Associate Professor Elena Zernova awarded the Trofeo da Galeguidade no Mundo

Elena Zernova has become the first representative of a non-Spanish-speaking country and the first woman among the recipients of the Galeguidade no Mundo award. She shared her impressions of the award ceremony and talked about the history of the study of Spain’s minority languages in Russia and about the Centre’s new projects.

Could you please tell us about the Trofeo da Galeguidade no Mundo award. What are the award criteria? When was it established and who selects the award recipients?

In brief, the Trofeo da Galeguidade no Mundo is awarded for contributions to the promotion of minority cultures of Spain. These include: Galician, Catalan and Basque cultures. Literally, the name of the prize can be translated as "The Galicianness Award". The word "Galicianness" here refers to the fact that a person who is not a Galician by blood has become a Galician by spirit, having been deeply imbued with Galician culture.

The Trofeo da Galeguidade no Mundo has been awarded since 1987. The award was established by a committee of the heads of the Centres for Galician culture and the Supreme Council of the "Orde da Vieira". Among the recipients, for example, is the famous Spanish author, the Nobel Prize winner Camilo José Sela. The jury of the award is composed of prominent people of Galician and Catalonian descent from various fields: medicine; cinema; and journalism.

What did you feel when you received the invitation? How was the trip?

The invitation to Madrid came as a complete surprise to me. To be honest, I had complex feelings about this trip, bearing in mind the situation in the world. To my surprise, the event was a high-level reception where I was treated with respect regardless of the current agenda.

The official letter of introduction reads: ‘To Elena Zernova for her dedication to Galician culture and Galician studies in the Department of Romance Philology at St Petersburg University, where she heads the Centre for Galician Studies. In addition to teaching Galician, she is engaged in scholarly research. Her translations of Galician literature have been published since 1995’. This is not just recognition of personal merits, this is the recognition of the University’s traditions, which speaks volumes.

Until this year, the Trofeo da Galeguidade no Mundo was awarded only to representatives of Hispanic nations. Moreover, there was not a single woman among the recipients. As I was told, I am the first representative of a country that is not an Ibero-American nation to receive the award. It is, indeed, a great honour for me.

What is the attitude towards Russia’s culture in Spain today?

I did not feel any negative attitude at all. Moreover, at the award ceremony, many people expressed their appreciation of Russian culture. Miguel Ángel Santalices, President of the Parliament of Galicia, received the Trofeo da Galleguidade in 2023 on behalf of the Parliament of Galicia, which was awarded in the category for organisations. In his speech, Miguel Ángel Santalices mentioned that he was happy that Galicia’s best authors are translated into the language of Anton Chekhov and Fyodor Dostoevsky. The underlying message was that it is very valuable for Spain to have its authors translated into the language of great Russian literature. Throughout the award ceremony, names of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov, Anna Akhmatova, and Vladimir Nabokov were mentioned repeatedly.

It is noteworthy that even in today’s challenging circumstances, the University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia’s main university, is willing to receive our Hispanists on their Summer Spanish Language Courses for Foreign Students.

Furthermore, the Representative Office of St Petersburg University in Barcelona, which I helped to open four years ago, is as usual active and busy, holding a huge number of lectures, no matter what.

Why do you think such an attitude towards our country prevails in Spain even today? Can it be based on historical memory?

It is difficult to say for sure, as I am not an expert in this field. During the almost 40 years of Franco’s dictatorship, all minority cultures of Spain were banned. For decades, people were denied the freedom to speak their mother tongue. Everyone had to speak only Castilian, which is what we habitually call Spanish.

Interestingly, in 1941, when Spain was ruled by General Franco and the minority cultures were banned, "Essays on the history of the languages of Spain" — the first book in the world in which Galician, Basque and Catalan were treated as distinct languages in their own right — was published in the Soviet Union. This book, by the way, is still being reprinted today. Its author was Academician Vladimir Shishmarev, an outstanding philologist, professor of our University. He was at the forefront of the Russian school of Romance Studies and Cultural Studies of minority cultures of Spain at St Petersburg University. As a side note, Academician Shishmarev received the Lenin Prize for his work. Importantly, the University was able to approach the issue from various academic angles, the way real scholars should do. I talked about this in my acceptance speech after receiving the award.

For her contribution to the development of culture and popularisation of the minority languages of Spain, Elena Zernova was named a member of the Orde da Vieira.

With the death of General Franco in 1975 and the subsequent fall of his regime, a slow and deliberate process of revitalisation of Galician, Catalan and Basque cultures began. This is specifically written in the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

I can assume that Spaniards will not forget that the Soviet Union came to aid the Spanish Republicans in their combat against Francoism during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). They will also remember Russian scholars’ contribution to the study of minority cultures of Spain at a time when they were forbidden even in Spain itself.

What projects have you been working on in recent years and what are your plans for the future?

Without a doubt, the main work has been the 21st volume of the Anthology of Galician Literature, which presents to the Russian readership a collection of literary works from the Middle Ages to the present day. My translations of such famous Galician authors as Alfredo Conde and Manuel Rivas were published separately. I have translated the novel The Accordionist’s Son by the Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga. He has won international critical acclaim and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. I have translated a few novels of the classic of Catalan literature Santiago Rusiñol and a novel by a contemporary, popular Catalan author Jaume Cabré. In total, 12 volumes of the Anthology of Catalan literature have been published under my supervision.

Recently, I have been approached by a bestselling Galician author Bibiana Candia. Her novel Sugar has gained immense popularity in Spain and has already been translated into several languages. The novel was first released in September 2021. Then, it was reprinted in November and again in December that year. The books were sold out instantly. The plot is very interesting. The story is set in the middle of the 19th century. In search of a better life, a large group of young people from Galicia (1,700 people) went to Cuba, where they fell into slavery. The novel is based on real-life events that are of importance for understanding the Galician emigration processes. Yet, that story has not been reflected in fiction until recently. For these reasons, the book is highly appreciated by the Spanish. The author called me and offered to translate her novel; and I am going to agree.