The Life and Times of Svetlana Grigorevna Ter-Minasova [From the Archives]

Guerrilla History

Henry

Education, History

4.8 • 669 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A very unusual episode, where returning guest-panelist Safine Hakamaki (Née Ashirova) co-hosts an interview with Henry of the esteemed Svetlana Grivorevna Ter-Minasova. In this episode, Henry and Safie discuss the life of Professor Ter-Minasova, from her early childhood during WWII up through the present, where she continues to work as the Founding President of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies at Moscow State University! During this oral-autobiography, we learn why she credits Joseph Stalin with saving her life, what it was like growing up during WWII and the immediate aftermath, and her career as the "Mother" of Soviet (and subsequently Russian) foreign language education. We're sure you'll enjoy!

Svetlana Grigorevna Ter-Minasova is the founder and President of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University, and retains a position as Professor Emeritus at the university. She has been Chairperson of the Foreign Languages Teaching Council (part of the Ministry of Education) since 1987. Among many other credits, she also has been the Founding President of both National Association of Applied Linguistics and National Association of Teachers of English. Her book "Notes by a Soviet Dinosaur", came out in 2015, and has been excerpted in East-West Review.

Safie Hakamaki is a Russian linguist and foreign language educator. You can follow her telegram channel @amusing_musings.

Help support the show by signing up to our patreon, where you also will get bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/guerrillahistory

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, guerrilla history listeners. This is co-host Henry, and today for you we have a very
0:05.2	exciting and special episode from our archives. This episode was recorded over three and a half
0:11.7	years ago, but has only been on our Patreon since that time. Now, a little bit of background
0:17.6	information as to why it has only been on our Patreon for that long
0:21.8	and why we are taking the step to actually release it to the public now.
0:26.7	The episode that you're going to be hearing is titled The Life and Times of Svetlana
0:31.0	Grigorivna Terminasava.
0:33.9	Svetlana Grigorovna is widely regarded as the mother of Soviet foreign language education,
0:40.6	and therefore as a result of being known as the mother of Soviet foreign language education,
0:45.3	is also known as the mother of Russian foreign language education.
0:49.3	She is the founder and president of the faculty of foreign languages and area studies at Lomonas of
0:55.3	Moscow State University, which is the preeminent university in Russia in that field, as well as many
1:02.5	other fields, Moscow State University, as my wife, who is going to be co-hosting this episode
1:08.1	that you'll be listening to. It always reminds me, Moscow State
1:11.5	University is the most prestigious university or the best university in Russia. And I'm going to make
1:17.5	this note up front for her in particular so that she knows I haven't forgotten. That being said,
1:24.1	Svetlana Gugurovna also has been chairperson of the Foreign Language's
1:28.1	Teaching Council, which is part of the Foreign Ministry of Education since 1987, and is still a
1:34.3	professor emeritus at Lomonas of Moscow State University. She's written multiple books.
1:41.4	She has authored numerous papers. There is a very interesting book, which
1:47.5	listeners may find interesting, called Notes by a Soviet Dinosaur, which is a bit of a memoir,
1:53.7	and came out in 2015 and has been excerpted in East-West Review. In this episode, we talk about Svetlana Gregorovna's life and her work.
	...

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