On October 29, an international scientific and practical conference «The Czech Republic, the Slavic World and their neighbors: Issues of history and culture (to the 170th anniversary of A. Yirasek)», initiated by the Center for Slavic Studies of Faculty of History, Sociology and International Relations of Kuban State University was held at Kuban State University. The conference was organized with the support of the Russian House in Prague, the International Cultural Center «Key» of the Czech Republic, the Czech Cultural Center of Krasnodar, as well as with the participation of the Czech Association of Russian Studies in Prague and the Club of Youth and Children’s Diplomacy in the Czech Republic.
For the first time, Russian and Czech students and pupils took part in the conference. Participants of the youth section «Cultural Dialogue Russia – Czech Republic: Slavic World through the eyes of youth» were welcomed by: Professor Egnara Gaykovna Vartanyan and Professor Oleg Vladimirovich Matveev from the Center of Slavic Studies of Kuban State University, Alina Andreevna Shunina, Acting Head of the Rossotrudnichestvo Representative Office in the Czech Republic, from the Russian House in Prague, Chairman of the Board Anna Aleksandrovna Evsina from the International Cultural Institute «Key» of the Czech Republic and head of the Center Natalia Leonidovna Lazarenko from the Czech Cultural Center in Krasnodar .
Radka Morongova, a lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages of Pardubice Technical University, a member of the International Cultural Institute «Key», read out the address of the Chairman of the Czech Association of Russianists and the Czech-Russian Society in the Czech Republic Jiri Klapka to the conference participants. On behalf of the Youth and Children’s Diplomacy Club in the Czech Republic, the president of the club, Michal Fedorov, made a welcoming speech.
Summing up the results of the event, the head of the section – Candidate of Historical Sciences Roman Aleksandrovich Nikolaenko noted the active work and interesting reports of the young people from the Czech Republic in the «Fact» section (presentations about A. Yirasek): Alyona Koshakova, Stanislava Koshakova, Alexander Komissarov, Artem Efremov, Anastasia Denisova, Elizaveta Antipova, Maria Borisova, Ivan Nemchenkov, Daria Evstratenko, Anastasia Evstratenko and Amalka Kesnerova, as well as in the category «I live in the Czech Republic» – Michal Fedorov and Anastasia Alekseeva.
Pupils of Krasnodar schools – Timofey Velikasov and Dmitry Yakovlev told about Kuban and its capital Krasnodar, and Viktor Pisklenov, Diana Gilmanova and Roy Nina sang a song in Czech at the end of the youth section.
«We are glad that Kuban State University has become a platform for a cultural dialogue between Czech and Russian youth within the framework of the scientific conference and we hope that this is only the first step towards our further joint cultural, educational and scientific projects that will allow us to meet both in the Czech Republic and Russia, will allow us to gain new knowledge and experience, and also to find friends and like-minded people with whom we will build a joint future of our Slavic world», – Galina Nikolaevna Govorova, Director of the International Affair Department of Kuban State University, noted in her closing speech.