This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Freelance translator and/or interpreter, Verified site user
Data security
This person has a SecurePRO™ card. Because this person is not a ProZ.com Plus subscriber, to view his or her SecurePRO™ card you must be a ProZ.com Business member or Plus subscriber.
Affiliations
This person is not affiliated with any business or Blue Board record at ProZ.com.
Russian to English - Rates: 0.12 - 0.15 USD per word / 45 - 60 USD per hour English to Russian - Rates: 0.12 - 0.15 USD per word / 45 - 60 USD per hour
Russian to English: Extract from "Captain of the Steppe", Oleg Pavlov General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - Russian
Газеты в степную роту завозили, как картошку: на месяц, на два или уж до весны, чтобы не тратиться зря на горючее и не баловать. Завозили прошлогодние, из расстроенной полковой читальни, где подшивки успевали обворовать. Однако и раскромсанные — сообщая о чем-то большом и важном, что свершилось давно и без их ведома, газеты, бывало, выдавливали у служивых слезу. Узнавая так поздно, так сразу обо всех мировых событиях, солдатня пускалась расходовать свою и без того пропащую жизнь. Но и посреди этого разгуляя слышалось, как занудно перемалывают прочитанное, жалея позабыть. Слово за слово — разговорцы крепчали, так что у каждого появлялось особое мнение, и если вдруг вылезало на свет событие поважней и побольше, а четкая политическая оценка отсутствовала, случался мордобой.
Ничего не ждал от жизни капитан Хабаров. Он если подсаживался в круг читчиков, то украдкой вливал свою застарелую тоску в общую, как считалось — по международному положению.
Иван Яковлевич Хабаров явился на казенную службу не по расчету или принуждению, хоть добрая его воля мало что прибавляла. Вот и в солдаты его забрили, как всех. Служил. Но когда истек срок службы солдатской, подневольной, уговорили остаться старшиной: «Оставайся-ка, Иван, служи, это ж твое твердое место, какой ты, к сволочи, гражданский человек?!»
Служивый обнаруживался в Хабарове по скупым и грубым чертам. Хабаров был человеком коренастым, приземистым, похожий на крепенький мешок с картошкой. Это делало его безликим, сравнимым с миллионом ему подобных служак. Однако этот миллион бразовывал гущу народа, в которой сам собой исчезает всякий отдельный человек. Суждено ему было, уж правда, замешаться в ней комком.
Вот и служить он остался за паек да жалованье, которым не побалуешь. Что бы ни случилось, Иван Яковлевич думал: «Поворачивать некуда, надо терпеть». И он же думал, что бы ни случилось: «Это еще не конец».
Теперь он в пыльных капитанских погонах дослуживал в одной из лагерных рот Карагандинской области свой пожизненный срок, маявшись по лагерям от Печоры до Зеравшана дольше вечного урки — а большего не выслужив. Место в степи, где служил капитан Иван Яковлевич Хабаров, называлось Карабас. Так нарекли эту местность казахи. Переложенное с их языка, прозвище звучало как Черная Голова. В нынешнем же веке казахов близко с Карабасом и видно не было. Они населяли дальние колхозы, разводили овец. Случалось, степняки заезжали в поселенье, чтобы хоть поглазеть на лагерь и надеясь разжиться какими-нибудь железяками. Когда их спрашивали, отчего этой местности дано такое угрюмое название, казахи, ерзая глазками по округе, признавались, что сами не знают, где это их прадеды углядели черноту и откуда привиделась голова средь стертой степной равнины. Сопки, окружавшие местечко серой дымкой, вовсе не походили на головы, и даже каменистые их гребни чернели в промозглую пору, скорее похожие на пеньки. Зато просторов было вдоволь. Ни растительность, ни пашни, ни реки не утруждали степной землицы, не стискивали. Люди, однако, поселились здесь не ради просторов. Построили лагерь, тюрьму, место для которой было выбрано так, будто плюнули со злости — и принялись жить.
Карабас разделялся на две части, из которых самой невзрачной была лагерная рота, а другая, прущая по степи навроде баржи, — лагерем. И рота и лагерь строились в один замес, но с годами их наружность множество раз искривлялась, а времянки так же бойко строились, как и разрушались. Магазинов, учреждений, домов, церквей поселок на своем веку не ведал. Одни унылые бараки, схожие с конурой, вокруг которых и раздавался дурной овчарочий лай. К баракам тянулись вытоптанные сапогами стежки, такие узкие, будто люди ходили по краю, боясь упасть. Эти же стежки уводили к тупикам, обрываясь там, где начинались закрытые зоны и всякие другие запреты. Вольный доступ открывали Карабасу лагерная узкоколейка да степной большак, обрывавшиеся далеко за сопками. Еще уводил от лагеря, на отшиб, почти неприметный могильник, куда больничка захоранивала бесхозных зэков. На том месте временами являлся свежий перекоп. Вот и все сообщение, если так считать, все пути да выходы. Сказать правду, в Карабасе прытко сообщались лишь барачные вши, гуляя вольной волей от солдат к зэкам и обратно. Вши ходили друг к дружке в гости, выпивали и закусывали, плодились по сто штук. А люди страдали от чесотки, давили торжествующих гадов, которые и роднили их покрепче, чем любая мать.
Не считая живности, Карабас населяли солдаты, зэки, вольнонаемные мастера и надзиратели. Зэки с солдатами жили годами, сроками, одни — службы, а другие — заключения. В лагере была устроена фабричка, где сколачивали одинаковой формы сапоги — весом в пуд — для таких же лагерей. Будни дышали кислыми щами и текли долго, тягостно, наплывая, будто из глубокой старины.
Содержались служивые жалованьем да пайкой. Получку десяток лет не прибавляли, но со временем она и не убавилась. Втихую, правда, поговаривали, что за такую службу должны бы когда-нибудь прибавить. Полагая про себя, что существенную часть жалованья утаивают, служили поплоше, чтобы не прогадать. А начальство радо было по всякому случаю заявлять, что службу несут плохо, даром получают
жалованье. На том и стояли. Что до пайки, то летом eе приходилось урезать, чтобы скопить хоть что-то на зиму; также и осенью недоедали, откладывая про запас. А нагрянет январь, запасов этих — разве что воробья прокормить, и неизвестно, ради чего столько времени терпели. Зэк — тот своего потребует, хоть зарежется. Надзиратель — утайкой сворует, а служивому откуда взять? Что доставляют из полка, не взвесишь. Говорят, снабжают по нормам, а какие они? Начисляют живым весом, будто не понимают, что живой вес трясается, ужаривается, а то и пропадает пропадом. Вместо питания — один комбижир. А тот жир что вода — сыт не будешь, да и воротит с души. Вместо яблок — сухофрукты. Чай подменяют жженкой, смолой чайной. Куда ни глянь, повсюду теснят, ужимают. Толком не служили, а выживали как могли, но если нажрешься досыта, то дальше уж не хочется почему-то жить.
Translation - English They used to deliver newspapers like potatoes to the company stationed out in the steppe: a month’s worth at a time, or two, or even enough to see them through to spring, so as not to waste fuel and not to pamper the unit. They were last year’s papers, sent from the chaotic regimental reading room where they took whatever was left in the binders of back issues. But even though the papers were tattered, when they reported something big that had taken place long ago, unknown to the soldiers, they found tears could be squeezed from their eyes. To find out so late and yet so suddenly about all the world’s events drove the soldiers to squander what remained of their lives; lives that were in any case wasting away. Even amidst this dereliction of duty, you could hear them drearily going over and over what they had read, reluctant to forget. Word by word, the discussions among the servicemen grew more heated, each man developing his particular opinion and, if suddenly some bigger and more significant event came to light, yet without any clear political line, it would end in fisticuffs.
Captain Khabarov expected nothing from life. If he ever planted himself in a group of these textual analysts, he would furtively mix his long-standing personal anguish into the general unease arising – or so they maintained – from the international situation.
Ivan Yakovlevich Khabarov had wound up in government service neither through calculation nor through coercion; mind you, his own free will hadn’t played much part either. So they had shaved his head and taken him as a soldier, as they did everyone. He served out his time. But when his term as a conscript was up, they persuaded him to stay on as a sergeant major. ‘Stay put, Ivan, carry on serving. This is the right place for you. You’re not one of them civvy bastards, are you?’
The military man in Khabarov could be detected in his mean, crude features. The sergeant major was a thickset, stocky man who resembled a great sack of potatoes. This made him unremarkable, comparable to maybe another million servicemen just like him. However, this million formed a mass of people within which each individual disappeared without trace. He was fated – here’s the truth – to be suspended in it like some sort of clot. Anyway, he stayed in the service for the rations and the pay packet, which wouldn’t buy much in the way of treats. No matter what happened, Khabarov would think, ‘There’s no way around it; just have to put up with it.’ And he also thought, no matter what happened, ‘This isn’t over yet.’
Now in dusty captain’s epaulettes, Khabarov was serving out the rest of his natural life in one of the camp companies in the Karaganda region. He’d been shunted around the prison camps from Pechora to Zeravshan for longer than any hardened criminal, yet he hadn’t been promoted any higher.
The place in the steppe where Captain Ivan Yakovlevich Khabarov was now serving was called Karabas. This is what the Kazakhs had dubbed it. In their language, the name meant something like ‘The Black Head’. However, there were by now no Kazakhs to be seen anywhere near Karabas. They had settled on far-off collective farms, raising sheep. From time to time the steppe-dwellers would come into the settlement for a quick look at the camp, and in the hope of maybe getting their hands on a bit of ironmongery. And when they were asked how the place had come to inherit such a dour name, the Kazakhs looked round shiftily and confessed that they didn’t know where their forefathers had got this notion of blackness or how they had contrived to see a head in the midst of this desolate expanse of steppe. The hills that surrounded the place like grey smoke did not look remotely like heads, while their stony ridges darkened in the dank weather to look more like tree stumps. Mind you, there was space and to spare. No plant life, nor agriculture, nor rivers troubled the good steppe earth. There was no crowding. It wasn’t because of the space, though, that people had settled there. They were to build a prison camp; the site was chosen as if someone had spat there, purely out of malice, and there they had set about living.
Karabas was divided into two parts, of which the more unassuming was the sentry company quarters, while the other, all too visible – like some great barge on the steppe – was the camp itself. Both the company quarters and the camp had been built at the same time, but they had suffered many batterings over the years, while temporary structures had been put up and pulled down with equal abandon. In all its time, the settlement had never seen shops, public amenities, houses or churches. There were only cheerless barracks, exactly like kennels, right down to the idiot howl of the guard dogs that echoed around them. Boots had trodden out pathways stretching towards the barracks. The paths were so narrow, it was as though people had been walking along a rim, afraid to fall. These paths led away to dead ends, breaking off where the sealed zones and other strictures began. Access to Karabas was by a narrow-gauge railway that parted company from the main line far beyond the hills. Another route away from the camp led to a barely visible graveyard, where the sickbay buried unclaimed zeks. At this site, from time to time, freshly dug soil would appear. These were all the connections, as it were, all the ways in and out. If truth be told, in Karabas only the barrack lice circulated freely, two-timing the soldiers with the zeks at will, and vice-versa. The lice paid each other visits, eating and drinking, and multiplying a hundredfold. Meanwhile the men suffered from itchiness and squashed the little monsters in the midst of their festivities, which created a bond between them stronger than a mother’s love.
Not counting the livestock, Karabas was inhabited by soldiers, zeks, volunteer workmen and prison warders. The zeks and the soldiers lived here for years, seeing out their terms, which meant military service for some and imprisonment for others. A small factory had been built in the camp where they knocked together boots, always to the same pattern, boots that weighed a ton, for just such camps as this. The working days exhaled sour cabbage soup; long and oppressive, they welled up as though from ancient depths.
The soldiers stayed alive on their pay and rations. There hadn’t been a pay rise in decades, but there hadn’t been a pay cut either. On the quiet, it’s true, there were mutterings that they were long overdue a raise for this sort of service. On the basis that a substantial portion of their wages was being embezzled, they would serve still more slackly, so as not to lose out. Meanwhile their commanders were glad to take every opportunity to declare that they were carrying out their duties poorly and being paid for nothing. And that’s where things were left. In the summer, rations would be cut to try and save at least a little something for the winter, while in the autumn, similarly, they wouldn’t get quite enough, as rations were kept aside, in reserve. But when January stole up unannounced, these reserves would barely feed a sparrow, and no one knew why they had gone hungry for so long. Your zek, now, he’ll demand what’s his even if he has to slit his own throat. Your warder, he’ll steal it on the sly, so where’s a serviceman to find his cut? You can’t exactly weigh what comes in from the regiment. They say that the supplies meet regulations, but which regulations? Who knows? They ration by gross weight, as though they don’t understand that grain settles out, or shrinks when cooked, or generally just vanishes away. Instead of proper nourishment, just that dreadful army margarine. And the fat is like water: you’ll never feel full, and your very soul is repulsed by it. Instead of apples: dried fruit. They substitute this hot, tarry, tea-like concoction for actual tea. No matter where you look, they’re scrimping and saving. Put plainly, the men weren’t serving so much as surviving the best they could; and if you did manage to stuff yourself full, then for some reason you’d lose all your will to live.
Russian to English: Extract from Natalia Zotova's article 'Female Migration into Russia from Central Asian Countries: Migrants Researching Migrants.' General field: Social Sciences Detailed field: Anthropology
Source text - Russian Жизнь мигрантов в городской среде значимым образом отличается от жизни на родине. Как отмечает Анатолий Вишневский, история миграции в глобальном масштабе может быть охарактеризована как движение «мировой деревни» в «мировой город».i Даже если мигранты переезжают из столиц своих государств, например, Бишкека и Ташкента, жизнь в Москве ставит перед ними другие проблемы и вынуждает находить способы их решения; кроме того, мигранты проживают в Москве в иной этнической и культурной среде. Проводить исследования мигрантов в принимающей стране достаточно сложно – они неохотно идут на контакт, боятся возможных осложнений, опасаются сотрудников правоохранительных органов и т.д. Несомненно, о встречах и интервью можно договориться через знакомых мигрантов или НГО правозащитников, куда мигранты обращаются за консультациями и помощью. Однако при общении мигрантов с местным исследователем все равно возникает эффект «двойного барьера» - это языковой барьер, поскольку не все мигранты в достаточной мере владеют русским языком, и восприятие исследователя как «чужого». В силу этих препятствий значительная часть информации может быть утеряна или не быть воспринятой исследователем. Шерна Глюк говорит: «Аутсайдер» может иногда обладать определенным опытом. Возможно, существуют определенные темы, которые намного легче обсуждаются с «аутсайдерами». Вместе с тем, поскольку они менее осведомлены о культуре и субкультуре своих респондентов, им меньше доверяют, и у них возникает больше вопросов, чем у «инсайдеров». В целом, мой опыт говорит о том, что культурное сходство может ощутимо содействовать доверию и открытости, тогда как несходство увеличивает культурную и социальную дистанцию между интервьюером и его собеседником».
Для облегчения контакта с женщинами-мигрантами, решения проблемы языкового барьера и отчуждения нами были подобраны интервьюеры родом из изучаемых стран; их этническая самоидентификация совпадала с исследуемыми в ходе проекта женщинами-мигрантами. Миграционные истории пяти молодых женщин-интервьюеров в значительной степени схожи с историями респонденток – они приехали в Россию на учебу или работу. Два интервьюера приехали из Киргизии, из г.Бишкек и Ош. Это этнические киргизки. Два интервьюера были родом из Таджикистана, с Памира (шугнанки). Этническую принадлежность еще одного интервьюера, как всегда это бывает в случае с самаркандцами, определить сложно. Она выросла в русскоязычной семье, и на вопрос: «Кем ты себя считаешь?» - лукаво отвечала: «Ну, мы же узбеки по паспорту». Четверо интервьюеров имели высшее образование (они заканчивали университеты г.Бишкека, Хорога, Самарканда и медицинский институт в г.Душанбе), самая молодая девушка являлась студенткой химического института им.Менделеева в Москве. Возраст интервьюеров был от 20 до 35 лет; дольше всех прожила в России студентка – 6 лет. Все остальные девушки на момент исследования провели в Москве от 2-х до 7 месяцев.
Задачей интервьюеров было провести анкетирование и глубинные интервью с мигрантками-киргизками, узбечками и таджичками. Уроженки Памира свободно говорят по-таджикски, и они отвечали за таджикскую часть проекта. Молодая женщина из Бишкека работала с киргизками, а уроженки Самарканда и Оша работали с узбечками. Подавляющее большинство интервью было проведено на родных языках респонденток – киргизском, узбекском, таджикском и нескольких памирских языках.
Достаточно необычный формат исследования – «мигранты интервьюируют мигрантов» - позволяет рассуждать о своеобразном фокусе, эффекте «двойной оптики», который возникает в данной ситуации. Четверо из пяти интервьюеров приехали в Москву совсем недавно – уроженки Таджикистана планировали продолжить свое образование, киргизка из Бишкека в силу тяжелых обстоятельств приехала в Россию на заработки, девушка из Самарканда только что вышла замуж, и приехала в Москву вместе в мужем, который жил, учился и работал здесь уже на протяжении длительного времени. Какими бы разными ни были их обстоятельства, тем не менее, они стремились найти какой-то источник заработка или подработки в Москве. Итак, каждая проживала собственную историю миграции, стремилась реализовать планы, каким-то образом обустроить жизнь в непривычных сложных обстоятельствах в огромном мегаполисе. При этом девушки работали как интервьюеры– они не только проживали собственную историю, но и наблюдали и фиксировали истории, в сущности, очень похожие на их собственный опыт. Как отмечает Энн Оукли: «Когда социальная позиция обоих [опрашивающего и опрашиваемого] одинакова и жизненный опыт аналогичен, социальная дистанция сокращается до минимума. Когда опрашивающий и опрашиваемый принадлежат к одному и тому же социальному меньшинству, представление о равенстве может быть особенно отчетливо выражено в сознании интервьюера».iii Отметим, что предложенная методология может иметь некоторые потенциальные недостатки – в силу значительной культурной близости интервьюер может уклоняться от темы беседы, углубляться в детали, значимые лично для него и собеседника и так далее. Анализируя полученный материал глубинных интервью мы стремились это учитывать, вычленяя собственные представления и размышления респондентов. При этом проведение структурированного глубинного интервью по заранее определенной схеме позволило снизить эти возможные риски.
Translation - English The life of migrants in an urban setting differs significantly from life in their home country. As Anatolii Vishnevskii notes, the history of migration on a global scale can be characterised as the movement of the "world village" to the "world city". i Even if migrants have moved from the capitals of their countries, for example Bishkek or Tashkent, life in Moscow presents them with different problems and compels them to find solutions. Moreover, migrants in Moscow are living in a different ethnic and cultural setting. Conducting research into migrants in the receiving country presents some difficulties: they are unwilling to make contact, they fear potential complications, and they are scared of officials from law-enforcement agencies etc. It is undoubtedly possible to make arrangements for meetings and interviews through migrants who are acquaintances or through those NGOs defending human rights, which migrants approach for help and advice. However, when migrants talk to local researchers, there still emerges a "twin barrier" effect: there is the language barrier, since not every migrant has a sufficiently high ability to speak Russian, and also their image of the researcher as "other". As a result of these obstacles, a significant amount of information may be missed or misapprehended by the researcher. Sherna Gluck remarks "The outsider can sometimes delve into certain kinds of experiences that insiders cannot. There might be specific topics that are more easily discussed with 'outsiders.' Also, because outsiders are less conversant with the culture or subculture, they may take less for granted and ask for more clarification than insiders. On the whole, though, my experience has been that cultural likeness can greatly promote trust and openness, whereas dissimilarity reinforces cultural and social distance."
To ease making contact with female migrants, and to resolve the problems of the language barrier and of alienation, interviewers from the countries being studied were selected; their ethnic self-identification matched that of the women migrants being surveyed by the project. The migration stories of the five young women acting as interviewers to a great extent matched the stories of their respondents: they had come to Russia to study or work. Two interviewers had come from Kyrgyzstan, from the cities of Bishkek and Osh. They were ethnic Kyrgyz. Two interviewers were from the Pamir mountains in Tajikistan (they were Shughni). The ethnic affiliation of the last interviewer was difficult to pin down, as always happens when dealing with people from Samarkand. She had grown up in a Russian-speaking family, and to the question "What nationality do you consider yourself to be?" she replied archly "Well, it says in our passports we're Uzbeks." Four of the interviewers had degrees (graduating from universities in Bishkek, Khorog and Samarkand, and from the medical institute in Dushanbe). The youngest woman was a student at the Mendeleev Chemical Technology Institute in Moscow. The interviewers' ages ranged between 20 and 35. The student had lived in Russia longest of all: for six years. All the other women had spent between two and seven months in Moscow at the time the research was conducted.
The interviewers' task was to complete questionnaires and conduct in-depth interviews with Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Tajik migrant women. The two women from the Pamir mountains spoke fluent Tajik, and were responsible for the Tajik element of the project. The young woman from Bishkek worked with the Kyrgyz, and the two from Samarkand and Osh worked with the Uzbeks. The overwhelming majority of interviews were conducted in the native language of the respondents: Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tajik, and several languages spoken in the Pamirs.
The somewhat unusual format of the research - "Migrants interviewing migrants" - allows the discussion of a distinctive focus that arises in such situations: a "bifocal lens" effect. Four of the five interviewers had arrived in Moscow very recently: the two from Tajikistan planned to further their education, the Kyrgyz woman from Bishkek had been compelled by difficult circumstances to travel to Russia to seek work, while the young woman from Samarkand had only just got married, and had arrived in Moscow with her husband, who had been living, studying and working in the city for some considerable time previously. No matter how different their circumstances were, they nonetheless each sought to find some source of employment or supplementary income in Moscow. And so each of them had lived her personal story of migration, had sought to realise her plans, and somehow to arrange her life in the unfamiliar and complex conditions of a huge megapolis. At the same time the women were working as interviewers: they were not only living their own story, but also observing and recording stories that were in effect very similar to their personal experience. As Ann Oakley remarks: "When the social position of both [the interviewer and the interviewee] are the same, and their life experience is similar, the social distance reduces to a minimum. When the interviewer and interviewee belong to one and the same social minority, a notion of equality might be particulaly clearly expressed in the mind of the interviewer." i Note that the suggested methodology may have some potential drawbacks: due to this significant cultural closeness the interviewer may stray from the theme of the discussion or may become absorbed in details personally significant to her and the interviewee, and so on. When analysing the material obtained during the in-depth interviews, attempts were made to assess it in isolation from the respondent's own views and reflections. At the same time, the fact that the in-depth interview had been structured along previously determined lines helped to lower these possible risks.
More
Less
Translation education
Master's degree - University of Bradford
Experience
Years of experience: 22. Registered at ProZ.com: Apr 2011.
Russian to English (M.A. Interpreting & Translation Distinction, verified) Russian to English (Ph.D. Russian Studies, verified) Russian to English (MCIL)
Choose me for your project and I will bring you the benefits of:
My 12 years – and counting – of experience as a professional linguist:
you can trust that I am familiar with the business and can anticipate many of your requirements.
My Distinction in a master's level degree in interpreting and translation:
you have independent corroboration of both my natural talents and my professional training.
My deep familiarity with Russian culture, history and language:
you can have confidence that my output will take account of all the allusions and references in the source.
My precise, polished and punctual translation into my native English:
you can be sure that my translation will read clearly and elegantly, whilst also being correct and delivered on time.
My accurate, clear and confidence-inspiring interpreting:
you can rely on your communication flowing smoothly.
Qualifications
2009
Ph.D. Russian Studies
2002
M.A. (Distinction) Interpreting and Translation, University of Bradford
1997
B.A. (Hons.) Russian and French 2:1, University of Nottingham
Professional Memberships
2011-date
Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (Membership number: 024723)
2012-date
Member of the Society of Authors, and the Translators' Association thereof.
Selected Publications
Translations
June 2014
Roshchin, Mikhail, 'Kidnapping and Hostage Taking between the Two Chechen Wars: 1997-1999';Vachagaev, Mayrbek, 'Sufism in Chechnya: Its Influence on Contemporary Society'.in Anne Le Huérou, Aude Merlin, Amandine Regamey, Elisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski (eds.) Chechnya at War and Beyond (London: Routledge, 2014)
February 2014
Zotova, Natalia, 'Female Migration into Russia from Central Asian Countries: Migrants Researching Migrants.';Abashin, Sergei, 'Nations and Postcolonialism in Central Asia: 20 years later';Rumiantsev. Sergei, 'The State and the Diaspora: Bureaucratic and Discursive Practices in the Construction of a Transnational Community.'in Julien Thorez (ed.) Development in Central Asia and the Caucasus: Migration, Democratisation and Inequality in the Post-Soviet Era (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014)
2013
Captain of the Steppe, my translation of a novel by Oleg Pavlov, published by And Other Stories.
2002
Ural M-72 Owner's Handbook, for Russian Motorcycle Manuals.
Original Work
2010
Uninvited guests in the communal apartment: nation-formation processes among unrecognized Soviet nationalities, Nationalities Papers, Volume 38, Issue 6, pages 847-864
2009
Adel’ Al’-Khadad: The Ancient Russians, Kinokultura, Issue 25
2009
Vladimir Bortko: Taras Bul’ba, Kinokultura, Issue 26
Professional Experience
2002 to date
Freelance interpreter and translator (currently as director, Ian Appleby Ltd)
Translations, written summaries, and interpreting in simultaneous, consecutive and liaison modes, working with Russian sources in a wide range of subject areas.
2008-2009
Teaching Assistant, University of Manchester
Teaching undergraduate level courses on Russian history and culture. As well as using my outstanding presentational skills to convey information in lectures and to facilitate seminars, I also developed the materials used as the basis for both. Other duties involved setting and assessing examinations, and marking coursework.
2004 -2009
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Manchester
A significant proportion of my primary research on the Kuban’ Cossack national movement consisted of my interviewing Russian speakers. My language skills are such that detailed discussions in either spoken or written Russian on, for example, extremely nuanced questions of political and national development present little difficulty.
As well as polishing the research skills demanded by thesis writing, I have also imparted my knowledge to peers and more senior academics through seminars and conference presentations.
2002-2004
First-level multi-lingual IT support technician, CSC, Luton
I employed both problem-solving and people skills in directly liaising with French, English and, occasionally, Russian end-users to instruct them in the correct use of IT software and hardware and to assist them in resolving problems.
1998-2001
EFL teacher and acting director of studies, various employers, Krasnodar and Sochi, Russian Federation.
I taught English as a Foreign Language to students of all ages and abilities, in schools and in corporate environments. I created syllabi, and set and marked examinations.
General Skills and Hobbies
I take a keen interest in free and open-source software. My CAT tool of choice is OmegaT, which is compatible with translation memories from all the major proprietory suppliers of CAT software, including TRADOS. I am familiar with a number of programming languages, and I can easily deal with tags in marked-up texts. My company website is hosted on a box I maintain myself.
I follow developments in new technology, while maintaining an interest in classic cars and, especially, motorcycles. I have a Ural 650 and two MZ machines: a Supa 5 and an ETZ250. I am webmaster for the MZ Riders Club. As a family man, I must own up to having a four wheeler: a Mazda Bongo MPV/Camper van. This vehicle admirably bridges the chasm between classic status and reliable running. I try to reconcile the se interests with my environmental concerns, on the basis that it is greener to keep running an older machine than to scrap it and buy new.
I have two children, and try to adhere to the precepts of attachment parenting, with varying degrees of success. I would particularly enjoy working on projects related to autonomous education, extended breast-feeding, babywearing, and the like.
Portfolio 