Ken suggested I write a story  about a cultural shock, which I experienced, about the discrepancy in values in these two countries and contradictions of eastern and western worlds. So I did.

Synopsis of the book.

The book is a story of my life first in Leningrad, then in Helsinki and at the end in Barcelona. It is about how I married a Finnish dream man, handsome, intelligent and successful who promised  to take me to a western paradise and to take good care of me and my twelve years old daughter.

From the first day I found out that the world I saw in the movies and I was dreaming about had nothing to do with the real life. I felt very lonely and isolated among Finns especially after learning that Russians were considered the second class foreigners there.

The marriage with”the dream man” became a nightmare.  My husband - to be changed from the moment we crossed the border. On the top of it his company went bankrupt and the only money the whole family had to live for several years with was my scholarship and bank loan which I received as a university student.  I had never been so poor when I lived in Leningrad. I had an interesting and well paid job, a flat, a car, friends, social life and after moving to a rich country I even did not have enough money for food or for buying a bus ticket.  My full of joy life which I had in Leningrad turned into a hell where I had to struggle for survival absolutely alone.

In spite of all the difficulties I made a very successful business career. In a few   years after moving to Helsinki I got an intersting and  well paid job of an export manager of a big Swedish company, where I worked for 10 years and was promoted to a position of an  export director  and later I was appointed as a managing director of a  Finish company, one of the biggest in logistics in Nothern countries.

At the same time my personal life was going worse and worse. After divorce my seven years old son did not want to move with me explaining that he was ashamed  to live with the Russian mother as the prejudices against Russians  were so strong.

My story is not just about difficulties which every foreigner meets when moving to a new country. It is about being  a foreigner from a wrong country.

This book is about prejudices and compassion, weakness and strength, hatred and love.

It is for those who are still suffering, striving to be accepted. It is about society where everything is done for the benefits of people and where people do not know how to be happy.

It is about the glory of life which always wins. But how many difficult moments we could have escaped if someone told us how to live in a different society or how to respect people from a different world.

The problem is not in the language, a new language is the smallest challenge of all; it’s about misunderstanding and absence of willingness to accept somebody or something different.

The message of this book is to the people who live in the so called equal society but who are not aware that their world is not equal for everybody. It might help them to open their eyes and see that life in the secure world of theirs isn’t always fair.

It is also for those who are in a similar situation that I was as they are starting a new life in a new society and it might help them to overcome the difficulties.

My book was published by Otava in March 2010 and received an enormous interest from all the mass media of Finland immediately after the publication. I believe the topic of prejudices and discrimination has been a very important issue lately and I am glad that it is openly discussed in the Finnish society.