– Yulia, how did you and Denis come to decide to leave Tomsk? What was wrong with it?
– I was born and grew up in Tomsk. What is Tomsk? Summer means rain and mosquitoes, winter means frost and snowdrifts. I thought everybody lived like that. I first left the Tomsk region only at 19, after which I began travelling regularly, and gradually a thought began to creep into my head: it turns out there are places on the planet without mosquitoes!... without snow!... so why do I live in Tomsk? This thought sat somewhere deep, deep inside me, and one day it simply burst out! One cold winter morning, when I was once again sobbing in panic because my car wouldn't start at minus 30, and I had a great many things to do that day with lots of trips around town, my husband looked at me and said: "That's it, enough! We're moving somewhere warmer!" And so we decided to leave Tomsk.
At first Yulia and Denis wanted to change their lives radically and thought about going abroad – they went, they looked, and everything felt foreign. Not even "foreign" exactly, but there would simply be too much to change in their habits, too much to adapt to. They decided that life abroad was not for them.
They turned their eyes to Russia – and there turned out to be few options. They ruled out the Black Sea coast straight away. Both Yulia and Denis have relatives living there, so they knew first-hand that, first, it was too hot for them there, and second, the Caucasian and Kuban mentalities did not suit them.
"We didn't judge that this is bad or that is good. It's just that the Caucasus and the Kuban are not for us!" says Yulia. "What other options were left? Only one – Kaliningrad! Not too hot, but not cold either. A mentality closer to the European one. And besides, Kaliningrad is still Russia. We'll get by somehow, we won't starve!"
Denis and Yulia had never been to Kaliningrad before moving. They did not come here "on reconnaissance" because it seemed far and expensive to them. Besides, a few days on a "trial" trip prove nothing.
In choosing their future home, Denis and Yulia relied solely on information gleaned from the internet and on the opinions of acquaintances who had been to Kaliningrad in person. There was plenty of information – both good and bad.
"Now, the more I think about our move, the more I realise how reckless our venture was!" says Yulia. "After all, we had never been to this city! We packed our things, burned all our bridges and moved to Kaliningrad once and for all. As my parents put it: 'You tore yourselves away from where you'd settled and went off into the unknown.' Where we'd settled... But what's so good about 'where you've settled'? You could sit in that one settled place your whole life. And what for?"
No sooner said than done. Yulia and Denis began preparing for the move: wrapping up all their affairs in Tomsk and building a "financial cushion" for the first months of their new life. From the outset they decided not to rush the sale of their Tomsk property, so they sold only their cars. Even so, the preparations took about two years.
And finally they bought one-way plane tickets and on 13 February 2013 set foot on Kaliningrad soil for the first time. Yulia and Denis had no inflated expectations. They knew they were going to a Russian city and had no illusions about it. But Kaliningrad turned out to be not quite what they had imagined.
– Yulia, do you remember your first impressions of Kaliningrad? What was it like? Worse or better than you had imagined?
– Both worse and better at the same time! If we talk about the negative impression, I didn't expect so many old rusty cars and grey, shabby Soviet buildings, especially in the city centre. At first it even stunned me a little…
But there turned out to be far more good things! For example, I was simply enchanted by the buildings of German architecture. In general, the first impressions of a new, unknown city are beyond words. It's like watching an interesting film for the first time.
Of course, you can watch it again later. But you'll never have those impressions again! You'll like it again, there will be new, different emotions, but it won't be the same… Now, three years on, I miss those sharp new impressions of the city. So I often turn off the "beaten paths" into courtyards and walk through back alleys. You walk along and marvel at how new the city that seemed so familiar looks to you. Sometimes these walks turn into big detours, and it can take me an hour or more instead of half an hour to reach my destination – but it's so interesting!
– And nature? The sea?
– When we moved, nature seemed simply unreal, like a fairy tale. For example, it took us a while to figure out what on earth mistletoe was. At first we thought it was birds' nests. Then we decided they were special trees with ball-shaped foliage. Yes, yes, that's how wild we were! And the first swan we saw, the first stork, the ubiquitous gulls, the sea itself – it was some kind of miracle! Now all these natural beauties are taken for granted. Sometimes that makes me a little sad. I want to feel that delight again, but it no longer happens. On the other hand, when wonderful nature around you is simply a normal part of life – that's marvellous!
– Have you managed to thaw out after the Siberian frosts?
– Yes! The local climate far exceeded all my expectations. It's simply excellent!
When we had just moved from Siberia to Kaliningrad, the temperature outside was about zero, there was a little snow on the ground, it was damp and chilly. And to us it seemed so warm!
We walked around the city enjoying the warmth, while Kaliningraders, on the contrary, were cursing the weather – it's cold, the winter is long and so on. And I just couldn't understand what they didn't like. It's warm! A real spring! Yes, yes, dear Kaliningraders: a little snow, damp and chilly – that's what spring looks like in Siberia!
The first period after the move was quite hard for Denis and Yulia in Kaliningrad. Almost immediately Denis fell ill, and instead of sorting out the practical side of their new life they had to devote a lot of time and energy to his treatment. But this had nothing to do with either Kaliningrad or the move, so their impressions of their new home were entirely positive.
"For the first two weeks we lived in a rented flat while we looked for a small flat to buy," says Yulia. "The money we had brought with us wasn't enough for a proper flat, so we bought a tiny one of 23 square metres. That way we had our own place, and most importantly we could get permanent registration and become full-fledged Kaliningraders. Denis did a good renovation in the newly acquired flat, and we immediately let it out and moved into a bigger one. By then the children had flown in from Tomsk to join us, and they went straight to the school nearest our home."
Denis and Yulia solved the question of work on their own. Yulia "brought" her business organising and conducting sociological research with her from Tomsk. And Denis, helped among other things by a subsidy from the Employment Service, opened a stretch ceiling studio.
– Yulia, are there any differences in running your own business in Kaliningrad compared with Tomsk?
– Entrepreneurship is very widespread in Kaliningrad, but in many fields competition is weaker than in Siberia. Most local "businessmen" don't bother with naming, branding, having an office or even officially registering their business. That is, a person puts up an ad: "I provide such-and-such services" – and gradually earns his bread and butter. By Siberian standards that's somehow not serious. When competition is fierce you have to stand out somehow, come up with something, offer the client service and new services. Even at the level of a tiny little firm. But unfortunately many Kaliningraders are rather lazy, unreliable, scatterbrained and poorly organised, so they work any old how.
– Do you think this has anything to do with a special "Kaliningrad" mentality?
– More with the perception of time. Kaliningraders are never in a hurry to get anywhere. Their perception of time is something very special indeed! At first I got very angry when someone was late for a meeting with me. And I constantly met with incomprehension: "Well, I was late, got held up, so what?" Gradually I began to take it much more lightly. If I set a meeting for 12 o'clock, I know for certain that nobody will come before 12. And at 12 I don't expect the person to show up any minute – I get on with my own business. Being 1–2 hours late is normal; it doesn't even count as being late. There have been cases when nobody turned up even after 4 hours, and I rang the person myself, only to hear: "Oh, it won't work out today, I'll come tomorrow." So how are you supposed to agree on anything with people like that?! And situations like this happen all the time: with employees, when buying goods and services, when orders are delivered…
The service sector in Kaliningrad is generally "lame in both legs"! Competing with local firms under such conditions is not hard at all!
And indeed, if you do your work well and quickly and meet all the agreed deadlines, people immediately start recommending you to other clients.
Having settled the questions of work and temporary housing, Denis and Yulia embarked on a new grand project – building their own house. That required money, so Yulia went to Tomsk and sold the property they still had there.
Since it was not easy to find good and responsible contractors in an unfamiliar city, Denis and Yulia decided to do most of the work themselves. They chose and bought land, obtained all the approvals (not without problems – they had to turn to the Prosecutor's Office and the regional antimonopoly service), and slowly, in small but steady steps, began to make their dream come true.
Right after moving from Siberia to Kaliningrad, Yulia started a page on LiveJournal, which she called simply "Moving from Siberia to Kaliningrad". There, first of all for her relatives and friends who stayed in Tomsk, Yulia regularly writes short notes about the particulars of life in Kaliningrad, about the weather, about her impressions, about the difficulties newcomers have to face, about what makes them happy and what worries them. Almost immediately Yulia's blog became very popular, both among local residents and among people who are only planning to move to the Kaliningrad region.
Having got used to Kaliningrad, Yulia and Denis began to travel, first around the towns of the region and then to nearby Poland and Lithuania; they have made new friends and have never once regretted their decision to move from Tomsk to Kaliningrad. They are not just "newcomer-consumers" of the sea, the climate, Europe and the other benefits of our beloved region – they approached their resettlement thoroughly. They provide services to the local population, create new jobs and share their invariably positive outlook on life with those around them.
"I'm absolutely sure that our move to Kaliningrad was one of the most right decisions of my life," says Yulia. "I may never have been to Kaliningrad before the move, but the city very quickly became home to me. I can't imagine living, say, in Arkhangelsk or Tver... It's even funny to think about! And life in Kaliningrad very quickly fitted into my picture of the world. And it's not only about Kaliningrad, it's about me too! We simply fitted each other like pieces of a puzzle. I don't rule out that someone might not like Kaliningrad, might find it a bit simple, a bit boring, a bit cold... But I personally know a great many people who have moved here and are very glad they did!"
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
