Natalia was born and raised in Siberia in Russia. She earned her first degree as a Philologist / Teacher of Russian Language and Literature from Kemerovo State University, Russia, 1978-1983. She began working in schools as a teacher of Russian Language and Literature in Siberia, and later as a Teacher of Russian Literature at Kemerovo State University. She moved then to Krasnodar City near the Black Sea where she continued to work at Linguistic School as a Teacher of Russian language and Literature and as Head of the school publishing centre. Being involved in Regional and Federal innovative pedagogical projects, Natalia worked as a Lecturer at the Institute of Teachers’ Professional development in Krasnodar. She has authored and co-authored manuals on Russian Literature for Russian students, as well as articles on teaching methodology, and was a winner of a ‘Pedagogical Innovations Award’ under the Education Ministry of the Russian Federation in 2002. More recently, she also gained some experience in publishing business when heading a Publishing House and working as a chief-editor in Moscow in 2005.
She then came to the UK to study languages and earned an MA in TESOL from the University of Westminster, and she has remained in London developing her career as a teacher of IB Russian Language A at Southbank International School, an IB World School. Natalia has supervised a number of Extended Essays during the past ten years including: “A dilemma of a true and false freedom in ‘Master and Margarita’ by M.Bulgakov” («Проблема подлинной и мнимой свободы в романе М.А.Булгакова «Мастер и Мартгарита»); “A path to the repentance in the light of Russian Classic Literature tradition in ‘The Island’ by D. Sobolev” («Путь к покаянию в свете традиции русской классической литературы в сюжете повести Дм. Соболева «Остров»); “Christmas stories in Literature of 19-20 centuries: formation or destruction of a genre?” («Рождественский рассказ в литературе 19-20 вв.: становление или разрушение жанра?»); and “Pelevin’s phenomenon: kitsch, pop-Buddhism or the encyclopedia of a new Russian life?” («Феномен Пелевина: китч, поп-буддизм или энциклопедия новой русской жизни?»). She has done previous SSST Russian A supervision with students in Thailand.