The Organizer is the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg with the support of Russian Center of Science and Culture in Belgrade “The Russian House” and Embassy of the Russian Federation in Serbia.
As noted by Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg Evgeny Grigoriev in his welcoming address to the participants, the choice of venue for “St. Petersburg Meetings” was deliberate. “Strong feelings of mutual affection and friendship between our fraternal peoples and broad affinity of spiritual and cultural heritage are at the core of ties between Russia and Serbia”, was stated in the welcoming address. “Cooperation at the regional level continues to develop steadily. Like St. Petersburg, Belgrade is also its country’s cultural center. It is not surprising that mutual interest between the cities is at a high level these days”.
More than 600 Serbian residents including schoolchildren, students, teaching specialists in Russian philology and others interested in Russian culture participated in “St. Petersburg Meetings”.
Workshops on decorative-applied arts devoted to “Khokhloma Painted Wooden Spoons” and “Matryoshka Painting” were organized as part of ‘cultural exchange’ direction. In the course of the workshops around 50 pupils of the Russian Embassy School and the Russian School named after V.V. Tereshkova have mastered such elaborate skills. The workshops were conducted by an experienced fine and applied arts teacher, member of Union of Artists, Ekaterina Ozerova.
Gala of St. Petersburg artistic group Bis-Quit attended by almost 500 people was the highlight of “St. Petersburg Meetings” culture program. The concert included world’s musical masterpieces in the musicians’ own orchestration performed using folk instruments. The musicians have prepared a special gift for Serbian residents – they played “Kalashkikov” piece by a famous composer and musician Goran Bregovic. Balalaika is a centerpiece and an integral part of such arrangement. It is a well-known fact that St. Petersburg holds a special place in the history of balalaika, since it was in the northern capital that a concert variant of now famous throughout the world instrument appeared 130 years ago.
Russian language and Literature teachers from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kruševac, Trstenik, Paraćin, Aleksandrovac, Niš and Vrnjačka Banja participated in interactive sessions under the guidance of Doctor of Education, Prof. Ludmila Kharchenkova. During two days the teachers were studying strategies and tactics of cross-cultural language education, implementation of dialogue of cultures principle in teaching Russian as a foreign language as well as methodological framework for tests of Russian as a foreign language and much more. Following the workshops, our compatriots received certificates of participation.
The representatives of Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg made a presentation of activities carried out by the Government of St. Petersburg in respect to ethnic Russians abroad.
During “St. Petersburg Meetings” the delegation of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg also held a meeting with Director of representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Serbia N.V. Kushchenkova. In particular, the sides discussed a possibility of joint organization of events dedicated to the 75-th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade.
In addition, the official program of “St. Petersburg Meetings” included presentation of education program and scientific opportunities of St. Petersburg Mining University for pupils from Belgrade schools. At the side event representatives of the Mining University led by Vice Rector for educational activities Alexander Gospodarikov held meetings with Dean and Deputy Deans of the Faculty of Mining and Geology of Belgrade State University as well as NIS-Gazpromneft Company management.
In the framework of the Event, several sets of educational literature and fiction books were handed over to the Russian School named after V.V. Tereshkova, J.J. Zmaj Grammar School and “Clever School” in Novi Sad.
The program was concluded by the public screening of “Three Days Till The Spring” feature film by Lenfilm Studio that tells about Leningrad under blockade in winter of 1942. Specifically for the screening, the film was subtitled to Serbian.