I'm from Saint Petersburg, Russia, where I earned my specialist degree in History from Saint Petersburg State University. After graduation, I worked at the Museum of Political History, which was a formative experience that sparked my desire to continue my education abroad. I was also genuinely curious about living in a different country and experiencing life outside Russia.
The MAREEES programme attracted me because of its multidisciplinary nature. At that time, I wasn't entirely certain about my specific research direction, so I valued the opportunity to receive training across different fields. The programme also offered the chance to work with internationally recognized experts in my field, which was incredibly appealing. I had heard excellent things about the quality of Finnish education, and the availability of a scholarship that could cover tuition fees was a crucial practical consideration. Fortunately, I was awarded the scholarship, which made the whole opportunity possible!
Thank you! It's such an honour to receive this award. This research emerged from both my academic background as a historian of the Soviet era and a personal experience. My interest in women's and gender studies developed shortly before entering the programme, sparked by becoming a parent myself.
The specific focus on Baranskaya's novella, which portrays the life of a working mother during the Brezhnev era, came about somewhat accidentally. I was exploring various Russian archive websites, searching for materials related to Soviet media outlets that had written extensively about family and gender roles. While I didn't find what I was originally looking for, I discovered something even more compelling: a collection of readers' letters responding to the novella, and scans of these documents were available by request. When I read these letters, I immediately recognized their value as historical sources and knew I had to work on them.
The process was wonderful and went very smoothly! I found working on my master's thesis incredibly enjoyable because I received support at every stage: from choosing my research direction to editing the final text. We had a master's thesis seminar where each student presented their work multiple times, starting with the idea paper and research plan. The seminar teacher, Senior University lecturer Sari Autio-Sarasmo struck a perfect balance: emphasising that we could write our thesis on any topic related to the region while providing guidance on maintaining scholarly standards. During and after these seminars, I received valuable feedback and thought-provoking questions from my fellow students. This gave me confidence that my research could engage an audience beyond myself. Most importantly, my thesis supervisor, University Lecturer Ira Jänis-Isokangas, was incredibly helpful: she spent countless hours discussing my drafts with me, posed challenging questions, and clearly explained what is expected from a strong master's thesis.
The programme and university have matched my expectations very well. I was pleasantly surprised by how current and dynamic the lectures and seminars are. In my previous experience as a student in different academic contexts, it was typical for professors to use the same lecture materials for decades without significant updates. Here, it's completely different: everything feels very up to date. We're assigned recent articles and research, and I can see that teachers make a genuine effort to engage us with the most current topics and debates in their fields. I was also struck by the democratic and non-hierarchical culture of Finnish universities, where students and professors interact as equals.
One of the most memorable highlights was the field course to Latvia. We had an excellent program that included meetings with local politicians, media representatives, and NGOs, as well as a visit to the Finnish embassy. What made this particularly special was that all these events were organised entirely by the students themselves! I consider this hands-on regional experience to be one of the most important aspects of training future experts in area studies, enabling us to become familiar with the region first-hand.
For the future MAREEES students, I would simply recommend being curious and taking full advantage of all the opportunities that the programme and university have to offer.
My doctoral project focuses on women scientists in Soviet Kazakhstan from the Second World War through the USSR's collapse. I'm investigating how specific gender policies, rapid technological modernisation, and Kazakhstan's peripheral position relative to major scientific centres created a complex dynamic: one that simultaneously opened genuine opportunities for women in science while maintaining institutional hierarchies that relegated most to lower-paying, less creative roles. I plan to situate these developments within the broader contexts of the Cold War and post-colonial dynamics.