Russian brides

A lot has been said about the character of a Russian woman, about the reasons that make her seek a husband abroad, and about her expectations from new countries. Allow me to join in and summarize my own observations based on my personal experience and my numerous conversations with Russian women and their foreign spouses. Since I created the russian women, I have received many letters. Men and women who were happy in their relationships and those whose relationships had failed wrote them. Based on the stories, I have learned living in the US, I believe I could have written a whole book. However, today I would like to talk about the beginning stage of a relationship: about the reasons that prompt a Russian woman to seek a spouse abroad, what qualities she is looking for in a man, her final choice, and how her choice coincides or not with that of a man. I would also like to discuss men's guidelines for choosing a spouse through dating agencies.
 
What is a Russian woman looking for? Like poor Diogene, a Russian woman walks with a lantern in the daylight searching for a man in her native town. All she sees around her is green youths spoiled by female attention, unwilling to take up the load of other people's problems, yearning only for entertainment and pleasure, and relief from their own tough life. Of course there are some strong personalities, the so-called 'new Russians', but young and beautiful women are already lined up after them, and these men who have earned their fortune during the breakup of the USSR are surrounded by danger and trouble. However, a woman usually seeks peace and security in a relationship. She looks for a vague image of a real man in faraway countries. The recently open borders allow her to choose.
 
The choice varies from very wide to scarce, depending on the amount of effort a woman dedicates to the search of a spouse, her insight and the luck to receive a letter from the right man. The right man for a Russian woman is the one who is able to provide peaceful, safe and well-off life for her and her family. Of course, feelings and sexual attraction also play a great part. Unfortunately, a woman is not always capable to make the right choice under the influence of feelings. I know many women who came to the US having been charmed by their faience and married out of love only to discover later that their spouses are either tyrants or poor, incapable to provide decent living, or simply psychologically unstable individuals. There are two ways out in such situations: the immediate return home or a divorce after receiving a "green-card," depending on the urgency.
 
Now let's talk about the choice of the men. Of course everybody is looking for a beautiful woman. Luckily, everybody's standards of beauty are different. All other requirements differ from man to man. Someone is dreaming of a smart, intelligent, purposeful and self-reliant woman, but for some reason writes to couch potato that wants to be provided for by her husband. Someone else wants a wife who would stay on his big estate in the middle of an endless plain but is attracted by a photograph of a woman working as a manager of a hard currency department in a bank or as a journalist for the local TV station. Still, someone else is simply looking for a young blond with long legs, with his own assets being a bald patch, debts and a beer belly. It does not mean that all young blondes are looking for wealthy and handsome men. Not at all. They also have different tastes and demands. The best-case scenario is the tastes of both parts coincide and demands are met. I know many women who are happy being married to much older men with average incomes. However these young women are happy because they were looking for older men from the start attracted by their maturity, experience and responsibility. These women in many cases have reached maturity themselves, being in their late 20-ies or early 30-ies.
 
As far as twenty-year-old women are concerned, they are attracted by adventure, passion and romance in men. A twenty-year-old woman does not want to sit at home. She wants to study or advance her career. She is very sensitive to her freedom being infringed. Marriage to a young woman demands great sacrifices on the part of the spouse who has to keep up with her rhythm of life. Have you ever wondered how many young Russian girls are traveling across America running away from their boring, old and quarrelsome husbands?
 
I have met many Russian women while living here in America. All of them were very different: very young and much older, intelligent and not very smart, beautiful and just attractive, kind and tough, adventurous and serene, active and passive. All of them wanted to be loved and be happy in marriage. All of them are seeking love, but don't always find the right man.
 
I knew a man who fell in love with a picture of a young, educated, very beautiful woman from a good family. She was much younger than he, had never worked, and was supported by her husband before and even after the divorce. Like a sleeping beauty, she was dreaming of a prince. Finally that "prince" came to Moscow. He was an average American countryside fellow head over heels in love with a loud laugh and rough hands of a hardworking man. He was met with a cold contempt of the beauty. It is good that their romance ended so quickly. Why did she agree to meet him? She was enchanted by his passionate courting, a huge bucket of roses sent to cold Moscow, presents and money. The image of an American created in the heads of Russian women is sometimes very different from the reality. The imagination of Russian beauties is often nourished by Hollywood and not real life.

Here is another case. An elderly, overweight and softhearted scientist came to another big city to a woman from the circle of the so-called "new-Russians." She greeted him with hospitality and arranged for him a real vacation with Russian steam bath, vodka, gypsy songs, ice-skating and friends from her circle. She drove around the city in her own Mercedes with a mink fur-coat tossed over her shoulders. Despite the fact that the extravagant lady did not show much affection towards her foreign friend, he still decided to take a risk and get her a fiancee visa. The sequence to this story was dramatic for both. Having arrived to a small condo on the beach the lady demanded a villa on the spot. Her fianc