In going thru old message I came across yours.  I am not a native
speaker, but when I was a grad student I took an interest in Russian
calligraphy and practiced it for my own amusement.  I can't help noting
that this example is actually a very fine 19th Century scribal script. 
Since my eyes are 80 years old I would need to enlarge the sample to
read thru it, but I read the first word perezhivayushchaya very easily. 
The strokes observe the thick/thin norms, but are a little too "inky"
without enlargement.  You are not the only post-1918 native speaker with
problems--I think you have to be used to reading it to get it easily. 
Cyrillic calligraphy is I am afraid a lost art.

Yours, Jules Levin