Fiona Hill

And as I studied Russian history, I discovered there was lots of contacts between Bolshevik Soviet Union in the early period after the Russian Revolution, but even before that, during the Imperial period in Russia between the Northern England and the Russian Empire in the old industrial areas.

Basically big industrial areas like the Northeast of England,

And places like Donbass were built up at the same time, often by the same sets of industrialists.

And Donetsk in the Donbass region used to be called Husevca because it was established by a Welsh industrialist who brought in miners from Wales to help develop the coal mines there and also the steelworks and others that we're hearing about all the time.

And so I got very fascinated in all these linkages and, you know, famous writers from the early parts of the Soviet Union, like Evgeny Zamyatin, worked in the shipyards in Newcastle-Pontine.

And there was just this whole set of connections.

And in 1984...

When the miners' strike took place, the miners of Donbass, along with other miners from famous coal regions like the Ruhr Valley, for example, in Germany, or miners in Poland, sent money in solidarity to the miners of County Durham.

And there'd been these exchanges, as I said, going back and forth since the 1920s, formal exchanges between miners of the region, the miners' unions.

And I heard, again from the same great uncle who told me to study Russian, that there were actually scholarships for the children of miners, and it could be former miners as well, for their education.

And I should go along to the miners' hall, a place called Red Hills, where the miners of County Durham had actually studied.

pooled all of their resources and built up their own parliament and their own, you know, kind of place that they could talk among themselves to figure out how to enhance the welfare and well-being of their communities.

And they'd put money aside for education for minors.

There was all kinds of lecture series from the minors and all kinds of other activities supporting soccer teams and artistic circles and writing circles, for example.

People like George Orwell, you know, were involved in some of these writer's circles in other parts of Britain and minor communities, for example.

And so they told me I could go along and basically apply for a grant to go to study Russian.

So I show up and it was the easiest application I've ever come across.

They just asked me to, my dad came along with me.

They asked me to verify that my dad had been a miner and they looked up his employment record on little cards, kind of a little tray somewhere.

And then they asked me how much I needed to basically pay for the travel fee.