Alexander Kohanovsky: "It is important for BSU history department to cooperate with MSU history department"

The international program "Days of the history department of the Belarusian State University (BSU) at the history department of Moscow State University (MSU) named after M.V. Lomonosov", which continues the implementation of the long-term program of academic cooperation between the history departments of the two leading higher educational institutions of Russia and Belarus, has opened in the MSU yesterday. The Dean of the history department of Belarusian State University, doctor of historical science Alexander Kohanovsky, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, told about this event.

- What do such events mean for your university and department?

- I am very pleased that the Days of the history department of  Belarusian State University opened at the history department of Moscow State University. The history department of Moscow State University has always been our closest partner, and it is clear that holding such an event is the number one event for us. It is very important in terms of deepening and developing our contacts, especially since we have many good traditions that are preserved and multiplied. I am sure that new projects will appear, I hope that we will be able to create, at least for starters, two joint master's programs - we would like to work fruitfully in this direction. I am sure that we will hold joint scientific conferences, and the exchange of students in addition to a joint magistracy. We have always been very respectful and appreciated the experience and scientific developments that have been accumulated at the history department of Moscow State University. The exchange of scientific and academic information is also important for us.

- Could you elaborate on the master's programs?

- As priorities for the development of this initiative, we identified the possibility of creating joint master's programs in the field of historical informatics and the history of the Belarusian diaspora. As for the first direction, we have been cooperating with the Department of Historical Informatics of the history department of Moscow State University for more than 30 years, even when the department was headed by Ivan Dmitrievich Kovalchenko. It's no secret that I prepared my Candidates Thesis under Leonid Borodkin's supervision with the use of various, for those times, new computer methods of data processing. As for the history of diasporas, it is largely personified, due to the very good cooperation with Oksana Solopova, among others. She appears to be more of an initiator in this situation, although we are also very interested, to some extent, many of our employees work in the field linked to the history of migration and diaspora. The history department of Moscow State University has accumulated a very positive experience of research on this topic, and I am sure that this is only the beginning of work within the framework of our cooperation.

Other programs between our faculties are possible, including, with the participation of other faculties of both BSU and MSU. To date, I know that both the rector of the BSU Andrei Korol and the vice-rector for academic work Sergey Khodyn, who was one of the originators of such Days, are very interested in the experience of interaction between historical faculties spreading to other faculties of BSU and MSU.

- If we talk about the humanitarian interaction within the union state in general , how would you assess its level and prospects?

- In my opinion, it is quite dynamic and is being developed. Being broad enough, our humanitarian cooperation is largely built on personal contacts and good relations that have been established between the specialists of Belarus and Russia. There is institutional cooperation between various institutions, academies of sciences, universities, and not just the BSU, but other Belarusian universities, and universities in Russia. The BSU cooperates with various universities. First of all, the sources of cooperation are the humanities - of course, representatives of natural sciences also participate in this, but the humanities are very active in this direction.

Of course, we also have prospects. First of all, this is an opportunity to jointly prepare scientific publications, collections, periodicals. Joint scientific projects and researches are also promising. It's no secret that the scientific schools in Moscow, which were created in the Soviet times, are sufficiently developed. We, in this situation, also have certain successes, and the experience of our Moscow colleagues is very useful and interesting for us.