The Day of the Russian language dedicated to the birthday anniversary of Alexander Pushkin was held at the Nikitin Regional Library. The final event which was a part of a large cultural and educational project “We will cherish you, the Russian language” was organised by the National Chamber under the aegis of the governor of the Voronezh Region and VSU Faculty of Philology.
“The Russian language is not only the most important element of our culture but also our heritage. VSU works a lot in order to popularise the Russian language. First of all, we have a legendary Faculty of Philology. Rector of Moscow State University Viktor Sadovnichy who has visited Voronezh many times always notes that VSU is mostly famous for two of its educational research schools: Maths school and the school of the Russian language and literature. Second, our university makes great efforts in order to promote the Russian language outside Russia. Three Russian language centres have been opened in China. An online platform “Russian as a foreign language” was developed at VSU. At first, it was intended for Spanish-speaking users but since then it has been updated and modified and can now be used by Chinese-speaking users,” said VSU Rector Dmitry Endovitsky in his welcome speech.
“Representatives of more than 120 nations live in the Voronezh Region, and there are representatives of over 190 nationalities in the Russian Federation, and they are all united by the Russian language. Therefore, the preservation and development of the language is an issue of national security for us,” noted Aleksandr Timashov, personal assistant of the governor of the Voronezh Region.
“Today we celebrate two holidays at once, the Day of the Russian language and the birthday anniversary of Alexander Pushkin. Some people create spaceships while others create literary languages. Alexander Pushkin was among the latter; he created the modern Russian literary language. Philosopher Ivan Ilyin said that Pushkin is the bright centre of Russian history. Russia was lucky to have Pushkin. The poet talked about the greatness of the Russian soul and taught us to appreciate the most important that we have in our lives, which is our Motherland. He taught us to believe in its creative power. And I’m sure that only a great nation can be blessed with the birth of such a genius,” said Zhanna Gracheva, Dean of the Faculty of Philology at VSU, in her speech.
VSU Professor and Member of the Presidential Council for Russian Language Ludmila Koltsova congratulated the guests, the graduates, and the friends of the university as well as those who teach Russian in China, Vietnam, Iraq, Senegal, Serbia, Macedonia, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Spain, and many other countries.
Winners of the recitation competition recited poems, and excerpts from the winning texts of the essay contests were read aloud. Students from neighbouring countries talked about their teachers of the Russian language and literature, amazing people who cultivated the pupils’ love for the subject.
The guests saw the performances of the VSU folk music group “Terem”, artistic teams of the Creativity Centre for Children and Young People, and pupils from children’s art schools of Voronezh. The participants received letters of gratitude and honorary certificates.
