finding someone from 30 years ago, difficulty level: USSR

October 17, 2020 11:30 AM

I traveled in Moscow and what was for a few weeks longer called Leningrad on a sort of homestay program shortly after graduating high school. I actually found one of my hosts on fb and said hello. I'd love to find the other but there are...challenges.

1) This was 1991. Addresses aren't going to be the same, and there was effectively no internet.

2) Russian has a certain paucity of first names. His first name is extraordinarily common and, from googling, his last name is not uncommon.

3) The program I went with ceased to exist a long time ago and again was very pre-internet so that covers a lot of tracks.

4) I'm middle aged and don't remember a ton of other details. I remember my street address in Moscow but not a lot else.

I think this is basically hopeless and it's just an idle thought I have from time to time, but he was a nice guy and I'm a little curious what he's up to.

Any tips for digging up the past?

posted by less of course to Technology (2 answers total)

Russian people mostly use VK rather than Facebook - maybe try searching there?
posted by kickingtheground at 1:03 PM on October 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Did the other host know him? Do you remember where he worked? Did he have some unusual hobby? Googling his name plus job/hobby/whatever will narrow the search. Finally, have you tried Googling his name plus the old address?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:25 PM on October 17, 2020 [1 favorite]