From Russia for love

Although they feared having to return home when their visas expired last month, recent Russian immigrants Elena Vitalievna Vikentieva and Albina Raisovna Davlieva never dreamed husbands would be their saviors. But that’s what fate had in store for them.

Fate also steered the students, who arrived in the Wood River Valley in June from Kazan, to jobs at Sun Valley Company. The selection was made when, closing their eyes, they pointed a finger to it on the university work program list of options.

The trip started out as a way for two independent women to earn money and experience life abroad.

Marriage wasn’t part of the itinerary.

Elena describes Albina as a smart and independent woman, who was predicted to be the last of their friends to get married.

"When Albina told me she was getting married I said, ‘What? Where is the real Albina?’" Elena says with a smile. "She is not the traditional Russian woman who values family first."

Albina fell in love with a friend whom she met while working for the Sun Valley Company, and married in August.

"Everything was so quick. I didn’t set out to fall in love with him, but I did," she acknowledges, and describes a friendly courtship that included learning how to play tennis, a rich man’s sport in Russia.

Facing the thought of returning home without her close friend, Elena says she set out to find herself a husband.

"The thought of going home alone without Albina was terrible," she said.

Originally, Elena planned to marry simply to stay in the United States, but she says her luck took a turn for the better when she met her boss’s son.

Elena describes her boss, and now mother-in-law, as a guardian angel.

"Sherrie said, ‘What are you doing with your life?’ when she found out that I wanted to marry to stay here," says Elena. "She said many men would be happy to marry me just for love. Take my son for instance, he has a crush on you."

Elena describes the first date with her soon-to-be husband as a comedy of errors as they locked the car keys in the car, and there was "no dancing and no movies," but they married a few weeks later. Elena says she impressed him with her cooking skills, making Russian-style crepes and homemade jelly the second day they met.

"Now I am in love with him--he is a very good husband," she says.

Although the courtships were brief, and both marriages resemble a Shakespearean denouement, Albina and Elena say they feel fortunate to have found good American husbands, and hope love is a permanent passport into the promised land.

Although they have adopted a new land, the women held tight to the ways of their native country. However, weaving Russian traditions into each other’s marriage to Americans husbands wasn’t an easy task.

Russian tradition entangles a groom in quite a few obstacles before he can take his bride to the altar in a custom known as "buying the bride." Moments before the ceremony, with guests eagerly waiting for the couple to arrive, the groom has to find his bride, who hides in a nearby home with her bridesmaids.

To reach her, he must overcome challenges such as choosing his bride’s lipstick print among all of her friends’ and declaring terms of endearment for her for every match stick he plucks out of an apple. If he fails even slightly, which is expected, he pays a handsome sum to the bridesmaids before he can proceed to the church with his beloved.

"I told Elena’s husband that he has to give me some money before I would show him where she was hiding," explains Albina. "All he had was a credit card!"

Elena describes the most touching part of her wedding as dancing with her groom to a Russian ballad.

Having experienced hard times in their native Russia, these two 20-year-old women don’t take living in America for granted.

They traveled for four days from the Republic of Kazan by train to Moscow, and then flew via New York to Sun Valley in June, stopping in Seattle and Boise.

Their long trip put them worlds away from a homeland where toothpaste cost a tenth of their monthly income, paychecks are few between months of work and fresh fruit is a decadent luxury.

"Americans are not used to difficulty," says Albina. "Even the streets are clearly marked. In Russia you have to ask a native if you want to get anywhere."

Elena points to her dishwasher as an example of the leisurely life; it is only in the past few weeks that she learned how to use it-- and how a garbage disposal works.

It’s not only American conveniences that the women are adjusting to. They relish their newfound roles as consumers.

Albina describes the disintegrating economy and middle class back home through an allegory of two old classmates.

When two longtime acquaintances passed one another on the streets of Russia, they were surprised at one another’s fortune. One man was wealthy and drove a Mercedes, the other was a beggar with nothing.

The rich man asked the poor man, "What happened to you? When we were classmates you were the smartest of the class."

The beggar replied that he was unable to make a living in Russia’s unstable economy, and then he asked his friend, "And, how is it that you are so wealthy and drive this expensive car?"

The wealthy man was quick with an answer, "I buy a good for 5,000 rubles and sell it for 15,000; I keep the 2 percent profit."

"You see, it doesn’t matter how clever you are," says Albina, who jokes that Russia’s national currency is vodka, "the rich get rich dishonestly."

The newly weds earn their money the old-fashioned way, brewing up espresso while working for Bravo, and both hope to go back to school.

Their futures here remain uncertain despite their marriages, however, as they work with the Department of Immigration to produce the correct documents to stay in the U.S.

And there’s family back home to deal with, too. Elena and Albina dream of their families’ meeting their husbands, but wrestle with guilt for living a life that their parents will most likely never experience. They also struggle with reconciling their decisions with their families, although in different ways.

Over the phone, Elena’s parents asked her to describe every detail of her wedding and her life. They said they were sad to have missed the big event; Albina’s parents scolded her for an unwise decision and begged her to come home.

"I tell my parents to please stop crying when they call. I say, ‘Speak to me--this is costing you money,’" Albina says. "My parents will never say ‘We have hard times.’ They tell me, ‘We have the whole family here--if you ever feel out of place come home.’"

However, Albina says, she doesn’t plan to return--except to visit-- to a place where she is forbidden to be an individual.

"It’s not just that I’m able to earn money, I’m able to have a personality and to realize myself here," Albina said.