— Sholpan, did the news about the beginning of the war come as a surprise to you, or did you suspect that this would happen? May be, certain geopolitical developments were more obvious to you as a historian?
— The thing is that I, like many others, lived in my own world, focusing only on my work. My specialty is museum studies, and I was completely immersed in my favourite profession. The modern geopolitics are not within the scope of my scientific interest, I was out of the context of the current agenda. It is hard to follow all the news, you risk encountering a lot of unverified information, so I avoided this. I organized exhibitions, studied and taught art history. That is, I lived in my own world, full of creativity and interesting people. Therefore, the events that broke out a year ago were a great shock. Everything what was happening, as well as people’s reactions to the news, just pulled the rug from under my feet. For a long period, I was in depressed state which was impossible to overcome. Thinking back of this difficult period, I regret that I did not come to the project earlier. It will soon be one year old. It’s hard to be alone with your fears. I could have coped with these emotions better next to those who share them. I’m glad that I found people who understand.