European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 7, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse The Price of Freedom russian immigrant struggles to build a life in America by James Litke associated Pressa Andrei Frolov came to know America through bickering images in darkened Moscow movie houses bul grew to love in in the harsh Light of really citizenship soon will Cement his Lalus in the United is ales a Job leaching russian at the department of Welense s language Institute in Monterey Cahl is waiting in the wings at Long last his adopted land appears ready to gather him up in a Bountiful embrace. It was not always so five years ago he stepped Oil a plane at o Hare International Airport waded through a crowd of reporters and into the arms of his american born Wile. Forgotten Tor the moment were the Long hunger strikes each endured to guarantee his Safe passage from the soviet Union Ine nightmarish months before they spent navigating bureaucratic mazes in both lands the age and cultural gulls separating the 51 year old Frolov and Lois Becker his 27-year-old wife. In the midst of the crowded airline terminal they embraced. I am he said Hen. The Luckiest Man alive " in the intervening years. Frolov fixed cars in Chicago drove a taxi in new York and worked As a Bookstore clerk in Washington. He Herf a siring of subsistence level jobs and starved himself again when no Job and $40 forced him to choose Between food Lor a week and a room at the Myca or a month alter a. Long separation he was divorced three years ago from the woman whose Devotion was his Bridge to the United Stales. Awaya another Teal of his Lailah ulness awaited and always Frolov loved strange surprising America More than Ever everybody among my Good friends told me Why you leave soviet Union you love you profession you will lose it you wis lose Narve language you will have no friends and you will be very poor because what you can do at your age m America maybe nothing,1" he recalls. I heard Many stories about immigrants that some of them tried suicide because immigrants in my age very difficult Tor learning English he said. For Engineer it s not so different to work Here bul for journalist like me maybe impossible " tall and gaunt his Black hair and Mustache flecked with Gray Frolov pauses stares Over the front of his Tortoise Shell glasses and listens intently. Oul Side children Call and taunt and Chase one another. He smiles. I m already live years in America i still Don t know English he said i cannot use Many freedoms because i do not know it. Mot Freedom of speech not Freedom to write. But already i am using Many times my Freedom not to lie " he s been living in one room in a run Down House on a run Down Block of the City s Adams Morgan Section an ethnically and economically mixed neighbourhood undergoing Gentri Calion his clothes Are draped neatly Over hangers on nails driven into the Walls. There Are no pictures but Frolov has tacked up alongside his clothes a Horseshoe freed Iron i Siberia s Frozen Tundra years ago and a King of hearts found on the Street during his first Day in Washington. A mated hot plate sits behind a Small television set. And his toiletries a bottle of dry look Hairspray the Only distinctly Western item stand atop a used Bureau. Copies of the new York times Are slacked neatly in a Corner a cassette player and headphones sit next to a mattress on the floor. On a typical Day. Frolov wakes at 5 . Studies English for an hour watches to to hone his conversational skills and arrives for work at the Bookstore by 8 . He is Home by 6 p mat the University of the a sync i of Columbia Tor school by 7 p m i Ruck nights each week and Back Home by 10 p m he stays up late Reading and writing Gett Fng by on an average Lour hours sleep a neg he he frequents Small movie houses As the mood strikes him he walks the streets at Ali hours sometimes he hops on Public transportation and rides to Iho edges of the City. When thai Lails to satisfy his wanderlust he climbs behind the wheel of his used $700 Pontiac and careens toward the edges of Iho country in he said i dad the same address the same Telephone for 5 years five years in America already i change my address 10 times people ask me. Do you miss Moscow 1 answer i miss Chicago j miss new " Frolov was twice married and divorced by the half of Page 14 the stars and stripes after five lean Yean thing looking up Fer Sam a 1980, when he Mol Becker an american Slud Flat working on a Disse Lalion us Moscow s 11 run Library. He had by then already worked As a , n a on an Arctic Steamer and a mechanical Engineer wafd m lie soviet Navy earned a device in worked on geological a Ped Irons. Been Fri or Lor Moscow to. And visited some of the Moit Tonii locates in the user to Wale articles for the sow of National geographic he moved in Circle and with j Holdom to i. In 0 Many of his country Man i was Reading Many books already a Amun pm writers Faulkner Hemingway Jack Londonjr a Sinclair Lewis. Dos Passos Utic in mode".1 John Updike. J d Satin her ii was not so easy but poo me to get i iks and movies you become to aug loss or to Unity and How country loot s he i was ski Kkt a Tiff Short history this country i United Stal shul interesting literature very , friends were joking. You Are acetic aisle Loo it nov How translates Inlo eng bul i i Jowik m in Iii Man who likes americans and when i Mcl Lois m the ii Rary my c i and said it s gift from heaven Amonsin gift to i a to uric very Happy is nine months Allee Rhc met Iho couple my i a n Friday. Aug
