Moscow to Baltimore sounds kinda rugged. I've been to the latter and lived in awe of the former. Good buddy of mine did Americorps. It didn't exactly turn his life around, but it gave him a sense of purpose to figure out what he wanted to be when he grew up. Your next reading assignment because I was reminded.
I was born a month before the Soviet Union fell. The Russia I grew up in was of the lawless 90s, not the mutually assured we-may-all-get-vaporized-any-second Soviet Union you lived in awe of. Americorps is more for working with my hands and eliminating my obligation to Fannie whoever. I don't think it will radically turn my life around, just enable a freedom afterwards to pursue whatever ends. Roger dodger. That excerpt was great, I love back stories like that. Consider the book added, Red Pill now half-swallowed.