Tilda Publishing
don't remember the first time I heard the word blog, just as I don't remember the first time I read one. It was something that simply appeared in my life, the way so many things appear these days:
I
without an exact date, without a ceremony, almost without my noticing. What I can confess is that there were some blogs whose content I found very interesting, and that for years I visited them with a certain regularity, learning from them, enjoying their stories, and admiring the consistency of those who maintained them. However, I must also say that I never felt the need to create one of my own.
And the truth is that, although I lead a life that is quite interesting to me, I have always been aware that it is interesting to me, and not necessarily to others. I didn't believe that anyone would be drawn to the kind of things I do, the places I travel to, the experiences I accumulate, or the reflections that accompany me. We live in a world saturated with voices, opinions, and content published every second; adding one more voice without a clear reason seemed unnecessary to me. So, for a long time I stayed on the sidelines, as a silent reader, as a curious observer, but never as an author.
"A book is a photograph
of a moment;
a blog is a living conversation"
Marlon
WRITING
THE SECOND BOOK
THE SECOND BOOK
THE TURNING POINT
But this changed recently, when I was finishing writing my second book: RUSSIA: THE LAND WE CAME TO LOVE. Perhaps you are wondering, what was it about the second book that the first one didn't trigger, that generated in me the need to create a blog? It's a fair question, and the answer has to do with the very nature of each work.
I don't remember the first time I heard the word blog, just as I don't remember the first time I read one. It was something that simply appeared in my life, the way so many things appear these days: without an exact date, without a ceremony, almost without my noticing. What I can confess is that there were some blogs whose content I found very interesting, and that for years I visited them with a certain regularity, learning from them, enjoying their stories, and admiring the consistency of those who maintained them. However, I must also say that I never felt the need to create one of my own.
And the truth is that, although I lead a life that is quite interesting to me, I have always been aware that it is interesting to me, and not necessarily to others. I didn't believe that anyone would be drawn to the kind of things I do, the places I travel to, the experiences I accumulate, or the reflections that accompany me. We live in a world saturated with voices, opinions, and content published every second; adding one more voice without a clear reason seemed unnecessary to me. So, for a long time I stayed on the sidelines, as a silent reader, as a curious observer, but never as an author.
But this changed recently, when I was finishing writing my second book: RUSSIA: THE LAND WE CAME TO LOVE. Perhaps you are wondering, what was it about the second book that the first one didn't trigger, that generated in me the need to create a blog? It's a fair question, and the answer has to do with the very nature of each work.
The first one, SUBCONTRACTS: The site from inside, is a practical book, related to my professional experience and the things I have learned and implemented over those years. It is a bounded book, with a clear beginning and end, where the topics exhaust themselves: once explained, they are closed. Its content is, in a way, "finite." I'm not saying there is nothing more to say about the subject, but rather that the book's format allowed me to cover it completely and satisfactorily.
With RUSSIA: THE LAND WE CAME TO LOVE, however, something very different happens. Although both books share the same foundation, my personal experience, my perspective, my lived moments, the content of the second one is not as "finite" as that of the first. Russia is such an interesting and attractive country, with so many things to tell in every aspect, that it is impossible to exhaust it in a single volume. There is history, culture, gastronomy, landscapes, literature, music, traditions, contrasts. There is a depth that invites further exploration, and there is a current reality that does not stop.
So, I was almost in the final chapters of the book and I knew that some things were being left out that I would have liked to explore more deeply, or that I simply wanted to tell and that didn't find their place in the structure of the work. Moreover, since Russia is such an active country, with such impressive dynamism, it was clear that many new and interesting things would appear after publication, and that they would not be in the book. New events, new discoveries, new perspectives that deserved to be shared.
But, as I explain in both books, Voltaire's phrase "the perfect is the enemy of the good" pushed me to take the step of declaring the book finished and of… and here is where the idea came from: to continue exploring the topics in greater depth, as well as to comment on the new ones, through a blog. Because a book is a photograph of a moment; a blog, on the other hand, is a living conversation, one that updates, that breathes, that grows over time.
So here I am, welcoming you to the blog of RUSSIA: THE LAND WE CAME TO LOVE, a space where we will talk in more detail about some of the things in the book and, furthermore, we will try to discover those new things that this wonderful country generates. But I don't want this blog to be a simple annex to the book, nor a collection of scattered facts. I want it to have clear pillars, ones that give coherence and meaning to each entry.
The first pillar is to tell things that are truly interesting and little known. I am not interested in repeating what is already everywhere, nor in regurgitating the same topics that appear in any tourist guide or any encyclopedia article. I am interested in that Russia that doesn't always make the headlines, the one discovered in details, in anecdotes, in human stories, in less-traveled corners. That Russia that surprises even those who believe they know it well.
The second pillar is to avoid comparisons with other countries and places. My intention is to tell things as they are, rather than falling into comparisons that can become very unpleasant or unfair. Every country has its own logic, its own history, its own way of understanding life. Constantly comparing one culture with another tends to impoverish the gaze and generate misunderstandings. I prefer to present Russia on its own terms, with its own categories, with its own voice. Let the reader, if they wish, establish their own connections.
And there is a third pillar that, although I didn't mention it before, is implicit in everything I do: honesty. I don't pretend to be an absolute expert or to have the last word on anything. I speak from my experience, from what I have lived, from what I have read and learned. I share what I am passionate about, what intrigues me, what continues to surprise me after all this time. And I do it with the humility of someone who knows there is always something left to discover.
So, with those premises, welcome. This blog is an invitation to continue exploring together, to go deeper into the topics that the book could only sketch, to discover that Russia that remains alive, changing, fascinating. I hope that you, if you enjoyed the content of the book, find many interesting things in this blog. And if you haven't read it, I hope these pages encourage you to do so, or at least to look at Russia with different eyes: the eyes of someone who approaches without prejudice, with curiosity and respect.
Thank you for being here. Let's begin!!!!
THE BEGINNING
