Rauf Hasanov: "Russia's interests are not limited by the borders of Russia. There is the Russian world"

The head of the Azerbaijani branch of the Development Fund Institute of Eurasian Studies, Rauf Hasanov, told Vestnik Kavkaza about projects for the Russian-speaking population of Azerbaijan.

- What does the Baku branch of the Institute of Eurasian Studies deal with?

- The Eurasian Research Institute was formed ten years ago in 2005 in order to strengthen and develop humanitarian ties among the Russian Federation and the former Soviet republics, the current CIS countries. Branches are represented in Baku, Yerevan, Bishkek, Sukhumi and in Tskhinvali. The opening of the Russian Book House in 2009 in Baku is among our most successful projects with the participation of the former head of the Russian presidential administration, Sergey Naryshkin, and the head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, Ramiz Mehtiyev. Fiction, Russian classics, special literature – textbooks, legal and economic literature are represented in the House of Russian Books. A Russian press digest is always published weekly on the pages of the ‘Baku Worker’ as a loose leaf. We distribute the Mendeleyev scholarships. This year we granted ten scholarships for the best students from various universities of Azerbaijan of an amount of one hundred dollars a month. We give scholarships to students of the Baku branch of the Moscow State University, the Baku Academy of Music, as well as the Slavonic University.

Over the past years we have actively participated in the organization of the inter-regional forum, which is organized in Azerbaijan and Russia annually. Representatives of ministries, the business community and mass media gather there.

Every year a festival of Russian classical music, dedicated to the Day of Russia, takes place on June 12th in the Baku Musical Academy of Performing Arts, In the Great Hall of Music. Young artists, students of the Academy performed works of Russian classics: Tchaikovsky, Dargomyzhsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other representatives of Russian classical music in the Great Hall of the musical academy before a jury consisting of representatives of the musical and cultural spheres of Azerbaijan.

The main goal is the development and strengthening of humanitarian cooperation between our countries. 

- What is the level of humanitarian relations between Russia and Azerbaijan?

- I do not think this level is sufficient. We have huge potential to develop cooperation in the humanitarian sphere. We need to work out this issue more actively, address this issue and increase funding. In this case we will be able to develop our potential. I have ideas how we can raise the level of our humanitarian cooperation. In due time, the idea of gathering young performers to participate in opera performances and productions comes to my mind. Their repertoire should have such an important component for Azerbaijani performers as Russian classical music. The project was successful and very popular, mass media covered it widely.

I would like to use this in other spheres, such as journalism. You can create a contest dedicated to the problems of today's Russia: how Azerbaijani students see them and what is their perception, understanding of the development of our relations, as well as what they can suggest.

The chairman of Russian Community, Mikhail Zabelin, said that the problem of Russian-speaking personnel in Azerbaijan is a lack of knowledge of the Azerbaijani language in integrating into Azerbaijani society and participating in nation-building. We might organize courses in the Azerbaijani language for the Russian-speaking population. We know who can help to implement these projects. I think it would be an interesting idea.

- What is the role of Russian culture in the Caucasus?

- It plays an extremely positive role. At the beginning of the 19th century, according to the Gulistan and Turkmenchay Treaty, the khanates of Azerbaijan became a part of Russia (the Baku, Shamakhi, Karabakh, Lenkoran, Sheki khanates and others). Figures of Russian culture paved the way to Europe. Friendly relations had already formed between the advanced part of Azerbaijani society, which tended towards Russia, to exiled Russian officers living on the territory. Great poets, great artists, officers and representatives of the Russian aristocracy were among them. It had a beneficial impact on the interaction between the two cultures. In the Caucasus Mikhail Lermontov became interested in Azerbaijani folklore and wrote his masterpiece ‘Ashik Kerib.’ And Azerbaijani educators used the possibilities of Russian culture and created prose. The first work in prose written by an Azerbaijani author appeared when a Russian army general, who was Azerbaijani by origin, Ismail Bey Gutkashynly (Kutkashensky), wrote his first prose work.

Chekhov’s works influenced not only the Caucasus, but also Middle Eastern literature. Short stories, stories that reveal the problems of the little man, bureaucracy, the arbitrariness that reigns on the outskirts of tsarist Russia, appeared in our culture. It became the property of the Azerbaijani population. The first Azerbaijani newspaper appeared not in the Caucasian or Middle Eastern traditions of those times, but under the influence of Russian journalism, Russian criticism of Russian journalism.

- What is the situation with the Russian Book House now?

- The Russian Book House today is not experiencing its best times. There are objective and subjective reasons for this. Young people express less interest in books. There is electronic mass media. A book has stopped being the best gift, as it was in Soviet times when there were a lot of reading people, rather than not reading in the metro. Now everybody uses gadgets.

The second reason is a lack of Russian literature. The director of the Russian Book House said that people come and ask if they have literature. But there is no such literature, as it does not exist. And people leave this place. 

It seems to me that the Moscow government and some other structures need to pay attention to this. Certainly it will be subsidized, because books are not vodka. But such a project will be left to history. It won’t bring short-term benefits. It is not a commercial project, but Russian interests are not limited by the borders of the Russian Federation. we also have the Russian world, Russian diasporas in various countries, especially in neighboring ones. We should draw more attention to this, the support of literature is one such measure.