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Moscow: 1994
Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live? If I had to relive a year of my life, I would relive 1994. I was in Moscow in 1994, when Russia (but also Ukraine) was undergoing life crisis. After years of hunger shops restarted to sell some eatable products, such as bread,… Continue reading
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Faith twist
What’s something you believe everyone should know. I think everyone should know that living one’s life in faith doesn’t mean that one should abandon all fun things and become a super religious monk. Life is given to us by God to live it fully and to enjoy it. A life based in faith doesn’t ask… Continue reading
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Tsar Nicholas II
Tsar Nicholas II’s reign (1894-1917) is marked by many contradictions, both in Russia and outside of Russia, often portraying him as an evil man, which wasn’t the truth. During his reign the tsar took many initiatives to improve both internal and external affairs of Russia, that he deeply loved and cared for. He strongly believed… Continue reading
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Black page in history. Princess Anastasia
Princess Anastasia was a Grad Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, born on the 18th of June in 1901 in Russia. She was executed by Bolsheviks on the 17th of July 1918, together with her family. Her dad, Nicholas II, was a Tsar of Russia. The tragic event happened after the horror of the Russian Revolution in 1917,… Continue reading
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I just believe
Do you believe in fate/destiny? From an early age I have always believed in something. I remember how on a walk with my mum, in Moscow, I would look into the sky, up above me, and ask myself whether there was more to this world and our universe. Moscow is a city of high buildings,… Continue reading
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One Russian New Year
Due to the absence of most grocery products in the 1990s in Russia, people had to develop quite remarkable culinary skills. One had to be truly inventive in order to come up with any interesting dishes, besides a piece of bread with butter (and even butter was at some point totally unavailable in the shops).… Continue reading
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A place called home
It was at the age of nineteen that I left my beloved Russia to go and study in Brussels. I had a big family trauma and my move was out of desperation, more than anything else. The opportunity to escape was there, and being so naïve, I took it. In retrospect, I am not sure… Continue reading
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Sheffield, I miss you.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Having lived in four different countries, in some of them twice, I think I have ‘experience’ to reflect on this issue. Where is it to live the best? I lived in Russia till I was nineteen years old, then in Brussels for five… Continue reading
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You can be whatever you want
What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in? I found this question very interesting as I have not only considered an alternative career path, I tried several of them, and in different countries. I worked as a translator and interpreter at Brussels’ committee for refugees and stateless people, as a library assistant… Continue reading
About Me
I am a doctor of philosophy, a university lecturer, and a lover of cats, fine wine, dancing, theatre, and human eccentricity. I was born in the Soviet Union (Moscow). I am fluent in four languages, and have spent all my adult life studying (except from 18 to 19) working and living throughout Western Europe. Despite a surname-Netchitailova- that translates from Russian into English as “unreadable”, my greatest passions in life are reading and writing. My personal struggles have made me appreciate the manifestations of weirdness that exist everywhere.