Evgenia Diakonenko

For me, four years here became a formative stage—I chose a specialty (art history and architecture), met people who became my close friends, and experienced how wonderful it is when teachers not only give lectures and administer exams, but also force you to think, provoke you, and joke while revealing unfamiliar places in your favorite city and teaching you to love your region. These teachers become outstanding mentors and even friends.

It is difficult to learn discipline and organization here—this is a big minus. However, freedom is taught here. Those few who manage not to relax in the liberal environment but rather take advantage of it, ultimately extract a lot of useful things. I was not at all disappointed in my choice, and those small talents and abilities that I discovered in myself pushed me to continue my studies in the field I chose. Unforgettable, colorful lessons in museums with Ivan Chechot greatly assisted me in the future during my graduate studies at the University of Warwick in London. I was not at all afraid to "work" with objects from European collections with my course mates and teachers.

I would call the period of my study in St. Petersburg eclectic with an element of romanticism. There was incredible intertwining and often, maybe it only seemed like it, incongruity of disciplines filled with the spirt of freedom and aesthetic pleasure, as well as horror from thinking "what do I do next?" Later, I was able to sort through everything and fill in the gaps. But the process of education is eternal, and I still study today in the context of my favorite work.