The Russian community in Cleveland has always been small, with most of its members belonging to the Russian Orthodox parish living in the western part of the city. In the 1970s, many emigrants from the former Soviet Union settled in the eastern areas such as Cleveland Heights, Euclid, and Mayfield Heights. After the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s, a new wave of immigration began, and the number of Russian-speaking people in northeastern Ohio reached about 40,000.

Alena, a native of Vitebsk, shares her experience of moving: "I had to continue learning English here after the usual Belarusian school. There is modern slang that I needed to master. In Vitebsk, we were taught: 'Hello. How are you?', but people don't say that here; it sounds funny. Maybe that's how they communicate in England. I only started speaking English decently after three years. I enrolled in the police academy, where I studied for two years. At that time, my parents had divorced, I wasn't working, and as an immigrant, I had benefits, so my education was free. My partner and I respond to calls or patrol the city, maintaining order. The work varies: a husband attacks his wife with a knife, a dog is drowning in a swamp, it all comes to us. There are homeless people, drug addicts, shootings everywhere. There is work. As for groceries, everything is available in Russian stores, but for some reason, everything is brought from Brooklyn, where there is a Russian neighborhood. Black bread, lard, dumplings, everything is here, but it's not the same as in Vitebsk. When I go back to Vitebsk, I eat sausage, herring, black bread, and the pastries that I love. Everything is available here, but the taste is different. Housing is very expensive: rent is 1,000 dollars a month."

Aidar from Tatarstan, a graduate of the University of Toledo, talks about something else: "Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the state after Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. All four major cities belong to the 'Rust Belt' of the USA. These are cities where heavy industry was concentrated, which declined in the second half of the 20th century after being moved to Asia. Now these cities are recovering and developing thanks to more high-tech industries."

Additionally, Cleveland in Ohio is a sister city to Volgograd!