Drawing upon diverse sources in both Arabic and Russian, this paper will examine the transnational and transregional journey and work of Kulthum ‘Awda (1892-1965). ‘Awda’s life began in Nazareth in Ottoman Palestine with limited prospects and even fewer expectations and ended in Moscow, working as a professor of Arabic at one of the most prestigious places of learning in the Soviet Union. Her work included teaching and writing in both Arabic and Russian, translating between them as well as researching linguistics and midwifery; practicing nursing; and teaching hygiene. She taught a generation of Arabic scholars in Russia, had dedicated students, grateful patients, and much textual production, attaining awards and renown both in the Soviet Union and among intellectuals and politicians in the Arabic-speaking world. What enabled this journey, as she moved through changing political climates - from Imperial Russia, through the Bolshevik revolution to the Soviet Union, and from the Ottoman Empire to the British occupation of Palestine and then to the state of Israel - and through wars, the confines of surveillance, incarceration and many hardships? I argue that the medical and literary knowledge dispensed to and by ‘Awda enabled her transregional and transnational journey and her movement through and beyond restrictions imposed upon her by society and circumstance. This multi-cultural and multi-faceted knowledge involved several different Russian institutions in both Palestine and Russia (including the Russian schools in Palestine; the Oriental Institute in Leningrad; Moscow State University and the diplomatic school in Moscow; and the Red Cross). Her movements, both physical and intellectual, as she worked as a nurse, and taught, researched and wrote both in Arabic and in Russian, offer unique insights into spaces of Arab-Russian cultural intersections and into the movement of knowledge from region to region and between center and periphery.