The context over the Russian world changesBut the multinational community realizes its cultural unity<--break->By Vestnik KavkazaOn November 3rd in Sochi the annual Assembly of the Russian World will take place. According to the executive director of the Foundation “Russki Mir”, Vladimir Kochin, this year representatives of 81 countries will visit the eighth Assembly. The number of European participants is growing; representatives of Albania, Salvador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia will take part in the forum for the first time.Speaking about the meaning of the Russian world for the initiators, Vyacheslav Nikonov, the chairman of the Russki Mir board, notes that “it means a big civilization community which is united not only by common blood, religion, or even language, but self-identity which unites a community of people who belong to different religions, sometimes don’t even speak Russian, but feel the Russian spirit, like emigrants of previous generations, and who represent a multinational community which realizes its cultural unity, unity in the Russian-language space.”Nikonov says that a year ago such notions as Maidan, Crimea, Novorossia were not relevant: “I mean the context over the Russian world and the foundation Russki Mir has changed seriously. The notion of the Russian world has been politicized. We can see a negative reaction to the Russian world in some neighboring countries; they perceive it as an imperialistic concept, even though initially it was a cultural concept; it is still about culture. A big tragedy happened. We spoke about unity, but the Russian world appeared to be split. Unfortunately, in a neighboring country which had always been friendly to us, Russian people who spoke Russian killed thousands of Russians often because they spoke Russian.”The current agenda of the forum is connected with this. “It will be devoted to problems of politics and international affairs to a larger extent than ever before; and I think it is fair,” Nikonov is sure. “One of the central discussions will be titled “Ukraine, Russia, and the World.” Experts, leading politicians of Russia, Ukraine, Novorossia, the EU and Asian countries will participate in it.”As for other topics which will be discussed at the Assembly, they will be devoted to the Russian language directly and spreading Russian culture in the world. According to Vladimir Kochin, in 2014 several new projects have been implemented, and participants in the forum will discuss their results in Sochi.“An important direction for the future is support for holding exams within the United State Examination in post-Soviet countries and other foreign states. This year we organized such projects in Moldova, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Latvia. It enables pupils of these countries to continue their education in Russian, as they can test their knowledge in the Russian system of the USE,” the executive director of Russki Mir says.Another project that was started last academic year was sending tutors of Russian universities (tutors of the Russian language, Russian history, and political sciences) to foreign countries. “This year we will send 260 tutors to more than 60 countries. There are such countries among them, where there have never been any Russian tutors. We are preparing a business trip to Namibia, to its local university. Our traditional partners are the CIS countries, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan. They organize separate courses, cycles, semesters,” Kochin stresses.Speaking about joint projects with foreign countries, Vladimir Kochin sets an example of cooperation with Indonesia: “This year we have started a program for Russian language study in Kalimantan, where there have never been Russian tutors and the Russian language has never been taught. This year about one thousand local students will attend an elementary course, so that in the future they could continue education in Russian universities or participate in other educational events on cooperation with Indonesia.”“The offices of Russki Mir supported foreign students who wanted to continue their education in Russian. Despite all the difficulties, students from the UK study Russian philology and will get a master’s degree. Students from Venezuela, Salvador, Nicaragua have come to us. I think the work will go on, as interest in the Russian language is growing,” Kochin is sure.
He pays special attention to cooperation with the countries of the South Caucasus: “We organized a serious project together with our colleagues from the Russian Language Tutors’ Society and with support from the Ministry of Education of Armenia. We developed, published, and distributed learning and teaching packages on the Russian language to Armenian schools with deeper study of Russian, there are 107 such schools. It was a big event for Armenia, we think. We published modern textbooks, learning materials, activity books for pupils, as well as teaching materials for teachers. It is a modern learning and teaching package. We realize that in Armenia we compete with other foreign languages. So the modern package will be a significant step enabling us to compete in the struggle for a greater number of Armenian pupils to learn Russian and continue their education in Russian in Armenian and Russian universities.”
But the multinational community realizes its cultural unity
By Vestnik Kavkaza
On November 3rd in Sochi the annual Assembly of the Russian World will take place. According to the executive director of the Foundation “Russki Mir”, Vladimir Kochin, this year representatives of 81 countries will visit the eighth Assembly. The number of European participants is growing; representatives of Albania, Salvador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia will take part in the forum for the first time.
Speaking about the meaning of the Russian world for the initiators, Vyacheslav Nikonov, the chairman of the Russki Mir board, notes that “it means a big civilization community which is united not only by common blood, religion, or even language, but self-identity which unites a community of people who belong to different religions, sometimes don’t even speak Russian, but feel the Russian spirit, like emigrants of previous generations, and who represent a multinational community which realizes its cultural unity, unity in the Russian-language space.”
Nikonov says that a year ago such notions as Maidan, Crimea, Novorossia were not relevant: “I mean the context over the Russian world and the foundation Russki Mir has changed seriously. The notion of the Russian world has been politicized. We can see a negative reaction to the Russian world in some neighboring countries; they perceive it as an imperialistic concept, even though initially it was a cultural concept; it is still about culture. A big tragedy happened. We spoke about unity, but the Russian world appeared to be split. Unfortunately, in a neighboring country which had always been friendly to us, Russian people who spoke Russian killed thousands of Russians often because they spoke Russian.”
The current agenda of the forum is connected with this. “It will be devoted to problems of politics and international affairs to a larger extent than ever before; and I think it is fair,” Nikonov is sure. “One of the central discussions will be titled “Ukraine, Russia, and the World.” Experts, leading politicians of Russia, Ukraine, Novorossia, the EU and Asian countries will participate in it.”
As for other topics which will be discussed at the Assembly, they will be devoted to the Russian language directly and spreading Russian culture in the world. According to Vladimir Kochin, in 2014 several new projects have been implemented, and participants in the forum will discuss their results in Sochi.
“An important direction for the future is support for holding exams within the United State Examination in post-Soviet countries and other foreign states. This year we organized such projects in Moldova, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Latvia. It enables pupils of these countries to continue their education in Russian, as they can test their knowledge in the Russian system of the USE,” the executive director of Russki Mir says.
Another project that was started last academic year was sending tutors of Russian universities (tutors of the Russian language, Russian history, and political sciences) to foreign countries. “This year we will send 260 tutors to more than 60 countries. There are such countries among them, where there have never been any Russian tutors. We are preparing a business trip to Namibia, to its local university. Our traditional partners are the CIS countries, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan. They organize separate courses, cycles, semesters,” Kochin stresses.
Speaking about joint projects with foreign countries, Vladimir Kochin sets an example of cooperation with Indonesia: “This year we have started a program for Russian language study in Kalimantan, where there have never been Russian tutors and the Russian language has never been taught. This year about one thousand local students will attend an elementary course, so that in the future they could continue education in Russian universities or participate in other educational events on cooperation with Indonesia.”
“The offices of Russki Mir supported foreign students who wanted to continue their education in Russian. Despite all the difficulties, students from the UK study Russian philology and will get a master’s degree. Students from Venezuela, Salvador, Nicaragua have come to us. I think the work will go on, as interest in the Russian language is growing,” Kochin is sure.
He pays special attention to cooperation with the countries of the South Caucasus: “We organized a serious project together with our colleagues from the Russian Language Tutors’ Society and with support from the Ministry of Education of Armenia. We developed, published, and distributed learning and teaching packages on the Russian language to Armenian schools with deeper study of Russian, there are 107 such schools. It was a big event for Armenia, we think. We published modern textbooks, learning materials, activity books for pupils, as well as teaching materials for teachers. It is a modern learning and teaching package. We realize that in Armenia we compete with other foreign languages. So the modern package will be a significant step enabling us to compete in the struggle for a greater number of Armenian pupils to learn Russian and continue their education in Russian in Armenian and Russian universities.”
