BELIEVING IN ONESELF

by Natalya Krasavtseva

Lidia Vasilievna Suvorova is a Karelian government consultant on social issues and works with women's organizations. She was born in l946 in northern Kazakhstan. Her father was in the military and the family moved from one place to another (Central Asia, the Caucases, the Far North). She is Russian by nationality and a historian by profession. Tell us about your childhood and youth. I moved around a lot, changing schools and meeting new people, and this left its mark on my character and interests. In childhood when I lived in the Far North, I skated and skiied and took part in competitions. In l964 I found myself in Karelia and entered the university in Petrozavodsk, the history department. By the time I finished in l969 I already had a husband and daughter. The Ministry of Education assigned me to work on problems of local history and folklore and excursions and school museums. I started work at the republic's base for children's excursions and tourism where I was first the specialist and then the director. I organized competitions and other activities which took place mostly on weekends and holidays, so I had to work a lot even though I had a young child. We didn't ask for extra pay, we were absorbed in our work. Then I taught history in a school, and on weekends my pupils and I loved to go skiing. I was always doing some kind of community work, for the Komsomol (the youth organization under Communist Party direction -- editor), and then for six years in the trade union where I headed the housing commission of the republic's Ministry of Education. At one time I worked in a technical school, the major one in Karelia, as deputy director of children's upbringing. So I am well acquainted with the problems of our schools. Then I worked in the central council of the trade unions in the cultural department, on youth and family matters. Since l992 I have been a government consultant on social issues. I have contact with many non-governmental organizations (women's, youth, veterans) and I always try to meet them halfway, since they are working to benefit our society. For me this is fulfilling work. What are your successes and failures? To its credit our republic has created a commission to improve the situation of women. The government here understands the significance of women's problems. Your plans for the future? I would like the government structures to work together with the non-governmental organizations. I would like to see the women's movement develop an overall program and consolidate its forces. It's too bad this hasn't happened yet -- each organization is working for itself. No serious proposals have yet come forth for the legislature and for the Russian government. I see the women's movement in Karelia as having developed more or less spontaneously in the mid l990's: first there appeared a leader around whom a group then formed (meaning the Union of Women of Karelia -- editor). The conditions are not yet altogether favorable to community work. There are no training programs for women in this kind of work. The problem of community activity in the workplace, in factories, needs to be resolved. I get around and I see very few young people participating. Young women need things to do, they have to believe in themselves and they must have the last word. Women's organizations require even more support. Interview by Larisa Boichenko