Siddhartha Sarkar
Siddhartha Sarkar is a surgeon from Kolkata. He spent eight years studying in Tver and St. Petersburg, where he received his medical degree. Today he owns a Telegram channel in Russian where he posts videos dedicated to support for Russia and the beauty of Russian nature.
– What made you decide to get your medical training in Russia?
– I graduated from Tver State Medical University. Then I moved to St. Petersburg to have my residency training in general surgery. The Indian state of West Bengal was regarded as a communist state for a long time. It was governed by a coalition of leftist parties for 34 years. My parents and grandparents were all communists. Since I was a child I knew about the USSR. I saw beautiful postcards with views of Moscow and dreamed of going there. Furthermore, I knew that education in Russia was very good. So I really wanted to go to Russia. Even though today the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore, Russia is still proud of its past.
– When you arrived in Russia for your studies, what were your first impressions? How did the local residents treat you?
– In Russia, I have never been treated in a negative way for having a darker skin color. I have never felt discriminated against in this respect. There are certainly a lot of misconceptions about Russia. For instance, once, on campus, we were told that Airborne Forces Day would be celebrated and that it was unsafe to go out on that day as we might encounter aggressive people. Still, I went for a walk because I was curious to see how they celebrated the holiday. No one harmed me. Instead, they came up, greeted me, and asked where I was from and what my life was like in Russia.
There is a concept of the second homeland. I can confirm that Russia is truly a second homeland for me. It gave me an education and a wife.
Siddhartha Sarkar and his wife on the Indian Ocean shore
– Russia has long had a good fellowship with India. Have you experienced it?
– Yes, indeed, I've always sensed that! My wife is Russian. When I came to meet her relatives, her grandmother hugged me cordially and told me that she had loved India since the days when Indian movies were screened in the USSR.
In fact, I was frequently helped in the most unexpected circumstances in Russia. For instance, one day my car stalled. I was an inexperienced driver back then and did not know what to do. I was seven kilometers away from home. Suddenly, an expensive foreign-made car stopped nearby. A man came out and asked me: "What's wrong, brother? Do you need help?" He sat in the driver's seat of my car but couldn't get it started either. So he used a tow wire and pulled my car back to my house. When I asked him about payment, he just smiled and said: "You live in Russia, don't you? You love Russia, don't you? Those are the most important things to me."
And when I used to go to the car service center in St. Petersburg and the mechanics knew that I was a student, they would always offer me at least some discount on the fees…
– You said in one of your videos recorded to support the Russians after the launch of the special operation that your teacher at the V.A. Almazov National Medical Research Center was from Donbass. So, you are aware of what has been going on there over the course of the last eight years.…
– Yes, he was born in Severodonetsk. He moved to Russia after the events of 2014. He couldn't visit his homeland all these years as he was afraid to go there. He share that all doctors had been forced to stop using Russian and write medical records in Ukrainian, even though all of his patients spoke only Russian. And it was impossible to get equivalents of all of the medical terms in Ukrainian.
After that, I started looking for information about the past events in Donbass and current developments. All the information I found out touched my heart very deeply because the situation reminded me of the history of my family.
"A human being has the supreme right to speak his or her mother tongue."
My father was born in Bangladesh. There was a language-based genocide as well. UNESCO established the International Mother Language Day on February 21 to commemorate the atrocities of 1952 when the Pakistani police massacred those who wanted Bengali to be an official language in East Pakistan (Bangladesh since 1971). They were simply shot dead just because of their desire to speak Bengali, rather than being forced to speak Urdu. That's why I perfectly understand the residents of Donbass. They also want to speak Russian. They are shot and killed just because they are Russian. I can't tolerate that as a human being has the supreme right to speak his or her mother tongue.
– Was that the reason behind your decision to launch the Matreshka and Medved Telegram Channel in Russian, to support and explain Russia's position?
– Yes, it was. However, the above reason is not the only one. Actually, I really love the Russian language. Despite the fact that my wife is an English teacher by profession, we speak Russian at home. I think that Russian enables you to express your feelings in a much more comprehensive way. I find it also easier to express my emotions in Russian.
– And what perception of Russia do you see in the local media?
– I want to distinguish between the media and the opinions of ordinary people. The local media are sponsored by Western companies and promote their point of view. However, most ordinary people support Russia because Indians believe that it is our duty. In 1971, at the time of the Indo-Pakistani conflict, the whole world was against India. Then the Soviet Union sent its navy into the Indian Ocean to block the U.S. from intervening in the conflict on Pakistan's side. Bangladesh got its independence as a result of that conflict. And if it had not been for the help of the Soviet Union, it is frightful to think of what would have happened to India and the Indian people.
Furthermore, Russia is a country with no intention to interfere in Indian domestic politics, unlike the U.S. and Britain. Besides, it is London that is for some reason a runaway destination for all those political and business fraudsters who cheated a lot of people, including in India. And they always find protection from the law there. All British museums are filled with treasures brought out of India, and the crowns of their kings are decorated with Indian diamonds.
West Bengal suffered a great deal because of the actions taken by Britons and Americans. They started a civil war between Hindus and Muslims. As a result, more than a hundred thousand people were killed. My great-grandfather was also killed by the Britons. All reasonable people who know their history remember this.
Everybody understands today that Russia is not at war with Ukraine, Russia is at war with the West. Russia is the only country that can stand up to the West today in an alliance with India and China.
