Title: Leaving Russia
Author: Alexander Arkhipov <aa@manpager.org>
Created: 2023-12-30
Modified: 2023-12-30

Russia is one of those states that maintain the feudal ritual of
forcing the unwilling young men into its army. Russia is also well-known
for being corrupt to the bones. A common result is that conscripts
return with nothing but horror stories. Another common result is that
they don't return at all.

Even at school I was terrified of that. I frequently thought about
emigration (not just to avoid this "service", but to live a better life
generally), but I also realised that before I am able to do that, I need
some short-term survival plan. So I went to university. I didn't care
much about getting a bachelor's in Russia, but I didn't think of it much
either: students are exempt from conscription, and that's most of what I
cared about.

There was another side effect of this lack of thinking: I used to have
silly ideas about employment. Only by observing other students, did I
learn that it is actually possible to be employed, even at a relatively
well-paying job, before graduating. (Seems obvious now...) Of course,
when I tried to get myself employed, I failed, but that led me to
investigate this "Linux" thing. With no exaggeration, installing Arch
(and I don't even like the distro anymore) on my machine has improved my
entire life! I finally learned that autodidactism is better than the
best teachers in the world, people who give advice usually don't know
much themselves, and people who tell that something is impossible are
not to be trusted.

That was summer of 2021, a year before my graduation. February 2022
seemed quite normal, until it didn't. Shortly afterwards lots of Russian
IT and CS specialists have left the country. In response the government
issued a decree exempting such professionals from conscription. I jumped
at the opportunity, and instead of going to a master's programme (I
*hated* education in Russia at that point), got myself employed
full-time at a (well-known within Russia) company called "InfoTeCS"
(I'll just call it "infotecs").

Even before the interview at infotecs, however, I knew that I was likely
to dislike working there. (I was right.) Mostly I just wanted:

1. not to get conscripted;
2. to have my resume say "have been employed at a well-known company
   for a year-or-so";

Of course, by the time I had reached point 2. (August 2023), the new
conscription campaign was dangerously close, so I decided to wait until
January 2024. Towards November I realised that I have almost enough
money, and almost enough information to finally leave Russia! I was also
influenced by being "invited" to the military commissariat in spite of
my exemption, and by the many horror stories of people who acted upon
these "invitations". So in December I began preparing documents and
things, and contacting people I know who live outside of Russia. I knew
there was going to be a bonus at the end of December, so I only actually
filed my resignation letter on 29th (that's yesterday), and will stay
employed until January 12 (as required by law).

If all goes right I'll soon be moving to Georgia for a year. The reasons
are that it's relatively cheap, and Russians are allowed to stay in
Georgia for a year without a residence permit. I am thinking of trying
to find new employment after that, not before. So, hopefully, I'll be
able to spend a large portion of January learning new things and writing
software.