Mehmangul Nuri, the daughter of the Soviet prisoner of war Sergei Krasnopyorov, flew to Russia for the first time.
At the same time, she is already a third-year student at the Ural Federal University (UrFU).
The initial training course took place remotely.
"The Internet in our mountains does not work well, intermittently, but I was able to see most of the university lectures," she tells RT.
A young citizen of Afghanistan with Russian roots does not speak Russian.
Therefore, in our conversation, we are helped by Muhadesa, the daughter of the Afghan journalist Ali Kazimi, who is receiving a second education in Yekaterinburg.
She translates that Mehmangul, studying remotely, understood the meaning of the lectures.
“I am ashamed to speak, but to understand - I understand almost everything.
My father taught me a little.
Moreover, the language of mathematics and technology is international, ”the girl explains.
© Photo from personal archive
In her native Chagcharan, the center of the Afghan province of Ghor, Mehmangul, after 12 years of schooling, graduated with honors from programming courses.
“I want to become a programmer.
Information technology is promising in the modern world, ”she says.
In Afghanistan, which has recently been taken over by the Taliban *, the prospects for women to work in information technology, as well as work in general, are dim.
But Mehmangul hopes only for good.
"Sunny" name
Soviet soldier Sergei Krasnopyorov was captured by the mujahideen in 1985.
“As he himself explained, he left the location of his military unit, unable to withstand the bullying of his colleagues,” Vyacheslav Nekrasov, special representative of the Russian Union of Veterans of Afghanistan (RSVA), told RT.
- He, one of the very few of our captive guys, was lucky: he was able to survive in the circumstances and then made a personal choice, stayed in Afghanistan.
Until December 2020, I was in charge of the Russian Center for Science and Culture of Rossotrudnichestvo in Kabul for 4.5 years and met with him several times, I know the story of his life firsthand. "
Sergey Krasnopyorov in August 2011
Gettyimages.ru
© Jerome Starkey
The Afghan field commander, a former school teacher, treated the prisoner humanely.
There were no beatings or humiliations.
True, at first they put shackles on Krasnopyorov at night, but they were removed during the day.
The defector did not participate in the battles against his compatriots, but helped the Afghans to repair and clean their weapons.
The military units of the Soviet troops, shortly after his escape, left the province of Ghor, and then were completely withdrawn from Afghanistan.
And Krasnoperov stayed.
He converted to Islam, learned the language and tried to get used to the local way of life.
The newly minted Afghan took a new name and surname - Nur Momad Nuri.
Nur is translated as light, the sun.
In the bloody Afghan civil war that began after the departure of the Soviet troops, when everyone fought against everyone, the Mujahideen commander who took care of him was killed.
Krasnoperov was given his daughter Aisha to be his wife.
Nur Momad built a house and began to work in two jobs - a road construction foreman and an electrician at a hydroelectric power station.
Earned well by local standards, but there was no happiness.
© youtube.com / SOK.media
Seven children, one after the other, died immediately after birth at Nur Momad and Aisha.
Doctors in Chagcharan, Herat and Kabul were unable to understand the cause of the tragedies.
As if the curse was haunted.
“Krasnoperov told me that he was helped by a healer who was invited by his wife’s relatives to come from afar, from the Panjshir Gorge,” says Vyacheslav Nekrasov.
- He whispered something, gave the husband and wife some sacred amulets and miraculous powders.
Mysticism, of course, but the "magic" worked. "
Nur Momad and Aisha gave birth to and raised six children.
The country is cold but good
“Our eldest Bibigul, then I was born, then Amir Muhammad, Shah Muhammad, Bibitakhera and the younger Rodia,” Mehmangul lists sisters and brothers.
- All of us on the street and at school were called "shuravi" (Soviet. -
RT
).
When quarreling with other children, it sounded like a curse.
But usually just as a definition.
Some were born Pashtuns, some were Hazaras, and we are the children of a Russian. "
About Russia, according to her, her father told me that this country was cold, but good.
The girl herself so far - we talked to her on the fifth day after arrival - did not feel much cold (“We have snow in the mountains in winter and it falls more than it does on the streets in Yekaterinburg now”), but she has already seen a lot of good things.
“You can walk around the city without fear,” she says.
"This is the main thing."
© Photo from personal archive
She should have flown in to study in Russia according to the Rossotrudnichestvo quota last year.
But the borders were closed by the coronavirus pandemic.
When a gap appeared between the "waves" of illness, he and his father arrived in Kabul and found themselves in a hasty flight of American troops and a change of power in Afghanistan.
“We lived in a hotel, the food ran out, but they were afraid to go out,” the girl recalls.
- Shooting was heard, cars with armed people were driving around under the windows all the time.
Nobody knew what would happen in a day, in an hour - everything happened so unexpectedly and terribly.
Then my father began to go out for cakes and water.
When the situation calmed down, we went to the Russian embassy to find out if there would be export flights to Moscow and when.
I had to wear a burka (burqa -
RT
), I don't like it - it is heavy, uncomfortable. "
Due to the unstable situation in the country, there are still no promised export flights for Afghan students studying in Russian universities.
Mehmangul Nuri got there on her own.
“It's simple,” she explains, “we lived in Kabul for so long that my father started running out of money.
They gave me a visa at the Russian Embassy, I received a coronavirus vaccine and flew through Iran to Moscow.
At the airport, at the request of the former head of the Rossotrudnichestvo mission in Kabul, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Nekrasov, I was met by his Afghan friend, and together with him we immediately flew to Yekaterinburg.
At the university I was received very kindly, thanks to the curators, they immediately gave me a place in the hostel.
My roommate Katya is like me.
She also has a Russian dad, and a non-Russian mother, a Kazakh.
We have already become friends. "
After the forced life in Kabul on bread and water due to a long wait for the departure to Russia, Mehmangul noted the gastronomic innovations for her.
“I liked Russian soup, shawarma, and I have never tasted such delicious ice cream in my life.
Shawarma is not a Russian national dish ?!
But I saw that everyone here eats it, so I thought it was your traditional cooking.
Are yours dumplings?
Thanks.
I'll go today and try, ”the girl says.
"You need to know your relatives"
According to Mehmangul, her plans for the near future are simple - to study.
In Afghanistan, she passed a strict preliminary selection, ahead of many who wish to receive a Russian education highly valued in this country.
In Russian universities, 15 thousand budget places are allocated annually for the training of foreign students and postgraduates.
About 350-400 of them were taken by applicants from Afghanistan.
The popularity of Russian education is evidenced by the fact that an average of 17 candidates applied for one place in Russian universities and institutes.
© Photo from personal archive
At the end of October, opening the meeting on Afghanistan in the Moscow format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “An important step we consider the decision to continue full-time education by Afghan students admitted to study at Russian universities.
In the near future we are planning to organize their shipment to Russia ”.
About 70 Afghans are currently studying at the Ural Federal University alone.
Mehmangul has not yet had time to get to know the student "diaspora" of UrFU, but she has no doubts that she will find support from her fellow countrymen and women.
“There is no other way for Afghans,” the girl says.
"I will settle down - I will go to my grandmother"
According to Mehmangul, she is in constant contact with her family.
When communication and the Internet are not "prank", she communicates with her relatives via messengers, tells how her first days in Russia are going.
“Most of all I reassure my mother,” the girl smiles. “She was categorically against my departure to another country.
It was only through the joint efforts of my father, brothers, sisters and my own that we convinced her.
But, probably, not to the end.
Moms, they are probably all like that. "
© Photo from personal archive
Mehmangul speaks sparingly about his plans in the sphere of his personal life: “No“ suitors ”in Afghanistan are waiting for me.
As for getting married, there was no coercion in the family that you!
We are still in Chagcharan - "shuravi".
Both father and mother told me: "You will marry whoever you want and when you want."
Everything is my choice. "
She also has purely "Russian" plans.
“I really want to meet my paternal grandmother Nina,” she says.
- She lives in Kurgan, and her father's half-brother Alexey also lives there.
My grandmother came to visit my dad in Afghanistan in the early 1990s.
The Russian consul and General Dostum (one of the leaders of the Northern Alliance, the head of the Uzbek anti-Taliban armed formations -
RT
) then arranged a meeting for them in Mazar-i-Sharif.
But I never saw my grandmother Nina, I was not born yet.
We talked with her on the phone, she wants to come to me in Yekaterinburg, but she is already very old.
Probably, when I settle in Russia, I myself will go to her.
You need to know your relatives, this is a must in Afghanistan.
Probably, this is the norm in Russia as well ”.
* "Taliban" - the organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.