Pushkin Foundation in Australia celebrated its 20th anniversary

Photo: unification.com.au

Brisbane Pushkin Foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary. Throughout its activity, the foundation not only conducted Russian proms and opened exhibitions of Russian art of compatriots, but also helped Australian Russian-speaking young people enter leading universities in Russia and paid scholarships to the most talented of them, Edinenie Russian Newspaper Australia reports. 

Pushkin Foundation grew out of Pushkin Club, which emerged in 1997 on the initiative of Boris Krista, Professor of Russian Language and Literature Department at the University of Queensland. In those years, the department was under threat of closure. Boris Krista called on all the authoritative Russian-speaking organizations of Queensland to defend it, and they managed to do it.

The members of new association felt their capabilities and decided to continue activities to promote Russian language and culture in Australia, calling themselves Pushkin Club. In 1999, when a group of philanthropists appeared, it became the International Pushkin Foundation, which was designed in compliance with Australian law as a financially independent organization. 

For ten years, until the death of Foundation’s chairman Boris Krista, the organization helped Australian students get education in Russia, provided scholarships for them, organized Russian proms and large-scale exhibitions in Brisbane, including an exposition of the exhibits from Moscow museums. The Foundation widely celebrated birthdays and anniversaries of Alexander Pushkin. Thanks to the Foundation, many Australians have learned about Russian poet.

Russkiy Mir