On March 30, 2016, the Russian Center of European Fund of Slavic Literature and Culture was opened in the capital city of Slovakia - Bratislava.
The main task of the Russian Center in Bratislava is to popularize the Russian language and support programs for its study. The Russian language is one of the enduring values of world’s culture. The great Russian critic and publicist V.G. Belinsky wrote: "There is no doubt that the Russian language is one of the richest languages in the world". "Russian language is the language designed for poetry, it is extraordinarily rich and notable mainly with subtlety of shades"- so says a French writer and translator, the unsurpassed master of the novella, who did much to popularize Russian Literature in France Prosper Merimee.
It should be noted that the interest in the Russian language in Slovakia is traditionally quite high. And not only that Slovak, and Russian belong to a single group of Slavic languages, and our peoples have many common elements of common historical culture. In schools in Slovakia, the Russian language has been studied for quite a long time as one of the compulsory foreign languages, and there are many highly qualified teachers of the Russian language in the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, the well- known Slovak prose writer, chairman of the Association of Slovak Writers, poet and translator Yanko Yesenskiy contributed to the popularization of the Russian language in his country. He translated the works of A.S. Pushkin and S.A. Yesenin. During the First World War, Yesenskiy was forcibly sent by the Austro-Hungarian authorities to the Eastern Front, but voluntarily surrendered to the Russian troops and lived for some time in St. Petersburg.
Today, language is precisely that unique tool that helps to strengthen and multiply traditional universal human values, overcome imaginary and real barriers in interethnic communication, and contributes to the preservation of moral norms. Ultimately, the study of languages allows to achieve mutual understanding among nations.
In a solemn atmosphere in the new technological and functional building of the European Foundation of Slavic Literature and Culture in 2015, the opening of the Russian Center took place. The President of the European Foundation, President of the European Academy of Security and Conflictology, Academician, Doctor of Law, Professor I.I. Bondarenko opened the ceremony with his speech. Thanks to his efforts, energy, personal contribution (not only purely moral), persistence in many respects, this event took place. It should be noted that today I.I. Bondarenko is a member of the Union of Writers of Russia. From under his pen came out 15 books published in Russian. Some of the publications have also been translated into Slovak, English, Ukrainian and Czech languages. He was awarded the gold medal of the Union of Writers of Russia "For the contribution to the literature of Russia in the XXI century" and the publication of the best book of the beginning of the millennium. In 2015, Professor I.I. Bondarenko became a winner of All-Russian historical-cultural project "Victory Book“, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory (Moscow) , and this year - the winner of social and literary competition "Traversal" for the best literary and documentary work about the Great Patriotic War with the award medal "Motherland Calls".
The opening of the Russian Center was attended by Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russian Federation in Slovakia - A.L. Fedotov; Executive Director of Foundation "Russian world" V.V. Kochin; representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia under the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemyatovsky); State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic Ivan Sechik; representatives of the embassies of Belarus, Serbia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Italy in Slovakia.
It is also necessary to recall separately about prematurely departed from us the deputy of the Parliament of Slovakia, a member of a PACE, writer, journalist, author of many popular works published including and in Russian - Sergei Khelemendik. He also attended the opening ceremony and did much to spread and study of the Russian language in Slovakia.
Today the main direction of activities of the Russian Center is organizing courses on the Russian language, whose activity continues even in the difficult conditions of a pandemic. Moreover, the number of listeners is constantly growing from year to year. Students are offered courses for any level of language proficiency - from beginner to advanced. In training, modern interactive technologies and elements of speed-reading techniques are used.
Due to the unfavorable epidemiological situation, Russian language courses are currently being implemented in a distance format.
In addition, the Russian Center of the European Foundation of Slavic Literature and Culture provides with support teachers of Slovak schools and high schools through an integrated implementation of educational projects on Russian history and literature in school curricula. 25 different courses on the history and culture of Russia are really studied by Slovak students.
Among permanent partners of Russian center are schools and gymnasiums, higher educational institutions of Slovakia in Bratislava, Banska -Bystritsa, Preshov, Koshize, Trenchín, Levize, Vrable, Shintava.
Another direction is conducting thematic open lessons for schoolchildren and gymnasium students in Slovakia.
The 75th anniversary of the Great Victory was celebrated last year. The Day of Liberation from Nazism is a particularly revered national holiday in Slovakia. The pandemic, unfortunately, has made its own adjustments here as well. The organizers of the Russian Center were forced to switch to methods of conducting online events. One of their know-how was thematic online lessons. A series of similar lessons dedicated to the Great Victory enjoyed unwavering attention from the participants and was particularly successful. During these lessons, open archival documents on the Slovak partisan movement in 1944 were presented as well as documents on the liberation of Slovakia from fascism.
A series of online lessons dedicated to the history and modern development of Russian regions were held with no less success.
In connection with the already mentioned pandemic, the Russian Center had to restructure its work. The partners rendered considerable help in this. Thus, in February 2021 IPR Media Company has provided free access to the resource "Russian as a foreign language" for the teachers of Russian Center, students of Russian language courses, partners of RC in the face of schools, high schools and universities.
In fact, the cooperation with IPR MEDIA made it possible to provide fast and free online access to the electronic library of books in Russian, methodological materials and textbooks, audio and video archives.
However, not a single book, not a single textbook can replace live communication. The Russian Center and the European Foundation of Slavic Literature of Culture have done a lot over the last years in this direction. Russian center with a series of lectures "The path to a new life" visited the academician, doctor of economic sciences, professor G.N. Tsagalov, who presented a completely different view of the future development of economic theory in the modern world. Among guests of Russian center were Slovak painter A. Benz, one of the leaders of the International Union of Writers M. Mikhailov, well-known Slovak cinematographer and director S. Dlugalinskiy, the singer, composer, professor of the Vienna Conservatory Y. Ivashko, the actor 's ensemble of Russian song "Grandmother’s grandchildren" (Bryansk), folk athletic team "Girls " (Slovakia), russianists scientists from the Institute named after A.S. Pushkin and others. I.I. Bondarenko is the President of the European Foundation of Slavic Literature and Culture. He is actually a permanent lecturer at the Russian Center. His books on history, economics, political science make up a significant part of the unique library of the Russian Center.
The library fund of the Russian Center is enough impressive. It allows to organize the thematic exhibition from different books. The list of exhibitions on various topics in terms of popularity is headed by exhibitions: "History of the Russian State", "History of Russia through the eyes of contemporaries", "Russian writers for children", "Dictionaries and encyclopedias-guides of knowledge".
Russian center also hosts "Sunday Readings" of fiction for the children of compatriots. Children in a playful way get acquainted with the works of Russian classics. Such meeting topics as “Reading Chekhov”, “The Image of Winter in the Works of Russian Classics”, “Reading Belkin's Tales is Not Boring”, were developed both for work in the classroom and online.
There is also another side of the activities of the Russian Center. It is about organizing art exhibitions. The Russian Academy of Arts (RAA), the Creative Union of Artists of Russia and the European Center for Fine Arts provide great assistance here. It should be mentioned that the President of the European Foundation I.I. Bondarenko is closely related to all the organizations mentioned and is an honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Arts. The President of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Arts K.V. Khudyakov take part in organization of many exhibitions. Much is done in close contact with museums and exhibition halls in Russia and Slovakia. In total, 12 art exhibitions have been organized in various cities of Slovakia since the day the Russian Center began its work. Famous art galleries can hardly boast of such a result. And that's not to mention the fact that the exhibition hall of the European Foundation holds permanent exhibition.
As an example, we can mention only a few of the past art exhibitions. We are talking about the exhibitions "My Russian Province" and "Wheel of Friendship" from the works of the stock collection of the Yelabuga State Museum-Reserve . Only in the framework of the exhibition "The Wheel of Friendship" were presented 102 works by artists from 23 countries. The interest in their works was very great: visitors from Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic came to Bratislava especially to visit the exhibition and then it was performed in Berlin, Belgrade and other European cities.
The Russian Center of the European Fund also hosted an interactive exhibition, prepared jointly with the Russian Military Historical Society and the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Slovakia - "War and Myths". The exhibition was dedicated to the main milestones of the Second World War. Its uniqueness was in the use of new technologies which let to present material exhibition in an interactive way with the organization of a small movie theater and lecturing part of the presentations and discussions. All these opportunities were provided by the spacious and modern halls of the European Fund Gallery, which are rightfully considered the most technologically advanced in Slovakia and allow to hold simultaneously the so-called transformable exhibitions.
Preparations are under way for the exhibition "Art in War, War in Art", in which it is planned to present 97 graphic and painting works of artists.
Probably, not every language center can boast of having a special art studio where children and adults are taught the basics of painting and drawing. Such artistic studio "Petrushka" operates within the Russian Center in Bratislava. The classes are taught by a professional Russian artist Katya Grishakova. She is also known as the author of paintings in the style of impressionism and as a participant of many international exhibitions and expositions. In the studio "Petrushka" people of different ages are engaged - children, adolescents and adults. The trainings are attended by citizens from 9 countries of the world - Russia, Slovakia, Indonesia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Spain, Scotland, Great Britain and Ireland. Teaching is conducted simultaneously in three languages: Russian, Slovak and English. The best works of the students of the studio took part in the International Art Exhibition "Dream and Dreamers".
Organization and holding the International scientific-practical conferences and seminars is very important for the Russian center. Here is just a small list of them: “International Scientific and Practical Conference “Geopolitics of Russia”; International conference “Meeting of sister-cities and partner regions of Russia and Slovakia”; 5-th International Conference "Russia and Europe: Actual Problems of Contemporary International Journalism"; Discussion “ Review of Russia in the Slovak Mass Media”; Round table “Cooperation of cultural and tourism institutions of the regions of Russia and Slovakia”; Round table “Europe on the verge of wars and upheavals”.
The International Forum of Russianists from Central and Eastern Europe " Bratislava Meetings", which is organized jointly with the Russian Embassy in Slovakia and the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Bratislava, regularly takes place at the Russian Center of the European Fund.
Listeners of Russian language courses take part in contests and competitions in Russian language.
On the International Olympiad on the literature (June 2020), which was dedicated to the day of birth of A.S. Pushkin, a team from Slovakia took 3-rd place. And in the International online quiz (September 2020), which was dedicated to the birthday of S. A. Esenin, Slovak team won 1st place.
On the International Online Mental Arithmetic Olympiad "Akira Battle " (May 2020), the Slovakian team was awarded honorary personalized cups and certificates. 570 children from 15 countries took part in the Olympiad. Participants competed in different age categories from 7 to 14 years old and represented Russia, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Germany and other countries.
In the II International Online Olympiad in Russian (December 2020), three Slovak schoolchildren: Igor Prekop from Bratislava, Vivien Mrazova and Sashka Ilenchikova from Levize reached the final stage. The online Olympiad was organized by the oldest university in Russia - St. Petersburg State University with the support of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.
The preparation of the participants for all the competitions was carried out on the basis of the Russian Center in Bratislava.
The Russian Center, recognizing the importance of primary education, which lays the foundation for further knowledge, is currently developing a project on additional education for an elementary comprehensive school at the Russian Embassy in Slovakia.
Annually the Russian center participates in the International Festival of students "My friends, our union is beautiful!", organized by "Russian world" Foundation for students of Russian language; activities dedicated to the "European Day of Languages ", performing under the support of the Council of Europe; as well as in the organization of children Cinema-camp, where children can feel their selves in the role of actors, directors and producers.
And one final figure, showing the activities of the European Foundation of Russian center: webpage www.slavfond.eu , which holds the basic information on the activities of the Russian Center in Bratislava, is visited annually by more than 1 million people.
The Russian Center in Bratislava has earned the right to be considered as one of the best similar centers in Europe, not only due to its fairly high level of technical equipment and because of its favorable place and location in one of the most modern buildings, but also being the center of attraction for all those, who cares about the history and culture of Russia.