Russian | Tatar
If somebody asks me about my nationality, I always reply that I am mixed, my Dad is Russian and my Mum is Tatar. All of us were born and raised in Kazakhstan. Talking about religion, my Dad is Christian and my Mum is Muslim and I was baptised. However, me and my sister were raised following traditions of both religions and nationalities. My Mum’s family members are Crimean Tatars who are coming from Crimea, but during the war her Grandparents were forced to leave, so they moved to Kazakhstan, Atyrau where lately my Mum was born. My Dad was born and raised in Kazakhstan, Almaty. He moved to Atyrau after his graduation to start his career as a pilot. Meantime my Mom was working at the same airport as a flight attendant and that’s how my parents met.
Me and my sister grew up following traditions of both cultures. We always celebrate all important events from Russian and Tatar sides. And our mum always cooks Russian and Tatar dishes. For example, New Year eve is very important in our family and on the dinner table there are always Tatar and Russian food. Before 6 years old, I have spent a lot of time with my Tatar Grandma, who was telling me old Russian fairy tales but in Tatar Language. I didn’t understand them but was always listening to them with an interest. I think it doesn’t matter what race, religion or nationality of your partner is. As long as you are happy to be together and open minded to each other's cultures.
I am happy who I am. I think it's a very unique and interesting experience to have from the day I was born. To live, to follow, to share my cultures and my traditions with everyone around me. Especially now, I have been living in the UK for the last 7 years, there are so many people who have never heard of my nationality or even my country. I love inviting my friends over for dinner, cooking traditional dishes for them, telling them different history facts and stories about my cultures.
Since I have moved to the UK, a lot of times people thought I was an Asian. And it still happens till now. I have been mistaken for a Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino. Once I travelled to South Korea, Seoul with my family, we went to a supermarket and a Korean lady who was selling tea, came to me and said ‘Ni Hao Ma’, I replied to her ‘Sorry, I am not Chinese’. She then said to me: ‘Konichiwa’. Another story. Two years ago I was studying in TV School for my master’s degree. And one guy who I was talking pretty much every day, for 6 months was thinking that I was from China. One day he overheard a conversation of me explaining something about Kazakhstan, so he came to me and said: ‘Hold on, so you are not from China?’. I do have a lot of stories like those ones!
I do speak 4 Languages (English, Russian, Kazakh, Turkish) I wish I could speak Tatar, but unfortunately nobody speaks this language in our family. I think the biggest connection comes from food, traditions, events. I have never been to Tatarstan or Crimea yet! It’s in my ‘To do List’.
I think with the age I’ve started to appreciate my mixed-raced ethnicity more, and understand how different and unique I am, how cool it is to understand and follow the traditions and religion of two different cultures. I think people like me, people with two completely different cultures and religions do bring a very good and positive message to the entire world. I don’t think I am going to change as I get older. I really want to have the same harmony between cultures in my future family as I had in mine.