They came to the United States with the clothes on their backs, one suitcase each and $600 — and they never looked back.
" Because we were Jewish in Russia, we were highly discriminated against," said Vladik Chaykovsky, a 22-year-old Ohio University junior marketing and economics major from Columbus. "We were searching for religious freedom and for possible opportunities for employment advances."
Chaykovsky was 9 years old when he left Kiev, Russia. He came to the United States with his mother, father, grandfather and 1-year-old sister.
But the journey was not an easy one.
Chaykovsky and his family had to give up their Russian citizenship in order to travel to the southern part of Ukraine. They stayed there for one day, but not in a hotel room as originally planned. Another ticket for the same room had been sold on the black market, and they had no other place to go.
"We had no citizenship, so there was really no going back at that point," Chaykovsky said. "So we took our bags and slept between train cars and had to guard our bags all night."
After the Ukraine the family took a train to Vienna, Austria for one week until the government processed their destination plans. Then they headed to Italy. They stayed in Santo Marinella in southern Italy. While they were in Italy, the family changed their original plans to go to Israel and decided to go to the United States.
But first they were told to find a sponsor _ someone to say they were good people and they should be let into the country.
"We knew no one, so my grandfather contacted this guy he knew in New York City that he had worked with a long time ago, and he was kind enough to find us a sponsor," Chaykovsky said. "But in the meantime we worked. My father worked as a painter, my grandfather sold things in the market and I worked washing cars."
Each week they were in Italy, Chaykovsky and his father rode their bikes downtown to see if their name would be called to go to the United States. After three months, the family received the necessary documents.
"When our name was called, it was the most exciting moment of my life," Chaykovsky said.
The next week the family got on a bus and headed to the airport. The plane ride took 10 hours, but the family finally arrived in the United States on Sept. 29, 1989.
After three weeks of apartment hunting, they found a home in the projects of Manhatten. The landlord was Russian, so Chaykovsky's father worked for him to pay the rent.
Chaykovsky would take the trash out of the apartment building each night with his grandfather. Behind the building, they would listen to a handheld radio. This is how he learned English.
"We listened to AM radio and I would try to talk just like it," he said. "I didn't know what I was saying, but it helped me learn English."
After five months of living in New York City, Chaykovsky's father got a job at an engineering firm in Columbus. He moved there while the rest of the family stayed in New York City until he was settled.
Chaykovsky went to high school in Columbus and landed at OU out of pure luck.
"They were the first to respond," he said. "My grades weren't that good, but they read the essay of my life story and accepted me."
It was at OU where Chaykovsky met many of his closest friends.
"I met him the first week of our freshman year because a group of us were just all hanging out," said Jen Basl, a junior mechanical engineering major from Sewickley, Penn. "He's really laid back and easy going. He works so hard at school — he really wants to succeed."
Last year he met Anne Denton, a graduate student in political science from Westlake who was a resident assistant in Gamertsfelder Hall where they lived.
"He was one of the most outgoing, friendliest people in the complex," she said. "We have very similar interests so it was very easy to talk to him."
Chaykovsky said there are three things that helped him get through his immigration experience — family, knowledge and a little luck.
"People should never underestimate America for what it is," he said. "We are living in a very opportunistic country. If immigrants can come with $600 and be millionaires 10 years later, anyone can do anything they want."
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Jennifer Hugenberg
