The article “Russian emigrant - Czech writer?” explores the autobiographies of Sergej Machonin (1918-1995) and Nikolaj Terlecký (1903-1994) with regard to self-reflections about language and identity. Using François Jullien's concept of distance as a fruitful tension between cultures instead of defining cultural differences, it identifies Machonin's and Terlecký's experiences with language shift. The paper discusses how their autobiographical writings reflect plurilingualism as a fertile resource and how they disclose the gap as a space in-between that enables cultural transformation.