Arina Chubova: "Russian students work at Akkuyu NPP construction site in Turkey"

On October 25-27, the All-Russian Students' Teams Rally will take place in Moscow. The starting point of the student teams movement was 1959, when 339 volunteer students from Faculty of Physics of Lomonosov Moscow State University went to Kazakhstan to develop virgin land during their summer holidays. At its peak, the number of the movement's members exceeded 830 thousand people. Students worked in all spheres of the national economy, on the territory of all the Soviet republics until 1991. The movement of modern student teams revived in 2004. Russian students were involved in the construction of facilities for the APEC 2012 summit on Russky Island, the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, the Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2018 World Cup.

Member of the Bosphorus international construction team (construction of Akkuyu NPP in Turkey) Arina Chubova told Vestnik Kavkaza about her work.

- How did you get into the student team?

- People who worked with construction teams told me about it, and I decided it's what I need, I want to try it. I came there intentionally, realizing what it means and how I should work there. International experience was also one of my goals. The experience of international construction projects is fundamentally different: it includes interaction with the general contractor, another language. In Turkey, we used three languages for communication: Turkish, English and Russian. Therefore, I had to improvise somehow in order to understand what they want from me. All this develops your professional skills. In addition, Turkey is a very multifaceted country with a rich history. Working there is a pleasure. Every weekend we traveled around the country, Cappadocia was especially remembered. I have long wanted to go there, see hot balloons at sunrise. It was awesome. I remember Istanbul - a "magic ball" in which everyone can find something to their liking. We also visited small towns with a rich history.

- What was your job?

- I was an assistant to the chief engineer, I was constantly on hand. I mean office work, doing official correspondence with contractors, establishing relationships ...

- Did you choose Turkey yourself?

- When filling out the questionnaire for the competition, we chose the directions that are most interesting to us, and the commission chose where to send us. Five people got to the Akkuyu construction: from Kazan, Moscow, Perm and Vologda, and I'm from Tomsk.

- Weren't you scared at the nuclear power plant?

- No. We didn’t even think about it. First, the station is under construction, and second, nuclear power plants of a higher safety class are built now. There is nothing to be afraid of.

- Will you return to Turkey or will there be other directions?

- Now I work at the Titan-2 concern company, which is a construction contractor in Turkey. But I live in Sosnovy Bor for now, because my boyfriend is a doctor, and it's not very promising for him to go there. However, I was invited to the Republic of Turkey, they said I am welcome anytime, that they would be glad to have such an employee.