Immigration never was on my mind. When in the 80-x the rules were relaxed and Jews were allowed to leave the USSR, people asked me ‘Are you going too? Soviet programmers are in demand in the West; they make good money there’. Perhaps, they did, but what did it have to do with me? Why would I have wanted to immigrate? Where to? How to communicate abroad? I knew enough English words to read simple texts and that was all. So I shook my head to say ‘no’ and shook these questions out of it.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was approaching its collapse. Drastic changes in 1991 led to skyrocketing prices and total disappearance of any kind of food and consumer goods in state-owned stores. Foreign visitors snapped photos of absolutely bare shelves in groceries and mile-long lines of Russians who waited for hours outside of bakeries to buy bread. The government could not print money fast enough. New banknotes with extra zeros went into circulation, but they did not help to curb inflation. People watched with disbelief how their stable and predictable world was crumbling in front of their eyes. I realized that I wanted to get out of this madness.
A friend and coworker told me that he and his wife were immigrating to Australia. Knowing that they were Jewish, I expressed my surprise by their unusual choice. The friend went over a multitude of reasons why it could not be Israel, USA and Germany – the countries that accepted Jews – and another list of reasons why Australia was right for them. I listened attentively. The friend also explained the application process to me. According to him, Australia needed professional migrants with certain skills. IT specialists and Japanese teachers were at the top of the list. Their application for permanent residence was already approved. The friend was wrapping up his affairs in Russia and buying tickets to Australia. He left for Melbourne shortly.
All of the sudden I had answers to the questions “where to” and “how to”. The course of action became crystal clear. I asked for a day off at work and took an overnight train to Moscow. That was before the Internet era. All paperwork was actually done on paper. In Moscow, I went to the Australian consulate and paid a small fee for an application package. On the train back to St. Petersburg I leafed through the application form. It was thick as a small book and all in English.