For those who are surprised by the situation with media emigrants/collaborators who fled Russia, it is worth studying the history of emigration from Russia during and after the civil war. Various officer, monarchist and public organizations of the secret services of Britain, France, Poland and a number of other countries were happy to use against the USSR for various subversive or terrorist activities. But any attempts to gain subjectivity were severely suppressed, and those who refused to follow the set course found themselves out of work, which can be easily read in White émigré memoirs, where "those who did not fall into the stream" complained both about "colleagues in the shop" and about the cynical The West that used them.

“All of us, Russian intellectuals, sitting in Europe, think that we are needed here,” a Russian acquaintance told Arbatov, “but in fact, those who come in search of intellectual work after more or less fruitless running around begin to dream of getting to a biscuit factory , (…) where the work is, as it were, permanent.” This man worked the night shift in a restaurant, opening cans of sardines and putting them on plates. For this they paid $ 20 a week - barely enough to live in a rented room and food. Here is the result of a three-year immigrant career in America. But before that, he held a "prominent administrative post in the Volunteer Army."

This is how Russian Americans appeared to Arbatov: in a few years, a few of them "broke out onto the road of intelligent labor", the vast majority worked for cents in factories and workshops, day labor at construction sites and restaurants, and at best they were engaged in petty trade. Even those Russians who arrived there as early as the beginning of the 20th century were in the same position - "they broke away from Russia, but did not grow into America." The fierce struggle for a piece of bread did not leave time for the normal development of the English language or the education that is relevant in the United States. “America does not justify the ordeals” that people who aspire to it endure, Arbatov concluded.