Veronika Krasheninnikova, who holds a PhD in history, has studied in Leningrad, Sorbonne, at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and at New York University. She has worked for the United Nations in Geneva. She is currently the representative of the Russkiy Mir Foundation in North America.
– Ms Krasheninnikova, the main subject of our discussion today is the Russkiy Mir Foundation. Can you tell us in greater detail what the foundation is all about?
– Russkiy Mir is the first serious Russian initiative aimed at increasing the popularity of Russian culture. It is serious in that its leadership is of a very high caliber: Vyacheslav Nikonov in the role of executive director and Lyudmila Verbitskaya as chairwoman of the board of trustees. It also has strong board members – Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Andrei Fursenko, Minster of Education; Nikita Mikhalkov; Natalia Narochnitskaya; Vitaly Ignatenko and many others. The initiative is also serious in terms of the efforts that have already been undertaken, its approach to issues, the scale of activity and the resources that have been committed.
Of course, efforts to promote Russian language and culture have been quite successful in the past, especially those undertaken by associations of Russian teachers and cultural organizations, both Russian and foreign. The establishment of the Russkiy Mir Foundation in 2007 by presidential decree serves as evidence that this issue has become important at the state level, though.
Most countries have been doing this for a long time already. There is the French Institute and Alliance Franзaise, Germany’s Goethe-Institut, Italy’s Dante Institute and Spain’s Cervantes Institute. Russia has finally come up with its own organization.
– You mentioned that a lot of people have addressed these issues in the past. What is the task of this newly established foundation?
– Our main task is to support the initiatives of existing organizations. Projects that are tied to Russian language, culture, history and heritage give us a very wide field to work with. A few examples of projects supported by the foundation are the “American Artists from the Russian Empire” exhibition at the Fred R. Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma (this exhibition will later travel to the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow before returning to San Diego in the United States), support for a group of American Russianists to conduct literary research in Russia and the AdVision Awards 2008 Russian advertising competition, which took place last November in Atlantic City.
In 2008, the Russkiy Mir Foundation supported 250 projects with grants. Applications came from everywhere – from Japan to the west coast of the United States. We got an especially high number from Israel.
– How timely is it to work on increasing the popularity of Russian in America right now?
– In my view, it’s very timely! Demand is what gave rise to the initiative in the first place. In the beginning years of this decade a turning point was reached. In response to the revival in Russia, the Russian world abroad rose to the occasion. Russian cultural organizations began to appear, and demand for Russian language studies took off. It became prestigious to be Russian. Social organizations more often than not work on little resources but plenty of enthusiasm. Many of them have looked for support in Russia. Our foundation obviously cannot support all of the proposals we receive, but it is a good start.
It’s vitally important that business be brought into these state initiatives. American companies are very active in their support for cultural and social initiatives, and I hope that Russian companies will gradually begin to do the same.
Knowing Russian is a competitive advantage. It gives people the opportunity to supplement their American education with a Russian one, to find work in Russia and across the CIS and to experience in the original the rich Russian culture, a huge part of our global heritage. Americans also consider knowledge of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich to be essential for educated people.
Vyacheslav Nikonov has said that “The Russian world is not some remembrance of times past, but a dream about the future.”
– What are some of the foundation’s own projects?
– The main thrust of our work is to support the initiatives of other organizations. There is one type of project that we undertake ourselves, however, and that is the Russian Center. Russian Centers are usually opened at large universities, libraries or cultural centers. They allocate space for us, which we then use for a library, media center, educational programs and resources for teachers. In this sense, the Russian Center is a resource center that gives visitors access to a wide range of educational and popular literature from Russia. The educational system is such that it allows people to study Russian language and culture effectively on the basis of innovative teaching techniques and programs. It’s a creative and communicative space that makes it possible to organize artistic events, academic discussions and informal conversation.
We opened the first Russian Center in the United States on Long Island at the Sunflower Children’s Cultural Center. Marina Terenteva, a real Russian culture enthusiast, works there. In several months, we’ll be opening the second Russian Center at the American Council of Teachers of Russian in Washington, DC.
Russian schools are another important project that we work on. Nobody can say exactly how many of them there are in the United States. Several dozen, perhaps, but not more. There’s the Sunflower School I just mentioned, the Alye Parusa School in Washington, one in San Francisco… I can tell you that the demand for such schools would be quite high, and their numbers would increase significantly. Russian parents more and more frequently have felt the need to preserve the language and teach it to their children (both as a foreign language and the parents’ language). One of the main explanations behind this phenomenon is the fact that in many families, parents have begun to lose their common language with their children. It’s not just a lack of time and parents who are busy with work. For them, their English remains at a low level, and it becomes increasingly difficult to have conversations with their children who are fluent in English. If the children learn Russian well, that could help with parents’ communication.
The most prevalent institutions today are the private day schools where instruction is conducted entirely in Russian. Next there are the Sunday schools, both secular and those tied to Orthodox parishes. There are also quite a few studios – ballet, theater, and other performing arts where the communication is in Russian. The theatrical studio in San Diego is quite popular. Everything begins, though with Russian preschools.
I would like to invite any parents or teachers who are interested in Russian schools to make contact with me so that we can work together on this very important effort.
– What is your opinion of the Russian community in the United States?
– Russian society in America is just as fragmented as Russian society in Russia. People’s political beliefs are extremely diverse, which is natural. If you look at Americans, it is amazing how people of such different beliefs and worldviews live together in one country. The different waves of Russian emigration reflect the broken history of our country.
The Russian world has one thing unifying it, however, and that is the fact that we all speak Russian. Language, culture and thoughts, conscious and subconscious, determine our belonging to Russian civilization.
Living in another country has a twofold effect. On the one hand, one partially takes in the culture of this country. On the other hand, contact with “the other” results in the formation of a certain degree of Russianness. The juxtaposition of the two cultures tells us that we have certain common characteristics that allow us to maintain a comfortable coexistence, but there are others that don’t find a response in the Russian mindset. They are not natural and require effort. And when it’s necessary to choose one’s identity, the choice becomes obvious.
– You’ve touched on an incredibly important topic. What about you personally?
– My Russian identity formed after a rather long period of study and work in Europe and America. I never intended to emigrate, and I still consider my time outside of Russia to be temporary. Although I find life quite comfortable in Europe and in America, at least in New York, I am still a Russian despite the ease of integration.
Doing my job in America requires that I try to understand and deal with the American system. Actual experience provides a rich ground for theoretical reflection, which is what motivated me to write a dissertation on “Russian-American Dialogue as a Problem of Political Culture.” This formed the basis of my book America-Russia: Cold War of Cultures, which came out in Moscow in 2007.
The American system and relations between Russia and the United States are like a rebus puzzle, which means that it’s highly unlikely that as a practitioner and researcher I’ll be out of work anytime soon.
