Emigration as a push: how to make money in the USA for own business in Russia - ForumDaily
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Emigration as a push: how to earn money in the USA for your own business in Russia

One of the popular youth clubs in St. Petersburg, Ionoteka, was opened by Alexander Ionov, who had previously lived in the United States for 15 for years, trying to save money.

Photo: Egor Flowers / "Paper"

In his American history there was everything: unemployment benefits and a prestigious position in San Francisco, but still he chose to return to Russia. About the life of Ionov in the United States told the publication “Paper".

Unexpected emigration

Alexander Ionov was born in 1973 in Leningrad. After school I entered medical school, but was more inclined towards the humanities and did not feel happy. He was interested in music, but at the age of 13 he was kicked out of the music club “due to lack of hearing.”

“When I was diagnosed with depression in 14 years, I had obsessive thoughts of becoming famous, becoming a rock star,” admitted Ionov.

As a result, at the age of 15, he created his first punk band, “Bull's Eye”: teenagers collected instruments throughout the Leningrad region, rehearsed at home and recorded on a cassette recorder.

“I am ashamed to say, but I was even glad when Choi died: I thought my time of glory had come,” the man confessed.

In the 1991 year, 17-year-old Ionov, who was still waiting for fame, was unexpectedly informed that he was moving to another country.

“Everything changed when my mother, for financial reasons, decided to move to the USA for permanent residence. I really wanted to stay: I had a girlfriend here, my own rock band, I dreamed of going to college and becoming a doctor. But my mother authoritatively declared that in Russia I would certainly be drafted into the army and anally raped. I wouldn't fall for that now. And then he became cowardly and listened to his mother,” the entrepreneur noted.

Photo: Egor Flowers / "Paper"

Life in San Francisco: unemployment benefits and work in large banks

In the USA, Ionov could not continue his studies in college: there was no money. Together with his mother he lived in San Francisco, and at first he even liked it there.

“If thoughts of returning to Russia appeared, I immediately drove them away because I wanted to be strong,” he admitted.

At the age of 18, a few months after moving, Alexander got a job as a security guard in an exhibition hall, rented a room and moved out from his mother forever. At that time, he had a “rejection of everything emigrant”: the young man did not speak Russian and tried to communicate exclusively with Americans.

When a few months later, Ionov was fired, he went for unemployment benefits.

“I remember almost every day I was standing in a huge queue with a bunch of African Americans, homeless people, drug addicts and all kinds of low life. I don’t think I didn’t think that I myself was better than them, of course: I was among this crowd, I received food stamps with them. But I 18-year-old was very unpleasant to stand with these people a certain smell. That changed me, ”the man said.

He is sure that then he learned about “real life in America.”

“I really don’t like Dovlatov after living in the USA and I love Limonov. Limonov, despite his foppishness and pathos, at least writes the truth: all sorts of crap about food from garbage dumps and anal sex on the outskirts of New York. And Dovlatov only tells good Jewish jokes, like Zhvanetsky; This writing has nothing to do with real life in America,” says Ionov.

The man managed to find a job only four months later. First as a nurse “in the lowest position,” then as a cashier in a store. At the age of 19, he moved in with a girl who was five years older than him, they had a child, but after a year of civil marriage they separated.

Alexander says that after this he began to engage in creativity and write songs, and not “constantly look for money just to survive.” He got a job as a truck driver, drove around California, and in his free time delivered musical equipment to rehearsal spots and clubs.

“By the age of 25, loneliness began to eat away - and there was a second marriage. The patterns put pressure on me, and I decided that I needed to get my head around it. I took IT courses to learn programming and testing. I managed to get my first job in programming only in 2000, after two years of searching,” the man said.

Ionov worked in the security system of “one of the largest banks” in San Francisco. “There I only rose to small leadership positions. Received 5 thousand dollars a month. It was this earnings that helped me leave later,” he said.

When money appeared, Ionov seriously thought about leaving the United States and began saving. After the advice of a psychotherapist to “find a spiritual practice,” he converted to Orthodoxy and began to study the history of Russia from the point of view of philosophical movements. I began to communicate more with Russian immigrants, but soon became completely disillusioned with them.

“I have a bad attitude towards emigration in principle. Everyone just talks about how good it is there (in the USA) and how bad it is here (in Russia). And I know a lot of people who ended badly there. There are very good drugs there - everything is freed up here, but there you buy cocaine, and they also give you a bag of weed as a gift. And the Soviet people cannot stand it. I managed to avoid this: by that time I had not used anything for a long time. And, rather, I indulge in a glass more,” the man noted.

By the mid-15s, Ionov was convinced that he wanted to return to Russia forever, and calls life in the USA “not the best period.” Over the course of XNUMX years there, Ionov replaced several groups, “which never became popular.”

Photo: Egor Flowers / "Paper"

"Needed where was born"

By 2006, Ionov finally saved money and moved to Petersburg.

“It sounds like a hackneyed cliché, but the saying ‘Where you were born is where you come in handy’ has a lot to do with me,” he says.

After returning to Russia, music for Ionov continued to be a hobby - he worked in Russian IT companies.

“The most vivid memories of the first months here are the culture shock from the people. When you stand in line, you are pushed away by a weak grandmother, and you are surprised at such agility and pressure. I suddenly realized that I don’t need to be a “dumb American” and yawn here. I had to learn to spin. This, in many ways, was what I moved for: real life, and not a hothouse existence in convenience,” the entrepreneur noted.

Playing in local groups, Ionov noticed that there are not enough venues for underground performers in St. Petersburg. And in 2012, he began to hold parties in the style of boots and music festivals, inspired by the underground clubs in California.

The first of the festivals was “Noise and Whores,” later renamed “Ionosphere”: female musicians refused to play under that name. It was a festival of young bands with low ticket prices.

Ionov claims that he wanted to help young musicians develop, because “he himself went through something similar.” At that time, he was no longer so attached to shoegaze and they began to call him “the king of the Russian underground” - first by acquaintances, and then Media.

Ionov says that by 2015, “Ionosphere” attracted a thousand people at each concert: festivals were held in the most popular St. Petersburg clubs. Then his friends suggested that he open a permanent venue just for his events. The name was taken from the festival, slightly changed. So Alexander opened the Ionotek.

After the launch of Ionosphere in 2012 and the opening of Ionoteka in 2015, Ionov began to work less and less on his own music, focusing on organizing parties.

And in 2017, the entrepreneur created his own label Ionoff music who signed a contract with the Laundry Soap group. The first recordings were “controversial in quality,” but Alexander continues to develop in this direction, recruiting new artists.

Now on the label Ionoff music signed several groups; some of them are recorded independently, and Ionov helps only with the positioning, promotion and financing of the recording.

Ionov himself is satisfied with his label, and the main problem of working at Ionotek is the large number of spectators at concerts. He says that, on the one hand, he is “charged with their energy,” but on the other, he doesn’t like such crowds due to his own introversion. Because of this, he now drinks more often and gets irritated, which sometimes affects his work with groups.

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