Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Dr. Victoria Clement was a Russian language student in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) in 1991 and witnessed firsthand the final days of the Soviet Union, leaving the day before Gorbachev announced its dissolution. As the USSR broke up, she developed an interest in language politics—specifically the native languages and customs of Central Asia—and spent several years teaching and conducting research in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and serving as a policy specialist for the U.S. embassy there. Throughout her travels, Victoria has lived with families in Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Russia, giving her a unique perspective on everyday life across Eurasia, which she shares in her lectures on tour. 

Victoria is currently the Russia military and political strategy subject matter expert at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare at Marine Corps University in Quantico, VA. She has taught courses on Central Asia and Eurasia at the Naval Postgraduate School, the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana, and Ohio State University, as well as the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. Her book Learning to Become Turkmen: Literacy, Language, and Power, 1914-2014, was the first book in English to be based on research in Turkmenistan’s archives.