Born in Moscow, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Bilbao are the old destinations.
I was born in Moscow, but not officially. My mother went from our town to Moscow hospital during delivery. In my documents there is no Moscow, because the law of the USSR was to establish the place of birth of the child according to the maternal census, and mine is 200 kilometres from the capital: Cough.

I grew up there and lived there until I was 18. Then yes, I went to Moscow to study college. I studied theoretical and applied linguistics, computational. But I'm very bad computational, and so I left the theoretical part.

Did you bring linguistics to Euskal Herria?
Yes. For the first time I arrived in 2011, with an agreement between universities. A kind of Erasmus, although in the case of Russia the exchange programme does not include the name Erasmus. But in the end it is the same. However, there, unlike Erasmus, your external subjects are not validated at home university. And on the other hand, all expenses, except tuition, must be borne. In my case, by then I had been studying Euskera at the University of Moscow, within the lectorado of the Etxepare Institute. It was an agreement between the two institutions. I was designed for those who study Spanish, and as I also studied Spanish, I was able to go to study Basque. The program also offered the possibility to study four months at the university here, and I came, and I loved the people of Euskal Herria, life -- the adhesion of people to their roots and culture. Also nature and climate, I like walking down the mountain, I love mountains a lot, and my homeland is pretty flat.

But after four months, he returns to Moscow.
Yes. And I went back and studied the Basque Country, the last year in Moscow, always within that lectorship. My first teacher was Leire Orduña and then Ainhoa Aierbe. The first year we had three students in our group. More in the following. One year we become more than ten. We used to be two or three groups, distributed by levels. For example, in my last year, 2011-2012, I stayed only on my “high” level. All of the students that we were in language school, some of us were language students, some were Spanish or English philology students, and there were also students outside college. Then they closed the doors to the non-university. Some years of collaboration between the Cervantes and Etxepare institutes, but some years, others do not.

She learned Basque in her linguistics.
It was an optional issue, I didn't count on the resume, at least at my time, because there wasn't even a credit system, but I had to necessarily study certain subjects. At that time, Euskera was not the burden one wanted to carry. Ha, ha… But I learned to taste, sometimes it was easy, sometimes difficult, as in all languages. They say it's hard, and I told you, sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard. However, my opinion is not worth much, because I am a language student, I also know other languages… My profile is not usual, therefore. For example, some aspects of the Basque Country are very regular: when you say that you have learned the decline, you have actually learned, because it is more regular than normal! On the contrary, the decline of Russian is much more complicated, it will take much longer to learn it, because it is full of exceptions, and it will have to take into account what gender, what type of roots, etc.

Did you learn Basque in three years?
Yes. Well, in three years I got to half, towards B1! Over the next 10 years, I was getting better, and I still have to learn! I came to Vitoria after the first year I started studying Basque. By then I knew enough in Spanish. I received several classes in the Law School of the [UPV/EHU in Vitoria-Gasteiz], all in Spanish, except for the Basque section aimed at foreign students. We were a small group, a compact school, that served me to learn more in Basque. Within this four-month stay there was an extraordinary scholarship granted by the Etxepare Institute. It is the only “normal” scholarship I have received in my life, because I was paid everything, to go to a barnetegi to study Basque in a fortnight. And so did Maizorder in Lazkao. It was a total dive.

Euskaltegi Maizorder is a good place to learn Basque.
This stay was decisive. After the fortnight of May, I decided that I wanted to spend more time in the Basque Country, that I wanted to return, that I wanted to spend a few years here, but living. It was the last year of the race. Meanwhile, the time I spent thinking about what to do in my life, staying in Moscow and looking for work, or going back to Euskal Herria and walking here my way. But, of course, since I am Russian I could not come here without more, I had no choice but to come to study and I decided to come to do the master's degree. So yeah, I could come. If not, I couldn't come like here, because if you go here you have to be a family, or a work contract, while you're in Russia! I mean, almost impossible. Another way is to study abroad, and that's what I did, and that's the plan of many Russians.

He started doing a master's degree.
But I realized I didn't really want to study, I prefer to work, I was tired of studying. And on the other hand, living here as a student meant living on behalf of my parents. And I didn't want that either. I eventually made my way, because I found work. These are accounts ten years ago. Since then, I have done little work. I had been teaching private Russian for two years. I really enjoy teaching my mother tongue, but living from it is very difficult. However, that experience helped me achieve the current work. I have also had two great jobs, one in Bilbao, which I am still doing, and one in Laguardia.

In Laguardia?
Yes. That year he lived in Logroño. I worked for a factory that wanted to sell its product in Russia: the capsules that are used to close bottles of wine, vodka and so on. They wanted to expand the Russian market and they needed a person with Russian knowledge to relate. My former roommate knew somebody in that factory and plugged me in there. Ha, ha… But, even though we tried to contact Russia, the business didn’t yield good crops, I ran out of the contract and it’s over. I ended that contract and went back to Vitoria, while I finished my master's degree to find another job. Nothing was coming out of me. In addition, with student roles he could not work full time. Therefore, I spent a year giving special classes to Russian and at the same time writing a final master’s degree. Then I started with the work of Bilbao, working on applications to learn languages.

Born in Moscow in 1989, he is 33 years old and has travelled from Tula to: Vitoria, Bilbao, Laguardia...
Yes, for several years I have done a lot, or I have been through, a very intense year. On the other hand, it seems to me that with 19 years of COVID-19 time has decreased. The previous years were very intense, while the years of pandemic were slow.

And at what point are you now?
The academic world is always there. When I studied linguistics, I had the research in mind. That was my intention. When I was 15, I knew very well what I wanted to be: a researcher. When I started the career, other intentions came to me: I found it a difficult task to investigate, I demotivated myself. Moreover, living from research is not easy either here or in Russia. I saw no progress, and so I decided to close that path, even though I finished the master's degree. Pandemic, for its part, has allowed me to rethink life and I have enrolled in the PhD in the Faculty of Letters of the UPV/EHU of Vitoria-Gasteiz, where I am for half a time. I have spent the year like this, but I have not made much progress: I am not a superwoman, I am not able to do more of one thing at the same time, nor do I know how to manage time well. I'm pretty chaotic at that.

Chaotic, you say, but working and doctoring! What is your research topic?

Within linguistics, my area is the typology of languages, what I like, comparing the characteristics of different languages, analyzing differences in equality, analyzing how the characteristics of one language and another develop over time. I like Euskera, I'm interested, and along with Euskera, the Cartbélian languages, spoken in Georgia. My ancestors are from there, although I am a monolingual Russian. My mother tongue is Russian, but I have always been related to Georgia, or I have tried to relate. In the PhD, I have also focused on Carthic languages: my objective is to analyse the case marks that are used in certain verbal forms, and then to compare what things are like in the case of the Basque Country, in the case of the Georgian language and in some languages of the world.

Why has it been related to Basque learning?
Because I wanted to learn another language. I told him that I like typology, and at Moscow University, looking for Georgian classes, it was easier to find Basque classes than Georgian. Well, that was also due to the political situation, because in 2008-09 the relations between the two countries were not at their best. The situation is now different, and the classes of Georgian and the private teachers of Georgian are the ones who like it most. It didn't exist at that time. At that time, at the university of Moscow, in our faculty, there were several lecturers: Euskara, Catalan, Finnish…

Of all of them, you chose the Basque...
Yes, I had long heard that language was mysterious, rare… all stereotypes! Kar, kar… In my department there was a professor who was interested in Euskera, Aleksandr Arkhipov. One year also created a course of this kind, aimed at linguists, on the grammar of the Basque Country, and that is when I really started my hobby for the Basque country. It was before I came to the Basque Country. Then I did graduate work with the professor. I mean, there was an atmosphere of Euskara.

It has also been said that the Basque language was related to the languages of the Caucasus.

Yes, that is a very widespread idea in Russia. Nothing else to go, tell him that he is Basque and people will soon meet you. I would like to say that you will first talk about ETA and secondly the relationship of your language with Caucasus. Both stereotypes. With the disappearance of ETA, you are now told about the relationship between languages, gastronomy, landscape, etc. In the meantime, no one has shown that there is a link between the languages here and there.

He told us earlier that it was easier for him to find Georgian classes than Euskera classes. The political situation was the reason. The relationship between Russia and the rest of Europe has always been difficult…

At least easy.

The war is also in Russia and Ukraine.

Yes, but I'm not going to say any of that, because since the beginning of the year I've been repeatedly contacted by each other to talk about that.

Let us therefore move on to language. You have several published studies and, among others, participated in a congress held in Moscow on the linguistic policies of the Basque Country, analyzing the case of Zuberoa.

The dialect furthest from the standard is Sulatino, whose speakers have little to do with the unified dialect and, at the same time, have a great adhesion to Sulatino. There's a study by Hariñordoki that says that 71 percent of speakers believe that Sulatino should be prioritized in school and not the whole. Sulatino has no legal protection, but different work is done to keep Sulatino. I mean, when you first go to school, students learn in Suletino, in the ikastola itself, in the immersion model. On the other hand, Sulatino is very present in culture, the masked, the pastoral, dance classes and singing. And finally, a lot of things are printed in Sulatino, and the Xibero Botza is also in Sulatino, as well as films and digital content. That is what I am talking about in the article, in the light of French language policy and the Molac Law.

Our Russian is interested in Zuberoa...
Yes. I'm in Zuberoa, I really like that region. After studying Batua, looking for another challenge, I started studying Zuber. I was in the barnetegi, three years ago, and since then I have made several stays.
Russian, studied in Basque. Here many don't...

I learned Euskara because I'm a geek linguist. Here people usually learn Basque for practical reasons. In fact, in Russia and in the Basque Country and everywhere, people learn languages for practical reasons. Now we have to learn English, and that is where we are. In Euskal Herria, many do not see the need to learn Euskera, do not even have emotional ties with the Basque… I am no one who criticizes, but as I like to speak in the local language in which I live. However, I understand that only people who learn the language they need. “What do I have to do to make more money? I will. What don't I need? I'm not going to do it." Indeed.

And soon Euskaraldia.
And we'll put on the plates and talk in Basque. It is sad, people learn Basque, but they do not speak. And yet, the Basque language compares to several Russian languages and is in very good condition. Many of the Russian languages have a much smaller presence than the Basque language in its field, everywhere!, in school, in society. And transmission is also much poorer in many Russian languages than in Basque.

“We’re going to put the sheets,” he said. And will we do the first word in Basque?
I hardly make the first word in Basque, at least in the non-Basque areas, that is, in the capitals, or when what I have before me is Basque, it is not, I have much doubt. In a Basque town or where there is an Euskaldun atmosphere, however, I have no problems starting in Basque with strangers, and I also like it very much. On the other hand, going somewhere to do some paperwork, showing my documents, and I know that reading my name and speaking in Basque will surprise, or misunderstanding. “Let’s see, here’s some mistake. What is this girl doing with strange names in Basque?” And of course, when you're doing a procedure, you want it to be completed and go free. That is why I find it hard to make the first word in Basque. I do not know why, but here foreigners are not expected to speak in Basque. Even when he asked me for an interview, I thought: “Once again I will have to play the role of foreigner who has learned Basque!” Ja, ja…

That is your role!
Yes. If it were common for foreigners to learn Basque, we would not be here! Ha, ha… Sometimes it's exhausting!

* * * * * * *

OPTIONAL VITORIA

“As a child I wanted to live in the great city. I was born in the city, in Tula, we are half a million inhabitants. Moscow, 20 million, perhaps? I wanted to live in Moscow, but after living there I want the opposite. Now I live in Bilbao and Bilbao also seems great. Optional, preferably Vitoria. I have more connections in Vitoria and I would like to do so”

BASQUE SONG

“I really like Basque songs, I find them exciting. I think I know more popular songs in Basque than Russian, because there they are very lost. I want all the classics, because Mikel Laboa. When I came Mikel Laboa was killed, but when studying in Basque we sang several of his songs. When I came, Berri Txarrak was fashionable. Zea Mays also likes me a lot. I used to hear Basque music. But this year you don’t ask me, I don’t know!”

OF THE ACCORDIONIST

“It was difficult for me to read in Basque at another time, but not now, and I am reading more in Basque, without any suffering, and without insisting on seeking the meaning of a word. For example, I very much liked the son of Bernardo Atxaga's Accordionist. I have also gladly read some books by Karmele Jai.”

LAST WORD

NATURAL

“I feel very natural when I’m in Basque, it’s very me. I really like to speak in Basque, meet with Euskaldunes and meet those who speak Basque.”