The 2015 International Summer School of Russian Language and Culture "V. Dal'" was held in the Vologodsky Region in the Kirillovsky District from mid-July to mid-August. Students from Russian cities such as Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Cherepovets, together with foreign students from Serbia, France and Kenya, studied Russian language and traditional elements of Russian culture. The Russkiy Mir Foundation financed the participation in the school of a group of children from the Donetsk.
The school programme included daily lessons of Russian language as well as master-classes in traditional Russian crafts. The crafts programme, which grows year on year, included modelling clay toys, pottery, Gorodets painting, metal work and much more besides.
The course was held in the Kirillovsky Secondary School, the Kirillo-Belozyorsky National Park and the youth centre "Alpha".
Programme participants visited the Kirillo-Belozyorsky and Ferapontov Monasteries and the Resurrection Goritsky Nunnery. They also took part in the Ilinsky Procession on the Tsypina Hill, attended a historical reconstruction camp at Sugor', and met with young writers and poets from the Vologodsky Region. The students also learnt about ancient Russian village life at the "Semenkovo" Architectural-Ethnographic Museum. Finally, older students of the local film school, VGIKA, organised a International Children's Film Festival entitled "Clouds", where they presented their work to the summer school participants.
