On June 29, in Groningen University, the Netherlands, a Russian Center was opened, reports the press service of the fund, “Russky Mir.”
Although Russky Mir has created Russian Centers in many other countries and encompasses more than fifty institutions, the Russian Center in Groningen University has received a special status. This is the first time in the history of Russky Mir’s cooperation with educational institutions based in a Russian Center were a special inter-disciplinary model will be used.
“The Russian Center in Groningen,” says the European representative of the fund, Archpriest Antonin Ilyin, “is not just another center for Russian language and culture. This is an inter-disciplinary center of Russian research, which will have the status of a department of Groningen University. It will have an educational council comprised not only of Russian studies scholars, but also representatives of other faculties—history, political science… The status of the department allows for the possibility to present scholarly works, including doctoral dissertations, based in the Russian Center. We have not had anything similar to this before. More centers like this will be opened in the future, especially in Western Europe.”
Fr. Antonin also emphasized that Groningen is very closely tied to Russia economically, and therefore the cultural cooperation between Holland and Russia should be more intense here. GAZUNI, a major northern European partner of the Russian gas giant, Gasprom, is located in Groningen. Furthermore, assistant operating director of Russky Mir, V. N. Istratov, notes that Groningen University already has a good tradition of Russian studies thanks to its long existing department of Slavic languages and culture.
During its three years of existence, Russky Mir has opened centers in Europe, America and Asia for the advancement of study of Russian language and culture in those continents.
