My soul belongs to Sarajevo

Her husband is from Sarajevo, and they met while he was working in her hometown of Moscow.

- After my studies in chemistry and a master’s in economics, I worked as a financial director for a big company, and, ever since we started our relationship, I knew my husband was planning a return to Bosnia. After seven years together in Moscow, we moved here with our two children.

Intriguing city

She found Sarajevo intriguing even back when the ’84 WOG were held in our city.

- As soon as I arrived, I was aware that strong Yugoslavia had been broken into small states. I was shocked by how scarred BiH and its residents were, so, for a while, I was always crying, and that pain will remain with me.

At first, she missed the opportunities of Moscow, but, with time, she has changed her way of life, and the city has also changed.

- When we first came, the kids were little, and they didn’t have as many extracurricular activities as we had wanted. Later, our daughter started taking ballet lessons with Edina Papo and doing boxing, our son plays the guitar….

While everyone in Moscow is rushing, Nataliya has gotten used to our mentality and the expression, “polako” (take it easy).

- It’s cute to see young people hanging out in cafes for hours, and sometimes I feel like I’m at a protest among all the walkers who are jammed into Čaršija. Early on, whenever I watched the Lud, Zbunjen, Normalan comedy show with friends, everyone was laughing except me. Now that I know Bosnians better, I laugh in the right places.

Having painted since childhood, she stopped her studies in Russia because of a vision problem.

- That love never faded, so I finished as a gold-star student at the Academy of Fine Arts, where I work as a professor.

She has had shows at Roman Petrović Gallery, Preporod…, and she thinks Vijećnica, the Historical Museum, the in Počitelj… all have great exhibit spaces.