A Russian

Moscow, 1993. Alexei is thirteen, walking his bull terrier through a snowy forest on the outskirts of the city, when his father tells him he is being sent abroad.

The Soviet Union has been gone for two years. Russia is opening fast, chaotically, but the idea of studying abroad as a teenager still feels unreal. Alexei’s journey begins in the most unlikely place: Kansas. Then Oklahoma. Then four years at boarding school in England.

From there, his path runs through Cambridge, Morgan Stanley, and Harvard Business School. Yet he keeps coming back—for school breaks, then for work, and always for Moscow. In the wild ’90s, his parents’ marriage collapses and his father is kidnapped. As Russia grows hot in the 2000s, he walks away from banking to join the family meat business, trusts the wrong partner, and fails.

The West shapes much of his identity, but Moscow remains his center of gravity: the city of his childhood, his ambitions, and his longing—and where he met the love of his life.

A Russian unfolds over decades: the story of a boy sent West, and of the man who finally lets Moscow go.

About the author

Alexei Sorokin spent his childhood on the edge of Moscow during the final decade of the Soviet Union. At fourteen, he was sent abroad: first to Kansas, then Oklahoma, then to school in England. He later attended Cambridge and Harvard Business School. Throughout his travels, he kept returning to Moscow and his family, watching both change over several decades.

In 2013, Alexei moved to the United States with his family. A father of four, he balances a winding career with a love of running and writing.