WHERE DOES MOTHERLAND BEGIN?

I was born in the USSR, in the Soviet Army, I gave the oath of allegiance to this state. This large and, alas, no longer existing country can be proud of the great pages of its history and is ashamed of the black pages. But it was our country, and still for the majority of people of our generation, both Riga and Moscow and Tbilisi remain our cities. Both Ukraine and Russia are my homeland ... I hope that the current troubled times between them will soon pass away and we will again be brothers.

There is also a small homeland, this is my native Donetsk. With warmth, I remember my mother's village in Zaporizhzhi, where I lived many happy days established in the years, Kharkov, Lviv, Kiev, Crimea and the Carpathians. The Aurora cruiser burst into my life Leningrad Petersburg. Fate brought me there more than once in the past and then made a "knight's move", having thrown me into the city on Neva for a long time, and maybe forever.

Why "knight's move"? Because at first she abandoned me very far from the territory of the former USSR, to South America. And after that, the doors of Europe and now a few of the exotic countries of Asia and Africa opened for me. Naturally, in some of these countries I not only traveled, but also lived, worked, held exhibitions of my paintings. Life has forced me to improve my English, to master the minimum supply of phrases in German, French, Italian, Portuguese. Spanish began to compete for a place of honor in my head with my native Ukrainian. Some countries have become almost my family. So, let the patriots of Ukraine forgive me, I am now not only a Ukrainian and a Soviet person, but also, to some extent, a citizen of the world.

MY FAVORITE COUNTRIES, POPULATIONS AND LANGUAGES.

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I- The first group of "MY COUNTRIES" includes three states in which I lived or visited often for a long time,

I have documents for residing in them. Listed cities in which I visited more than once..​

1. Ukraine, 1964-1999 (Ocheretovata village in Zaporozhye region, cities ; Donetsk, Lviv, Kharkiv, Kiev, Gurzuf, Foros, Simeiz, Alupka (I refer to Ukraine and Ukraine to disputed territories about the disputed territories), because I lived there in those times when they were still Ukrainian Just as Russia is classified as “my country,” because, as I was born and lived for a long time in a country of which Russia was a part, I still live now).

2. Russia, 2010-2018 (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov Veliky).

3. Argentina, 2000-2010 (Buenos Aires, Bunfeld, Santa Teresita, Paraná, Villa Carlos Paz, Mendoza, Bariloche, Puerto Iguazu, Ushuaia).

II- The second group "ALMOST MY COUNTRIES" includes two countries in which I often visited, about 8-10 times, and each time lived for 2-3 months, speak languages;

1. Brazil, 2003-2018 (Bertioga, San Paolo, Il'abela, Ilyagrande, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Buzios, Salvador Baya, Recife, Porto Galinhas, San Luis.

2. Spain, 2007-2018 (Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Logrone, Pamplona, ​​Santander, Oviedo, Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedra, Valladolid, Palencia, Salamanca, Seville, Malaga. Toree del Mar. Islands; Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Mayorca.

III- The third group of "COUNTRIES I'VE TRAVELED" includes 15 countries, in which I have been more than once or have traveled to several cities. In a number of countries, I have mastered the basic languages, in others I did not even try ....

1. Hungary; 1983-1985 (Asod,), 2014 (Budapest, Hevez). 2. Bulgaria, 1996, 1997 (Albena). 3. Poland 1994-, 1997 (Lodz, Krakow). 4. Holland. 1999 (Amsterdam).

5. Germany 1998, 2003, 2005, 2012. (Hanover, Hamburg, Chemnitz, Lübeck). 6. Italy; 2011, 2017 (Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Rome). 7. Portugal 2008. city (Porto, Lisbon, Lagos). 8. France 2006, 2007, 2013. (Paris, Marseille, Cannes).

9. Switzerland, 2004. 2014. (Zurich, Geneva, Nyen, Montreux, Lausanne).10. Peru. 2009. (Lima, Ica, Puno, Cusco, Machupikchu).

11. Bolivia 2008 city (Cochabamba, La Paz, Potosi, Uyuni, Lake Titicaca). 12 Morocco. 2012 city (Tangier, Kasaboanka, Rabat, Al Jadida, Marakesh). 13. Thailand. 2012, 2017 city (Bang Kok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, islands; Koh Chang, Samui, Phangan). 14. Israel. 2012 city (Jerusalem, Nazareth, Tiberias, Eilat, Tel Aviv). In addition to the countries listed above, I visited another two dozen countries with brief visits or general travel.

Photo-series about my travels.

More about my travels

can be found in my website

LANGUAGE

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The main language in which I speak and think this Russian, it was spoken by 99% of the inhabitants of the city in which I was born lived half a life, it was owned by all citizens of the USSR and it was convenient for communication .. The Ukrainian language has been my second for a long time, visiting I pretty easily moved to Babushchinka village or to a session in Lviv to read Russian, and in the school I had an even higher grade in Ukrainian literature than in Russian. In a number of countries I mastered the local languages ​​in a basic way, in others I didn’t even try .. The years of life in Argentina, traveling in South America and Spain led to a decent knowledge of Spanish. The next degree of knowledge and use is English, outside of Spain, Portugal and South America use it. Frequent visits to Brazil have helped to master the Portuguese, in addition, it is similar to Spanish. Italic has a similarity with Spanish, for two trips to Italy helped to master this language a little. At the time of my visits to Poland, I could communicate primitively in Polish. Same with German. I know several phrases in French, Bulgarian, Hungarian .....