As you all know I was born in the Soviet Union in Leningrad. After being born there my parents went back to the small town we lived in. I grew up very strangely, my mother was a very religious woman who celebrated our culture constantly and my father was a full communist.

Normally you don't have religion in communism, but I guess I've made an exception

Well I have certain little things I do and believe in that most wouldn't understand. Little nicknames are something that Americans and other people's don't understand.

They actually mean a lot to me and most Russians understand it. Each Russian name is special, they have little nicknames that go along with them. My name, Dimitri for example, has three nicknames.

Dim and Dimi both are names only meant for people I deeply love. I've only let my wife call me that, having someone else I don't allow call me that would be like a person spitting in my face and insulting my late wife. It is like a wedding ring in America.

Me letting you call me Dimi would be like me putting a ring on your finger in America. It means a lot.

The name Mitya is used by business associates and working partners.

I also take friendship really seriously. There's different "forms" and "levels" of love. If I call you my brother, or in Russian: брат, that's a serious sign of respect. It means I literally consider you my brother.

There's another form of love. If you translate it, it means "Platonic Love" which is the wrong translation. There is no translation for this word. Платоническая любовь is the word. It is a VERY strong form of love between friends.

It literally means I love a person as much as I loved my wife but not in a sexual way. Is very hard to describe these things. It's very intimate and affectionate but without sexual-ness.

The Russian church says that it's very rare to find a Платоническая любовь. It's one in a trillion to find someone to love like this.

You automatically know when you find this person too, like a weird special sense. I'm the happiest person in the world because I've found my Платоническая любовь just recently.

I've done bad things and I thought God would've never given me a gift like this, but he has

I found my Платоническая любовь, someone I love as much as my wife (not sexually) and it's the greatest feeling ever. You might think this sounds stupid, but I found him on this forums.

I've never been able to touch him physically, but I know he's my Платоническая любовь. It's something I can just tell.

Is hard to say how much I love him, but it's something I really believe in.