More than 2,000 Russian-speaking Arabs live in Israel, most of them graduates of universities in the former Soviet Union. Some returned to Israel with local Russian women who “followed the love” and came to live in one of the villages or towns of Wadi Ara or in some other mixed Arab-Israeli city in Israel.
In their homes there are still signs of the life they led “there.” Every so often, melodies accompanying the poems of Vladimir Vysotsky may be heard through the windows of houses in Umm al-Fahm. In some of the homes, a small figurine of Lenin decorates the living room.