I don’t always like columns from Politico, but today they have an article written by an American writer who lives in Finland and who has been meeting the express train from St. Petersburg to Helsinki to interview the Russians disembarking. It made its last run on Sunday, and is no more, at least for now.
Apparently somewhere between hundreds and thousands of Russians have escaped their homeland via this train during the last month, lugging heavy suitcases off the train and not at all certain they’ll ever be able to go home. Many have ties in the west, friends, relatives, perhaps an employer Many speak passable English.
Imagine yourself getting off a train in Toronto or Vancouver knowing you may never be able to return home. I suppose our Vietnam-era draft dodgers felt those feelings.
A quote I particularly liked, spoken by a 50 year old passenger:
My poor 81-year-old mother dreamed all her life for her country to be free. At the train station this morning she was crying as she said goodbye to me with the saddest words I’ve ever heard in my life. “I was born behind this wall, and now I will die behind it as well.”
