I lived in Moscow for six years as an educator. My first child was born in a public hospital in the north of Moscow. As it was the day after International Labour’s Day, May 1st, we had struggled to find a healthcare team. In those moments you feel completely isolated, a newly-learned language does not help express yourself. Even if friends help you feel less homesick, you always have to deal with most of your issues on your own.
I started to work as an English teacher in a school on Leninski street no. 56 in 1998. At the time Russia was a quickly developing country. There were constructions by Turkish firms all around Moscow. And the parents of our students were educated people from different professional backgrounds who all valued education greatly. Our school principal Genrich Kuznetsov was a veteran who worked as Deputy education minister and won an award from Putin.
During my first years, I also worked as dormitory principal, so I used to live in the dorm. It was a good opportunity to get to know the Russian teens better and we could offer them mentorship. Even just the life story of a student named Mikail made all of our efforts there worthwhile; his mother was killed during a mafia encounter in front of him and his father had abandoned him at a very young age. Mikail was taken and raised by his aunt.
Sometimes we would give out pamphlets for school enrollment, we would leave pamphlets in churches, important squares, metro stations, and shopping malls. Mikail’s aunt had heard of our school through those pamphlets and enrolled him in our school as a boarding student.
At first, I would think that we had opened a dorm just for Mikail, we would have an issue every day. His aunt would come ashamed, and apologize on his behalf. We were patiently trying to counsel Mikail and approach him with compassion. Eventually, our attitude started becoming more and more effective, Mikail started to become more respectful towards his surroundings, swore less, and showed academic improvements. He was becoming more sensitive and caring. One day his aunt came hastily, knocked on my door and asked me: “What have you done to Mikail?”
I was confused, I could not understand if she was angry or if she was complimenting us. She continued, “ If Mikail stays in this school a little longer he is going to become an angel!”.
I replied with confusion, “ We love our students and simply compassionately tolerate their mistakes, that’s all.”.
Decades went by and yet Igor, Sergei, Jenny, and all the others living in my memory
I remember our memories from the times we would visit the parents of our students and a smile appears on my face. I did not witness any harm or evil from Russians in all the years that I lived in Russia. My friends only showed me kindness and companionship. What is left from the staff I worked with, the students I taught, their parents, my neighbors, and the friends I made are good memories and meaningful works.
It upsets me to see the attacks and boycotts against the Russian people and their culture nowadays. Russian literature, art, and culture have contributed greatly to the world heritage. The works of great masters such as Dostoyevski, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol, Gorky, Chehov, Tarkovsky, Tchaikovski, and Borodin are some of those many heritages.
This war is Putin’s war for power, not the Russians’!
Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail; but a man is happiest when he does not even notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly.
Ivan Turgenev
