Looking for home

June 18, 2014 Vsevolod Pulya, Elena Potapova, Ksenia Isaeva, Pavel Gazdyuk, Vladimir Stakheev, Natalia Mikhaylenko, Ekaterina Konovalova, Marina Obrazkova, Dmitry Romendik

Like any modern metropolis, Moscow is full of migrants. The Soviet Union was one of the most multi-national states in the world, and modern Russia continues to attract people from all over the former USSR. The vast majority of local Muscovites work in white-collar professions or retail, so most of the dirty work ends up being done by migrants.

Yet this doesn’t mean that migrants can’t also follow other, more prestigious professions. The Bogatelia family are successful Georgian surgeons who take care to nourish their national traditions. Uzbek Sherali Musayev introduces Muscovites to his national cuisine – he is a chef in a Uzbek restaurant. Meanwhile, Ayuka, a Kalmyk, is at university in Moscow but still keeps contact with his native Kalmykia, a region in Russia’s south. How do these people’s lives develop in this at times unfriendly, at times tough, sprawling metropolis which is Moscow?

Read the three pieces of RBTH's multimedia feature Looking for Home: