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Создавалось ощущение, будто все мои немногочисленные знакомые в этом мире являются участниками огромного заговора, цель которого – свести меня с ума.

I'm assuming that the use of the imperfective "создаваться" indicates that a particular impression was forming in multiple, unspecified people's minds, not being confined to the speaker's.

So I wonder if this phrasing imparts an impersonal and less subjective sense similar to "it looked/sounded/seemed like" in English or "on aurait dit que ..." in French, as opposed to the personal turn of phrase "I had the impression that ...".

У меня создалось ощущение, будто ...

If you want to make it into a fully personal statement, on the other hand, do you place "У меня" at the beginning and use the perfective "создаться"?

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  • It can be either way, depending completely on the context and the situation described.
    – Headcrab
    Apr 16, 2018 at 3:07
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    Hard to reason about subtones... My personal take would be that imperfective conveys just that - imperfection, not-completeness. The speaking person does not want to commit to this idea, does not find it really substantiated (uses exaggeration, hyperbole) or clutches the straw of desperate denial (not in this specific case, a general idea). The second option would sound much more serious and committed. For comparison, try imagining some Foreign Ministry note, "Иногда создаётся ощущение" vs "Создалось ощущение". Former is a warning, latter is an outright accusation.
    – Arioch
    Apr 16, 2018 at 9:39

2 Answers 2

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1.Создавалось ощущение, будто все мои немногочисленные знакомые

  1. У меня создалось ощущение, будто ...

It's really hard to explain, because the difference is in feeling the situation, not the meaning itself. First of all, both include the speaker, that's obvious. And both of them are impersonal (grammatically ). A personal sentence would be "Я думаю, что..."

  1. The first sentence is a bit vague and you are right that it expresses a kind of general idea with the speaker and other people being included as recipients. Something like "There was a general feeling that..." It is close to "It seemed ". The feeling somehow was "blowing in the wind".The imperfect verb gives the feeling of uncertainty. Being done but still incomplete.

  2. The second is clearly "I had a feeling that..."

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Создавалось ощущение, будто все мои немногочисленные знакомые в этом мире являются участниками огромного заговора, цель которого – свести меня с ума.

is basically the same as

У меня создавалось ощущение, будто все мои немногочисленные знакомые в этом мире являются участниками огромного заговора, цель которого – свести меня с ума.

There is no palpable difference, honestly. I'm a native speaker.

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