Posted on June 04th, 2003 06:30 PM by admin

Written by Weston Rogers webmaster of ABC's of Russian Women (below hyperlinks only work on ABC's site)

Try putting yourself in her shoes. If you were to receive a letter for the purpose of marriage from a person you had never met, what topics would you want the letter to cover? Write an outline of the topics and then every day for at least a week read it over and modify as needed. Don't feel like you have to write the letter in one day, for your first letter could set the direction for the rest of your life - give it serious consideration. When you feel good about your letter, then have two or three other people read it and make suggestions (family members, friends). Be sure to have at least one woman read your letter, to get a woman’s perspective. Don’t bypass this step. The woman who receives your letter does not know you are a "nice" guy and will respond or not respond based totally on your letter’s content.

Be sure to include photographs of yourself in your first letter (a quality head/shoulder portrait and also full length). Go to a professional photographer, it will be money well spent.

Your introduction letter should be detailed in nature, but not overwhelming. If you follow my recommendation in the How-To topic Correspondence - Why Letters, your goal is to convey enough information to generate interest for a physical meeting. You are not trying to decide your marriage compatibility based solely on letters. If you want to be practical, I would recommend a two page letter. Your letter along with two pictures and envelope should weigh just under one ounce. Many of the response letters I received thanked me for being detailed in describing myself. Rather than presenting an outline of topics to cover, I suggest reading my first and second letters presented in Chapter 2 of the book Love Letters... From Russia. Remember it takes one to two months to send and receive a letter using regular mail delivery to Russia (typically the larger the city the quicker the delivery).

Think ahead on how you will physically meet the woman. You must have a telephone number where you can contact each woman to make final arrangements for your meeting. Thus, in your first letter ask for a telephone number (including area code) where you can contact the woman - even a neighbors telephone is fine.

Develop a list of questions which will help you determine your marriage compatibility with the woman. Give these questions very serious consideration. After you have developed a preliminary list, discuss the questions with family and friends. Then at the end of every letter you send, include some of the questions. Including all of the questions with your first letter would be to much. These questions will set the stage for her response to your marriage concerns. These questions should give you some initial thought on the subject.

By now you obviously know the content of your letter is crucial to your success. Thus, I suggest the following Marriage Agencies which offer additional letter writing tips specifically for Russian women.

• Scanna Int.
• World Class Intro.
• A Foreign Affaire
• Kiwi-Affair
• Ideal Lady
• A Volga Girl
• Natalya Mann, Ph.D. Linguistics (good for email)

For further help in writing letters, you can try the following web sites which offer letter writing assistance. These sites are not specific to writing letters to Russian women, but may prove helpful. If you are looking for poetry to spice up a letter, several sites include love poems.

• The Lost Art of Letter Writing
• PassionUp
• Bright Leaf
• Love Letter Etiquette
• LoveExpress.com
• Flirting at a Distance
• The Bibliography of Letters.

If time permits and you have decided to maintain prolonged correspondence, establish correspondence with her parents. This may sound a bit strange at first glance, but it serves several important purposes. Corresponding with her parents will let you know whether they support their daughter moving to America. If the woman still lives at home, obtaining the parents' support may be crucial in obtaining her fiancee visa and travel to America. Thus, if you know through correspondence the parents do not support their daughter's efforts to marry an American man, you are skating on very thin ice. Also, the parents can provide wonderful insight on the personality of their daughter, through stories of her growing up and descriptions of their own lives. Psychology repeatedly tells us, we are a reflection of our parents.

Plan your date of travel several months in advance and communicate that date in your letters. If possible, I recommend traveling the months of May to August during warmer weather so to not place a cold damper on blooming love.

Sorry, Comments are not available for this article.