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Posts Tagged "spain"

Eduard: Longing for Europe

KAZAN: "I would like to move to Europe. I lived there almost eight years and know well, what is European life. People are more relaxed there. Here you can't always express yourself from your heart. There will always be someone that criticizes you," said Eduard, who lived in Spain during the 2000s from age 8 to 16. Eduard said he used to have long hair, which wasn't common in Kazan. He stuck out from the crowd and felt disapproval. ''Everyone just wants to be normal and fit in. People here don't use their potential to experiment and discover new things.'' Eduard works and hangs out at Chop-Chop barbershop, where he says he feels comfortable. It is a safe haven for him. He would like to move to the Netherlands partially for the music and fashion scene. Young Russians are moving closer to western styles and are changing "step by step," but Eduard - perhaps like many others - doesn't want to wait long for the desired change. 

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Alexei: Russian with Spanish Roots (2)

I asked Alexei, the brutual death metal musician, if he was from Moscow. He said yes, but that he wasn't 100% Russian. I expected him to say Ukrainuan, Bulgarian or some other East European background. He said he was part Spanish and that thise roots go back to his great grandparents, communists who first fought Franco in the 1930s before coming to the Soviet Union to fight Nazi Germany.