September 1 is the first day of school in Russia. This day is celebrated as a holiday, which is called Day of Knowledge. On September 1, the winners of an international contest of Russian language teachers will come to Moscow.
This contest, named after the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, is now being held for the 12th time. Taking part are teachers of Russian language from the former Soviet republics, Bulgaria, Germany and Israel.
As usual, the names of the winners were announced on June 6, which is Pushkin’s birthday.
This year, the contest was devoted to the role of Russian language as a means of telling the historic truth. At present, a lot of historians, both professional ones and amateurs, present different, sometimes contradictory, interpretations of certain historic events, both of the bygone centuries and of recent history. It is often very hard to distinguish the historic truth from unscientific theories or mere falsifications.
In an interview with the Voice of Russia, one of the contest’s organizers, Yadviga Yuferova, who is also deputy editor-in-chief of the “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” newspaper, said:
“It is not for nothing that we chose this theme. By a decree of Russia’s president, 2012 has been announced the Year of Russian history.”
“In 2012, Russia celebrates 200 years since its victory over French Emperor Napoleon and 1,150 years since Russia became a united state with one ruler. According to a chronicle, in 862, Russians asked a nobleman from a neighboring tribe called Varangians, whose name was Ryurik, to become their ruler. This is considered to be the date when Russia, from a territory with multiple and non-united tribes, turned into one state with one ruler.”
“When we decided to devote this year’s contest to the role of Russian language as a means of telling the historic truth, we did not expect that Russian would win such a serious victory in Ukraine,” Ms. Yuferova continues. “Within many years, Ukraine’s authorities practically made every resident of the country speak Ukrainian, although there are many ethnic Russians or speakers of fluent Russian in Ukraine. However, recently, in some parts of Ukraine, Russian has received an official status of a regional language. At present, it has this status in 11 regions of Ukraine.”
The Pushkin contest was first held in 2000. Its aim is to support enthusiastic and talented teachers of the Russian language in and outside Russia.
At present, several hundred million people in the world know Russian. However, unfortunately, their number is constantly decreasing.
“In the Soviet Union, the majority of people, regardless of their nationality, spoke fluent Russian – or, at least, wanted to learn it,” Russian analyst Vyacheslav Nikonov says. “But the Soviet Union collapsed 21 years ago. Today, in many former Russian states, young people often have poorer knowledge of Russian than their parents and grandparents do – or don’t know it at all.”
“In the countries with Communist regimes, many people were also eager to study Russian because as a rule, these countries had close ties with the Soviet Union. Now, there are obviously fewer enthusiasts of Russian in these countries.”
“It may be argued what is the most widely spread and influential language in the world today,” Vyacheslav Nikonov continues. “If we take into account only the number of speakers, it is, of course, the Chinese language. But from the point of view of influence in the world, Chinese obviously still cannot compete with English.”
“Every nation can and should bring its culture to the rest of the world, first of all, through its language,” Mr. Nikonov says. “The same is also true about the Russian people and the Russian language.”
Vyacheslav Nikonov is the head of a foundation called the Russkiy Mir Foundation. The aim of this foundation is to promote the Russian language and Russian culture all over the world, and it has already opened its missions in many countries.
The contest of teachers was organized by the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
The contest’s organizers are convinced that a good teacher of Russian should be much more than just a teacher of words and grammar rules. A real teacher of Russian should help his or her students to learn more about the culture and history of Russia and to better understand the mysterious Russian soul.
/ Voice of Russia /
