Seminars

On 15 October 2011 Cultural and Educational Foundation - ALFAVIT Oktatási és kulturális közhasznú alapítvány (Budapest, Hungary) organised, within the framework of the Grundtvig programme, the third international seminar dedicated to the "Use of Russian cultural heritage in Russian teaching for adults in Europe" 

Seminar theme: "Russian cultural heritage in Hungary"

Seminar venue: 1062 Budapest, Andrassy út 120

Participants of the educational partnership Grundtvig:

• Belgium - Association Maison Russe à Liège;
• France - Association Russie-Aquitaine, Bordeaux;
• Hungary - ALFAVIT Oktatási és kulturális közhasznú alapítvány, Budapest;
• Italy - Centro didattico per lo sviluppo del bilinguismo italo-russo "Lev Tolstoj", Associazione culturale "Russky dom - Italia" Milano;
• Greece - «MIR» Center of Foreign languages, Athens;
• Turkey - Rus Kültür Derneği, Ankara.

The seminar was attended by heads and teachers of public organisations, poets, historians, educators, specialists in Russian philology, representatives the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo). The total number of participants was 35 people.

Opening remarks were made by the Director of the Russian Cultural Scientific Centre in Budapest Sergei Borozdin , RCSC Director and Head of Russian language courses E. Zaharov. In their speeches, they attached great importance to the work being done today in Europe and Hungary to preserve the Russian language and Russian cultural heritage.

Rita Haszanova presented the project participants from Belgium (3 pers.), Turkey (1 pers.), Greece (5 pers.), France (2 pers.), Italy (3 pers.) and asked the participants to pronounce in the language of the host country the phrase "I love the Russian language!".

PaRus Project Coordinator Igor Zhukovsky in his speech briefed the participants on the project, and stressed the importance of the work to find a Russian cultural heritage in Europe.

Further, R. Haszanova presented the cultural and educational foundation "ALFAVIT".

Tamara Szacski (seminar chair) passed the word to Galina Kovács, who presented "The Shrine of Alexandra Pavlovna, a methodical review of the text."

The next report at the request of Vadim Vozdvizhenskiy was presented by Tatiana Men. regarding "My beloved Ungaria" of the eighteenth century Slavic educator Hryhorii Savych Skovoroda (1722-1774). In the town of Tokay, where he lived for five years, a memorial plaque was put to the philosopher.

Then the floor was given to the historian and journalist Vadim Aristov, the author of a unique publication "the Russian world of Budapest and Hungary," which recreated the historical chronology of the Slavic presence in the Hungarian soil, and answers questions about current relations between the two countries. He noted that the holding of such seminars is essential for maintaining interest in Russian culture and Russian language in Europe.

After the break there was a screening of the film "Russian heritage of Europe" as shot on the estate of Maurice Druon in France by A. Chernomor, president of the Association Maison Russe in Liège.

Then Ella Prudits spoke about the Tokay imperial commission in Hungary in the seventeenth century (1714-1798). According to V. Aristov a commemorative plaque should be installed on the 200th anniversary of the Tokay commission as the first Russian trade mission to Hungary, which lasted more than 70 years.

The next speaker was the artistic translator of Russian poetry into Hungarian Árpád Galgóczy. He spoke about the difficulties of translating Russian poetry, read a few poems in Russian and their translations into Hungarian. The representative of Rossotrudnichestvo, Vladimir Masalov, presented to Mr. Galgóczy an award from the Russian state for his achievements. Then he read the he was asked to recite "Tatyana's Letter" from Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" in two languages.

After the break in her contribution, Elena Shapalova under the topic "Russian musical heritage in Europe" highlighted the creative career of the Russian singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya (1884-1940). The song by Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Do not sing, my beauty, to me!" was sung by Natalia Timonova.

The next speaker, honoured teacher of the Russian Federation Anna Dunaevskaya told about the use of folk art in the process of learning the Russian language. She conducted a master class for the Study of Russian songs.

In the afternoon, a meeting of the working group of partners to promote the project was held.

A rapid survey of the results of the interim reports found that only three countries at the time had received the reply that their report was adopted.

Of the recommendations we received from the agencies, it is clear that one of the requirements is the so-called dissemination, that is, disseminating information and continue to the final results of the project.

The second wish was the translation of texts into the language of our partnership in order for it to be clear to experts what was going on.

The coordinators of the project once again reminded all partners of the upcoming tasks. Our project will be formalised as follows:

• electronic collection of texts on Russian cultural heritage in Europe, which can be used by our colleagues in their courses of instruction, (in line with Grundtvig these are collected royalty free, while maintaining of copyright of text by its creators) / please note that if texts are taken from the Internet, or belong to other authors they require consent for inclusion in the collection, and references to websites /;

• Interactive map of Europe with the designation of the iconic places of the Russian presence. It should be small texts in Russian, which teachers can use in their work;

• educational film or films on places of the Russian presence (Note the high quality of the first film, presented by Andrei. This film, along with the text can be used on the Russian language lessons);

• compilation of guidelines on the use of Russian Cultural Heritage (film, music, theater, poetry, art).

 Tamara Szacski presented two educational text "Russian musicians in Budapest" and "Sviatoslav Richter". There was discussion on establishing criteria for educational texts.

All participants noted the high level of the presentations and thanked the organisers of this meeting.

The next meeting of the participants to the project "PaRus" is scheduled to take place in Milan from 2 to 5 February 2012. Seminars will be in Ankara in late April, and in Athens at the end of June.

For the guests was organised a dinner party at the Russian Centre for Science and Culture, where in an informal, friendly atmosphere participants can once again share their views and communicate with partners.

On Saturday 15 October at 9:00 pm Participants in honour of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Hungarian composer Franz Liszt visited his museum in Budapest. There they heard a lecture in Russian about the life of Franz Liszt.

Next, the participants went by bus to Üröm (20 km. from Budapest), attended the liturgy in the chapel of Alexandra Pavlovna, which was built in 1804 and toured the Orthodox cemetery beginning of the nineteenth century. After the service, Father Dmitri spoke in detail about the history of the chapel and church treasures. During the trip, a conversation in Russian started between the Hungarian and Greek students.

After lunch, had participants a free program.