A familiar voice was heard in Tbilisi

Radio journalist Levan Tvaltvadze reports on Finnish events in Russian

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By Kaija Virta
     
      Levan Tvaltvadze is up at 4:15 A.M. in order to catch the train to Pasila from Järvenpää.
     He enjoys travelling by train. "When I first came to Finland and was asked what I like over here, I always said that I like the trains. I was surprised that the trains were in such good shape in Finland."
     Tvaltvadze reads the newspaper on his way to work. The news, leading articles, and especially information about the nightlife feature in the live broadcast of the Russian service of YLE at 7.36 A.M.
     Four daily broadcasts are aired in the Helsinki metropolitan area and around the world.
     "When I visited Tbilisi last summer, my uncle, who listens to the radio a lot, told me he had recognised my voice one day. He had run to tell everyone that it was his nephew on the air."
     The experience was not unique for the family. Tvaltvadze's brother is the sports commentator for the Russian TV station RTR Sport.
     
Sports gave Levan his first contact with Finland as a young Muscovite.
     "I fell in love with Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen when I was twelve. A blond girl skied in Sarajevo with snowflakes falling from the sky. We Georgians are famously attracted to blondes."
     The love faded due to the unfavourable circumstances. But when Tvaltvadze went to university to study English and his study group was assigned Finnish as a secondary subject, it did not seem repulsive to him. "I immediately thought of skiing and ice hockey."
     Speaking Finnish seemed difficult at first. Tvaltvadze decided to learn by singing. Finnish exchange students in Moscow sent him a few records, and Ressu Redford's Ole mulle laskeutumisvalo ("Be My Landing Light") soon became Tvaltvadze's favourite. The distinctly Finnish long vowels were especially to his liking.
      Laskeutumisvalo may have also made a decisive impression on a certain blonde - his current Finnish wife.
     
Tvaltvadze has lived in Finland already for ten years and worked for Jule Radio Finljandija since 2001. Tvaltvadze also occasionally writes about Russian sports for the sports section of Helsingin Sanomat.
     He has a cheerful voice, which gets an extra dose of spunk during the sports news.
     Being cheerful is not always a given. "Well imagine how easy it is to stay positive, having to get up at four every morning! Sometimes I feel like I do not have the energy for this. But the feeling slowly passes on the train, and I regain my rhythm."
     Humour is a part of Russian culture, according to Tvaltvadze. "In Russia people are always telling anecdotes. In Finland the only anecdotes are in the magazine Pirkka."
     Sometimes Tvaltvadze tells Finnish Pikku-Kalle jokes [in which the main character is a small boy whose childhood innocence is juxtaposed to punch lines with a sexual or scatological significance] on his show. Russian listeners are delighted: not all of them were sure whether Finns knew how to laugh or not. His friends understand Tvaltvadze's needs, and have given him joke books for his birthday.
     Tvaltvadze is 34. The father of two school-aged daughters already looks at young people from a distance. "My favourite assignment of the week is hosting the Molodjoznyi forum, a young people's discussion forum. It involves Russian-speakers living in Finland discussing the world's events. They see things with their own eyes, young, modest, unpolluted eyes, and speak their mind."
     A program dealing with everyday concerns is also coming soon, where Russian speakers in Finland can get professional advice on their everyday problems. Tvaltvadze has found the programme extremely necessary. "One woman asked what she should do when someone had posted a death threat on her door - in an ordinary apartment building with nice neighbours."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.3.2006


Links:
  YLE Russian service

Helsingin Sanomat