Anna Romanovna Mouradova, born December 12, 1972 in Moscow, is a Russian writer and translator who learned Breton aged 15 and taught Breton at Moscow University. She translated Russian authors such as Chekhov, Gabriadze, Astafiev, Tendriakov, or Gogol into Breton, before writing her own works in Breton and in Russian - short stories set in today's Russia.
In 2016, she moved to Tbilisi, Georgia, to reconnect with her father's Assyrian and Georgian culture. But also due to her disagreement of Putin's war in Ukraine. She worked at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, Mykolaiv. She has many friends in Ukraine.
In 2021, her application for Georgian citizenship was denied despite her having family there. In March 2023, her residence permit, which she had to renew every year, was also refused. She appealed this decision.
This appeal, that was due to take place on July 12, had been postponed until December because of a typing error by a Georgia judicial system employee. The problem was that Anna had to leave Georgia before the end of July, and this, even if this decision was under appeal. She therefore risked being deported to the country where she was born: Russia. Being against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she risked prison... or worse.
In regular contact with Breton publishers of books in Breton, Anna has always kept close ties with Brittany since her studies in Rennes in the 1990s. She is also a correspondent for the web media Agence Bretagne Presse where she writes in Breton. She is one of the three women from the east in the movie Teir flac’h deuet eus ar reter, Three women from the East a documentary in Breton, directed by Bruno Deniel-Laurent and broadcast by France 3 television channel last May.
It is thanks to the intervention of the MP Paul Molac, also a member of the Regional Council of Brittany, who took it upon himself to write to the French Embassy in Tbilisi, that Anna Mouradova obtained a residence visa in France. A type D visa (long-stay visa), lasting 6 months, which even allows her to work. She left Georgia today and arrived in Brest where some Bretons were there to welcome her.
The Skoazell Vreizh association has decided to help her financially to cover her lawyer fees and her Tbilisi-Brest flight. She should arrive on July 28 and will stay in Brest. If you'd like to help Anna, you can send a donation to Skoazell Vreizh, 2 rue Amiral Emeriau, Carhaix 29270, France.
