In Ian Fleming’s 1957 spy novel, “From Russia with Love,” the British Secret Intelligence Service agent James Bond escapes from an assassination attempt by the Soviet counterintelligence agency, SMERSH, and triumphantly returns with a gorgeous Russian woman.

Tatania, the beautiful Russian girl, is bait intended to lure Bond into a death trap, but she falls in love with the debonair British spy instead and defects to the West. Initially, James Bond is almost killed by a ruthless Russian assassin named Grant, but he manages to come back alive in the end.

Recently, I traveled on a business errand to Russia, the heart of the erstwhile Soviet Union, which South Koreans were not allowed to visit before 1990. As the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists, I could freely visit the Kremlin and Red Square, where I could still find the vestiges of a socialist country, and at the same time feel the atmosphere of a free country with a free market economy.

Indeed, I could see people enjoy shopping at the numerous stores lining the streets of Moscow. Passing through the huge shopping mall in Red Square and the former KGB building nearby, I could sense the radical social change that has taken place in Russia since 1991.

During my sojourn in Russia, I noticed several major differences between Korea and Russia. For example, Moscow was icy cold in December with temperatures dropping to minus 20 degrees Celsius and biting gusts of wind blowing outside. However, you could be warm as long as you stayed inside a building thanks to the excellent heating systems run by the government. It was the opposite of Korea, where a few years ago the Lee administration tried to control the temperature of the heating systems and made people shudder during the cold winter.

Another difference was that President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would continue to thrive under the free market economy despite the Ukrainian crisis and the devaluation of the Russian ruble. He particularly emphasized the importance of the free market economy, which would enable Russia to flourish economically. Au contraire, many Koreans, who are living in a capitalist society, are suspicious of and even antagonistic toward the free market economy, even though their economic prosperity depends on it. In South Korea, it is strangely fashionable to condemn capitalism, free trade and the free market economy.

At the same time, there were striking similarities between the people of the two countries. First, I noticed both Russians and Koreans admired literature and writers. The Korean literature events organized by LTI Korea in Moscow and St. Petersburg were both standing room only.

More than 100 Russian readers listened attentively to the two Korean novelists, Lee Seung-U and Cheon Myeong-kwan, and actively engaged in lively discussion. Not a single person left the hall until the end of the event, which lasted for almost three hours.

After the event, scores of Russian readers lined up to receive the Korean, writers’ autographs. In fact, Russian readers were much more enthusiastic and polite than their Korean counterparts. Young Koreans much prefer pop culture idols to writers these days, and slip out of the hall one by one if the event lasts more than an hour or so.

The second thing Russians and Koreans have in common seems to be “jeong,” or warm-hearted affection toward others. They say that Russians seldom smile, especially to strangers. When they smile, therefore, it is a genuine emotion from the bottom of their hearts. This means Russians do not wear a fake smile, and even though they may look cold and stern on the outside, they are, in fact, warm-hearted deep down inside.

They also say that just like Koreans, the Russian people tend to be passionate, get emotional sometimes and shed tears easily. And just like Koreans, Russians like to drink and celebrate together in a festive mood; they usually celebrate a wedding for three days, a birthday for a week, and New Year’s Day for two weeks.

I must confess that my preconceptions of Moscow and Russia were somewhat tainted by the humorous but malicious caricatures drawn by American cartoonists during the Cold War era, when the Soviet Union was behind the Iron Curtain. During my recent trip to Russia, however, I realized I had has misconceptions about Russia for a long time.

In St. Petersburg, for example, the beauty of the city that has miraculously kept the glorious past of Russia alive mesmerized me. Roaming the city in my spare time, I was struck by the exquisite architecture of Imperial Russia and the rich heritage of Pushkin and Dostoevsky.

During my recent trip to the Cold Country, I came to fall in love with Russia. So I returned from Russia, with love. Perhaps, paraphrasing the title of the famous John le Carre novel, “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” I should label myself, “the man who came in from the cold, with love.”

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. ― Ed.