Entrepreneur adapts to new floor plan

By Carol Clark
CNN

(CNN) -- Sergey Volzhskiy is a powerfully built man with a commanding voice and a penetrating gaze. But when the burly Russian talks about his faraway hometown, he speaks softly and looks off into the distance.

"I love St. Petersburg so much," he said. "It's the most wonderful city in the world. It's much more wonderful than Venice actually. It is close to the Arctic Circle so it has 'white nights' when the sun doesn't set. We've got 150 bridges over 300 canals. Can you imagine? It's an unbelievably beautiful city, a world treasure. The pearl of the north!"

Volzhskiy reminisced from his office in Buford, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, where he owns a small hardwood flooring business. The company showroom sits on the edge of a river of traffic, running through a landscape of used-car lots, gas stations and strip malls.

When asked if this setting is a comedown from St. Petersburg, Volzhskiy's eyes flashed and his voice boomed in volume.

"I like this area. I like Buford very much," he said. "This is my country now. I don't want to go back to St. Petersburg because of what's going on there. Even though it is so beautiful, you can never feel safe about your family."

Atlhough Volzhskiy, 52, is committed to his new life in the United States, it is not the life he envisioned a decade ago, when his hopes for his native land reached a high point following perestroika.

"It's hard to explain what happened in Russia," he said.

A civil engineer with a love of design, he had worked since 1973 for a construction company that specialized in renovation. Over the years he helped restore the interiors of palaces, cathedrals and other historic landmarks in and around St. Petersburg to their original condition.

When the privatization process began in the former Soviet Union, Volzhskiy was eager to try his luck as an entrepreneur.

"It was a time of changes. I'd been dreaming many years of having my own business," he said. "I was the first person (in St. Petersburg) to take a loan -- from the first private bank -- to buy a business. I thought, 'I'm a boss. I'm a king. I'm going to do whatever I want.' "

The feeling of power did not last long.

Volzhskiy invested his loan in acreage outside St. Petersburg, where he created a resort. Organized crime members noticed his success and began visiting him, asking if he wanted "protection." If a businessman refuses such requests, Volzhskiy said, his property is mysteriously damaged or his car is bombed. Family members receive death threats.

"If you want to stay in the middle and be one of the sheep, then they will leave you alone," Volzhskiy said. "Well, that was never my way. I like challenge."

But the challenge of dealing with mobsters was too difficult.

"My country house was burned to the ground," Volzhskiy said. "A friend of mine was beaten almost to death. It's not unusual. Even some very famous people disappear, and there is no investigation. The country is run by the mafia itself and a carpetbagging government."

Volzhskiy, who said he had never believed in communism, was able to savor only a brief fling as a successful capitalist in his native land.

"All the sweet dreams disappeared," he said, adding that Russia's current difficulty is just the latest in a long stream of hardships. "If you pick up a handful of Russian soil and squeeze it, blood will come out."

Volzhskiy came to the conclusion that it will take decades, "probably 40 years, maybe 100 years," for Russia to make the transition from a Communist society to a smoothly functioning democracy. He was not willing to wait.

In 1995, he left the country with his wife, Genya, and their daughter, Maria, who was then 11.

"We dropped everything that we had in Russia, and we moved to the United States," he said. "We were surprised how friendly and kind American people were. We've had the support of many, many people."

In 1998, he started his custom flooring company, specializing in handmade inlays from a selection of 360 types of wood. In his showroom, he proudly displays a picture of the wood-inlay cross he made for a local Baptist church his family attends.

"I strongly believe that America is the No. 1 country," Volzhskiy said. "You can realize all of your talent here. My daughter is in Georgia State University, an honors program. The world is open to her."

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