LONDON, February 24 (Itar-Tass) — On Friday the Russkiy Mir Foundation will unveil its programme in one of the leading educational centres in Britain and Europe – University of Oxford. It will help students and the academic staff to know more about Russia and its culture, the program’s administrator, Nina Kruglikova, told Itar-Tass.
The Russkiy Mir Program is being implemented under the financial support of the same name foundation that promotes Russian culture and language abroad and under the aegis of the St Antony’s College, one of the seven graduate colleges of the University of Oxford that is one of the leading centres for Russian studies in England.
The Foundation on the premises of St. Antony’s College has a library of Russian books and a video lab of Soviet and Russian films as well as collections of Russian periodicals.
The foundation’s director, Oliver Ready, is a research fellow at the University of Oxford, a specialist in Russian literature and translator of Dostoyevsky and modern Russian writers.
He is consultant editor for Russia and East-Central Europe at the Times Literary Supplement.
The Program has been implemented as a pilot project since October and on Wednesday it will be officially unveiled.
Taking part in the inauguration ceremony will be the Russian ambassador to Britain Alexander Yakovenko, director of European Programs at the Russkiy Mir Foundation and deputy director of the Institute of Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexei Gromyko, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford Andrew Hamilton, Deputy Lord Mayor Alan Armitage, Chair of Russian at the University of Oxford, Professor Andrei Zorin and Professor Gabriel Gorodetsky from All Souls College, Oxford.
Oliver Ready told Itar-Tass that the Program’s events are mainly targeted at students, graduates, the academic staff and residents of Oxford, who have no relation to the university. Under the Program several seminars devoted to Russian culture, poetry, architecture in modern Russia and Russian art business took place and gathered 40-50 visitors, which is a high figure for Oxford.
“We work in St. Antony’s College, which is traditionally a research centre for Soviet and Russian history and politics,” said Nina Kruglikova. “Our activities are targeted at promoting Russian culture and language among students as well as academic and teaching staff. Its distinction from other programs in the university is that we also focus our attention on the Russian-speaking diaspora in Oxford.”
“In September we plan to hold a big conference devoted to modern Russian literature. There has been no such conference on the issue in Britain before. We plan to invite writers and critics from Russia, Britain and other countries,” she said.