With three degrees, he drove a bus in Slovakia. The Ukrainian now does what he loves

Ukrainian version | Slovak version

A work in sales for many years exhausted Evgeny Furman so much that he ended up having back pain. In the hope of fixing his health, the Ukrainian decided to leave for an island.

Khortytsia, a large island in Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine, became his home for two weeks. Here, he lived in a tent, trained for hours, ate and slept little, and learned an old type of Cossack combat training. Ukrainian Cossacks were warriors who led a nomadic life. One of their centres was in Khortytsia. This experience soon led Furman to discover Alpha Gravity, a rope-based bodyweight exercise inspired by Cossack training.

“I picked it up in Odessa and have been practising for 11 years,” the Odessan tells The Slovak Spectator.

Moreover, he established a company, Octopus for Alfa Gravity, to promote the training in Ukraine. His wife, who is a trained psychologist, often accompanied him on his trips. Thanks to her recommendation as well as his observations of people’s reactions in workout sessions, which ranged from a laugh to a cry, he later began to delve into the study of psychoanalysis to understand a connection between the body and the psyche.

“I saw how the unconscious fears of a person manifested themselves in practice,” he says.

One day, at a sports festival in his hometown where he presented Alpha Gravity, some parents noticed him, and before long a job offer from a local kindergarten landed on his table. He accepted it. By that time, Furman had already received his third university degree. After law and finance, he obtained a degree in physical education teaching. It was during his studies that he managed to write a work to help people understand and practise Alpha Gravity and its key elements: health, sport, body orientation, rehabilitation, and work with children.

“I’m very proud of it,” the Ukrainian says.

But he had a dream of spreading the word about the Ukrainian workout beyond his homeland. Therefore, in 2021, he visited Slovakia for a few weeks, hoping to find the country attractive enough to make it a home for his family and a base for his business in the near future.

“I needed a country from where I could easily and quickly get almost everywhere,” Furman explains.

He eventually returned to Slovakia hours before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 of last year.

Evgeny Furman. (source: Sofia Yurasova)

From driving a bus to teaching

The Ukrainian, later reunited with his wife and two small children, found his new home in Nitra. Here, he at first began to work as a bus driver.

“Due to my poor Slovak, I could not have gotten a better job,” he notes. However, the Ukrainian only lasted several months as a bus driver. He says that he missed interactions with people. “I was probably the most chatty bus driver,” he thinks, laughing.

As days went by, Furman’s Slovak was also improving. He spent hours listening to Slovak music, films, audio books, and even TV shows such as “Oteckovia” (Dads).

“I watched the first episode of the television series more than 50 times,” he claims. “I was listening to what was said in the episode and immediately repeated everything.”

When Furman was learning Slovak, his son David also studied it with him. As a result, he did not have a problem integrating in a Nitra kindergarten. They practise Alpha Gravity together in Nitra, too. Furman started training with David when he was 9 months old, but now his daughter Sarah has broken this record. She was four-months-old when he began to exercise with her.

He does not exercise only with his own children. In Slovakia, he has been conducting weekly Alpha Gravity classes at a private kindergarten in Nitra for more than a year.

“I told the principal about Alpha Gravity, she believed in me and gave me the opportunity to work with children,” the Ukrainian says.

At the same time, he works as a physical education teacher at a local school. Furman says that he enjoys it a lot though he emphasises that it was not easy in the beginning due to the language barrier. The Ukrainian students at the private school he works at also struggled back then. “I was a kind of connecting bridge between Ukrainians and Slovaks,” he says, adding that his colleagues even held seminars on how to teach children from Ukraine and integrate them into Slovak society.

After almost two years in Slovakia and thanks to working with children, Furman says that he has discovered “a completely different me”.

“This is what gives me the strength to continue,” he says.

Evgeny Furman with Slovak colleagues from a Nitra school. (source: Courtesy of E. F.)

Nitra feels almost like home

For Furman, Slovakia has become a country that he likes. Although Nitra is much smaller than his native Odessa, he does not regret settling in the Slovak city.

“I like that the city is clean,” he says, “Or, for example, that buses follow their schedule. There is simply no such thing in Odessa.”

Slovaks are also different, he opines. He sees them as a mentally healthier society, more calm and balanced. Ukrainians are more capable of working efficiently, more ambitious, and are stress-resistant, he argues.

“I think that Slovaks should learn this from us,” Furman notes.

As we near the end of the interview, I ask if he plans to stay in Slovakia for good.

“I have such a desire and I feel almost at home here, but I can’t say for sure,” Furman says, adding that he now wants to focus on and develop his Alpha Gravity project in Slovakia and beyond.

This story was published with support from the International Press Institute's Ukraine regional reporting fund.