The Appeal of the Russian World

— As before, such possibilities remain remarkable; they are entrenched in the very strategy of the foundation, in its major thrust, in understanding of the key priorities in today’s dialogue between different civilizations. The foundation contributes to the consolidation and expansion of Russkiy Mir – the Russian world. And what is the Russian world? These are Russian citizens, Russian expats, foreign citizens sincerely interested in our nation, its language and culture. The Russian world carries harmony, overcoming ideological divides; it appreciates freedom, mercy and justice. Based on the Russian civilization in its spiritual and cultural dimensions, the Russian world is therefore wider than national borders, religious and political systems. Hence there are great opportunities, given that the foundation interacts with a huge number of interested partners, sincere and loyal friends of Russia, Russian language and culture. The very fact that through the foundation and its voluntary assistants, the truth about Russia is disseminated is a powerful tool influencing the minds and attitudes of the overseas public.  

— By no means: I would note that the foundation was established seven years ago for promoting the Russian language and supporting the programs of learning Russian abroad. But how can one study the language and culture of our nation without being interested in its modern-day life and relevant problems? Interest in the Russian language directly and naturally stimulates interest in Russia itself. At this stage people start searching information about contemporary Russia and its place in the world. It’s clear that in the world information environment enough lies can be found about our country, especially today – which makes the truth all the more important.

— MAPRYAL is our longstanding and bona fide partner. Our priorities are still different despite their apparent similarity. The association is more focused on methodological and academic aspects of teaching Russian language and literature, while our foundation promotes specific projects. I’ll mention only some areas: engagement with expat communities, establishing Russian public, cultural and educational structures abroad – in particular, Russian Centers and Russkiy Mir Cabinets, support of Russian mass media. The most important focus of the foundation’s activity under such priorities is grant programs. We offer grants for assisting Russian schools abroad, sustaining Russian courses, raising the skills of teachers, holding conferences, seminars, festivals of Russian, Olympiads, holding events fostering the cultural unity of Russia and Russians abroad, for propagating knowledge about our country. And this is just a small part of the Foundation’s grant activities.

— True, the international environment has become awfully complicated. Literally during the past six months a large-scale civil war in Ukraine broke out, Crimea reunited with Russia while the EU and US targeted us with their sanctions. As a response, the Russian government lately took measures to limit the presence of Western food and other companies on the Russian market. However puzzling this may seem, this situation in the world did not greatly impact the foundation’s activity. Without going into detail, I’d say that we communicate with our partners abroad and the work volumes have not changed. This happens, above all, because cultural, academic and educational programs which we develop are needed by people regardless of the political or economic situation. We should agree that this underscores one indisputable fact: eternal values are little susceptible to the destructive influence of transient and often politicized decisions or the vicissitudes of political climate.

— The main specificity of our activities abroad is that we are a non-profit organization and so we do not have our official representatives abroad. We have only one instrument of working abroad: building the partnership relations with professional associations of Russian language and literature teachers, specialists on the history of Russia and its modern state, with universities and schools, non-profit organizations and NGOs, institutions of culture and finally, simply with admirers of Russian language and literature. Another problem is that we must constantly keep an eye to the future. The promotion of Russian largely depends on whether it will be chosen by foreign educational institutions. And this choice depends on the secondary school: parents and directors, and in universities – on the student’s decision to study Russian as their second foreign language instead of French or Spanish, for example. Incidentally, the same choice had to be made in Ukraine at schools where the Ukrainian language was the language of instruction. We explicitly compete for youth with other world languages. If we can show that learning Russian is interesting, useful and creates career advantages, this means we’ll expand the scope of Russian language use. Showing the attractiveness of our language and culture is one of the foundation’s key missions today. And we are simply obliged to apply most up-to-date educational technologies. Surely, we are infinitely thankful to elderly teachers of Russian, for whom this is not just a walk of life, but the work of their lifetime. We are thankful to young enthusiasts of Russian language and literature, the connoisseurs of Russian culture. Partnership and friendship with such people is our main asset and most important achievement of recent years. These are people willing to help promoting the Russian language and culture quite selflessly. All of them, even those who cannot speak Russian correctly, regardless of their ethnic origin or country of residence, are part of the Russian world as a civilizational paradigm. This world is not only inhabited by representatives of Russian expat communities, but also by those who recently delved into Russian studies. This work proves mutually beneficial. Here is just one example. In times of instability, when so-called economic emigration from Russia is stepping up, many thousands of our compatriots land abroad. They have children, some of then born outside Russia. Parents want their children not to forget the language of their great Motherland, because the knowledge of Russian gives a competitive edge both in business and education. Such parents help us with organizing the courses of Russian and Sunday schools. Some teach classes there themselves. We surely support such courses and schools both with methodological materials and with grants, given that children who got their knowledge of Russian here and became familiar with Russian culture are the future of the Russian world. Not a single public organization can look into the future with confidence without an inflow of young talent.

— This year the foundation’s management board and its chairman Vyacheslav Nikonov suggested that we should focus on the problems of the fraternal Ukrainian nation. Perhaps for the first time in the history of Russkiy Mir Assemblies we’ll focus in detail on one country. The assembly will be held under the motto “Culture and Time”, but already the first panel discussion will simply be titled “Ukraine”. The roundtable to be conducted on this topic will be moderated by Mr. Nikonov. Another roundtable titled “Slavophilism and Westernism Today” will certainly not avoid the situation in modern-day Ukraine – if for no other reason than because the standoff between Slavophilism and Westernism is not just a theory but everyday practice. Of course, we’ll not neglect traditional topics, such as the culture of Russian speech, the problems of modern Russian-language textbooks, Russian schools abroad, legislative measures to protect Russian. “The floor is yours” event, making its debut this year, will give a chance for all participants of the assembly to have their say on various burning issues.

— Both yes and no. Every cloud has a silver lining. Hundreds of representatives of the Russian world, true friends of Russia whom we have known and appreciated for quite a long time, will come to our assembly in Sochi. In the meantime the current anti-Russian campaign will serve as a sort of filter for those who once sided with Russia but are now losing heart and prefer to stay in the shadow. Most likely, these people will abstain from going to Russia and we can exclude them from among our partners.

— Of course, certain pressure will be put on the activists of Russian expat communities. I don’t think they will experience any problems with departure and hardly any discriminatory measures will be taken against them. However, they may come under the watch of the authorities and security services if this has not happened yet, which does not belittle their civil rights and freedom, including the right to travel, though. Russian overseas diplomatic services are asked to help ease visa formalities for the assembly’s guests as much as possible. Many Russian embassies themselves recommend worthy participants of the assembly and are interested in their travel to Russia. In case of any artificial bans on trips to Russia, queries the channels of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are possible as well as parliamentary messages and other measures.

— We receive many calls from the overseas audience of our radio station and readership of the Русский мир.ru magazine. We are approached with requests for support and advice by up to 1,500 organizations from a huge number of countries. This is the evidence that our activities are appreciated. The foundation’s representatives are invited to participate in many prestigious international events: conferences, conventions and seminars. In short, we experience no deficit of feedback. This helps us to more confident and precise in organizing our activities.