By Vestnik Kavkaza
The doors open day took place in the Diplomatic Academy, one of the oldest universities of the country. For 80 years the Academy has trained more than 10,000 diplomats, 700 of whom are at the peak of their careers, as they have become Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Many graduates are succeeded in other fields, not only diplomacy.
"Some of our graduates are succeeded in other fields,” Yevgeny Bazhanov, rector of the Diplomatic Academy, Honored Science Worker of the Russian Federation, says. “Valentina Matviyenko graduated from the Diplomatic Academy, then worked as a diplomat and then held the post of Deputy Prime Minister. She also was a mayor of St. Petersburg. Now she is the head of the Senate, the Upper Chamber of the Russian Parliament. She is the third-highest ranking person in our country.
Kosym-Zhomart Kemelevich Tokarev graduated from the Diplomatic Academy, then defended his doctoral dissertation, worked as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, as Prime Minister, became the head of the Senate of Kazakhstan, then Deputy Secretary-General of the UN. Now he is the head of the Senate of Kazakhstan, the second-ranking person in Kazakhstan. Kim Dae-jung, a citizen of South Korea, graduated from the Diplomatic Academy, defended his doctoral dissertation, and then was elected as president of South Korea. He also won the Nobel Prize.”
Also representatives of state and private organizations such as Russian Railways, Lukoil and Gazprom retrain in the Deplomatic Academy. This educational institution trains specialists in three fields: international relations, world economics and world law. A lot of attention is paid to studying foreign languages.
“A young person wanted to enter our educational institution. At the time of interviewing we asked him how many languages he knew. He answered three: English, French, Italian. We asked him to say something in Italian and he said: "Gutten Tag!" We were surprised and said that it was German. "That means I know four languages," the young man said,” Yevgeny Bazhanov recalled. “When he graduated from the Diplomatic Academy, he really spoke four languages. He worked with the Italian language as a translator at the Italian Embassy. We teach languages very well. You know that languages are the main skill of any diplomat, especially in the sphere of international affairs. Without this skill it is too difficult to understand the world, to communicate with it and persuade somebody.”
