Galina Aleksandrovna Balashova is a specialist in Amharic language and Ethiopian literature. After the graduation from the Department of African Studies of Leningrad State University (headed at that time by academician Dmitry Alekseyevich Olderogge, the founder of modern African studies in Russia) she worked for six years in Ethiopia (her work distinguished with government award), later worked for five years at the Russian Cultural Centre in Nigeria. For more than twenty years she was lecturing in Amharic language in Leningrad (now - Saint-Petersburg) State University. Currently Galina Balashova is a research fellow at the Institute of African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Asian and African studies, Moscow State University. She is the author of more than 120 publications on various aspects of Ethiopian culture. Among them monography "Modern Ethiopian drama" (M, 2008, in Russian), then translated into English "Drama in modern ethiopian literature and theatre" (Moscow / St. Petersburg 2012) with some additions. She is the permanent representative of Russia at the International Committee for Ethiopian research and the Vice-President of Russian-Ethiopian Friendship Society.