BOLSHE VITA : A FILM ABOUT THE RUSSIANS WHO FLOODED BUDAPEST AFTER THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL

I watched this Hungarian film, about Russians who fled Russia, trying to get to the West (The United States and Britian are considered the "real" West) after the fall of the Berlin Wall. For a short period of time there was confusion about how to get in and out of Hungary as this film well depicts a group of musicians who can't get out of Hungary and don't want to go back to Russia. Gangsters are taking control of the market places, there is money to be made in questionable goods and theft of the kind that makes a person homeless.

Luckily, there are women, both foreign and domestic, who don't mind taking a stranger with a hard luck story home and into their beds. These bohemian women want love in exchange for all the help they give. Sometimes that works as a means to freedom and the "real" west. Sometimes preferring homeless life leads to death.

The film, which came out in 2005, is written and directed by Ibolya Fekete and includes a cast before the camera and behind the scenes of movie making of Russians and Hungarians. It was fascinating and easy to follow and understand, though I wish I could understand in Hungarian as when I read subtitles I usually don't watch the movie itself that well.

BOLSHE VIA won the SOCHI International Film Festival Grand Prix and the Budapest Film Week Foreign Film Critics Best Feature Film awards.

RADIX is a TERRIFIC GENEALOGY SITE FOR US TO USE FOR OUR RESEARCH!

I've known about Radix for several years, and it is an increasingly valuable site for those who want to trace their roots to Hungary.  RADIX has over 900 links... You can find some interesting statistical information here for starters such as

Emigration from Hungary to the USA 1899-1913. Data of Hungarian counties.
Emigration from Hungary / the figures of European ports between 1871-1913
The ethnic division of immigrants from Hungary to the USA between 1900-1912
Immigrants from Hungary to the USA 1898-1913 : Break-down by states