Podcast Then & Now #28 - Teresa Cherfas in conversation with Natalia Soprunova

Welcome to the twenty-eighth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. My guest today is Natalia Soprunova, a mathematician, teacher and mother of four children. Her story is so inspiring that it is immediately obvious how much Putin’s Russia has lost as a result of the wave of emigration that followed the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Very soon it will be the third anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian armed forces and the beginning of a full-scale war against a sovereign state. Hundreds of thousands of citizens of the Russian Federation left their country after 24 February 2022. Each had their own reasons, their own fears and dilemmas. Each had a different choice. Today, we hear the story of one of them – Natalia Soprunova. This podcast was recorded on 13 January 2025.

My questions

• Tell us a little bit about yourself, about your family. What has been important to you in your life? What moral principles have you followed.
• You are a mathematician and educator. Tell us about your professional career in Russia and how it developed.
• What was your inspiration when you decided to found your private school – Moscow School Workshop – in Moscow? How did it differ from state schools?
• Could you have imagined that your professional world could experience a complete collapse so quickly and irrevocably?
• Why did you decide to leave Russia? When you learned war had broken out – what did you think and when did you make the decision to leave and why? What was your main fear and your main reason?
• Tell us how it was. You have, after all, four children….
• What is the fate of the children who studied with you at the Moscow Workshop School? And your teachers?
• You and your family now live in Berlin. Tell us about the journey that took you there…
• You joined the Russian Lyceum, which already existed in Munich. What kind of school is it?
• How did the idea of Online Master School come about? Is it a virtual continuation of your school in Moscow?
• What does this teaching work mean for you? And for the children and their parents?
• Your experience as a teacher and the practical application of a new approach to teaching children – is that relevant to today’s Russia? What do you think about the system of education now in Russia?
• How do you see the future? Yours and the future of your children?
• These days some people are returning to Russia – the reasons are different: residence permits are not renewed or not granted, there are no jobs or sources of income. What do you think about this?
• What is your attitude to people who have not left Russia?
• Would you return to Russia? What would have to happen for this to become realistic for you? And the children? Is this new generation already lost to Russia?