Publications

“For me tomorrow means this: a Russian army of a hundred thousand and a French army of a hundred thousand have met to fight, and the thing is that these two hundred thousand men will fight and the side that fights more fiercely and spares itself least will win.” This is how count Leo Tolstoy expressed his attitude to what was happening in the Borodino field on September 7, 1812, having used Prince Andrei from the War and Peace as his mouthpiece.According to Leo Tolstoy, it is during the Battle of Borodino that the moral and inner superiority of Russians defending their Motherland over the “multilingual” Napoleon Army...

Russkiy Mir Executive Director Vyacheslav Nikonov will be participating in Global Policy Forum 2011, which will be held in Yaroslavl, Russia, September 7-8. Mr. Nikonov will be a moderator of the section Democratic Institutions in Multiethnic Societies. Ahead of the forum, he gave an interview in which he spoke about how cultural factors are becoming more important in the world. – How important are cultural differences in the context of social conflicts that we see today in Europe, particularly in England? Do they matter at all or do these conflicts have some other origins? – Certainly, culture always matters. Culture has an...

At a press conference held in the RIA Novosti news agency building in the run-up to a visit of Her Majesty Queen of Denmark Margrethe II and Prince Consort to Russia, ambassador Tom Risdahl Jensen informed on the visit’s three goals: the improvement of bilateral relations, expansion of cultural ties, but most important, the development of trade-economic relations. The visit will be paid on September 6-9, with Queen accompanied by Crown Prince and Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs. The program includes visits to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, meetings with the Russian leaders as well as participation in business seminars, the...

We spoke with Yuri Prokhorov, rector of Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, about how the Russian language has become a valuable product in international communication and why the number of people studying the language is on the rise.– According to various sources (VCIOM, UNESCO, etc.), over the past decade the Russian language has moved down from fifth place to sixth-eighth place according to its international influence. What in your opinion are the reasons for the decline of the international status of the Russian language?  – I would not agree with this assertion that its status has supposedly declined. The...

The backlash caused by the scandalous dismissal of the art director of the Rustaveli Theatre in Tbilisi, Robert Sturua, is not over yet. This week the main hero of this political drama has had his chance to speak via a Q&A with Moscow and Tbilisi audiences during a video link-up.  “Frankly speaking all events related to my dismissal are so absurd, that if they were assessed from legal perspectives they simply hold no water. I’d agree with their assessment as a 'shame.' What’s the reason for this shame? As we tried to define the genre of what goes on in Tbilisi as far as the relationship between people in power and...

The international military music festival “Spasskaya Tower” is opening today in Moscow. Among its participants who have arrived from 29 countries, the Top Secret Drum Corps is probably the most numerous group. Their producer Erik Julliard relates in his interview to the Russkiy Mir portal why the Swiss prefer drumming and beer and why he thinks their show is so popular.  – Mr. Julliard, your band has been to half of the world – China, South Africa, the US, Australia, throughout the EU – and won at the Edinburgh Tattoo. Have you come to Russia just for the sake of adding to your list? – No, by no...