The Department of Slavic Languages and Cultures

The Department of Slavic Languages and Cultures continues the longstanding traditions of the University Slavic studies. It was founded as interfaculty department at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1971. Since that time, the faculty staff has been teaching modern Slavic languages - Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Serbian – to undergraduate and graduate students that specialize in Slavic studies and majoring in those languages (at the Department of Foreign languages and Regional studies) or as a separate area of study (at the Departments where foreign language is not a major area of study.)

 Between 1971 and 1988, the interfaculty Department of Slavic Languages (from 1988 – a Department of Slavic Languages) was a part of the Foreign Languages Branch of the Philological Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, and in 1988 it became a part of the Faculty of Foreign Languages.

The founder of the Department is docent, candidate of philological sciences, R.P. Usikova. From 1989, docent, candidate of philological sciences, V.Ya. Tikhomirova served as the head of the Department , and from 2004 on the Department is headed by docent, candidate of philological sciences, O.N. Shapkina.

For two decades Slavic languages were taught at six departments (History, Economy, Geography, Journalism, Law, and Philosophy) where foreign languages are not the major area of study. The classes were offered at the beginning level. Department professors have developed hands-on courses of foreign/Slavic languages and different curricula for non-philologists, and also have developed textbooks for these departments. Those textbooks were planned to teach the students of different specialization to effectively use foreign/Slavic language for their professional purposes.

A new stage in the scientific and pedagogical advancement of the Department staff is related to the opening in 1988 of the Foreign Languages Department (now the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies). Since becoming a part of this Faculty, the Department of Slavic Languages and Cultures has been challenged with a tack of improving the educational process and practical knowledge of foreign languages for multidisciplinary specialists to fit the demands modern economical and social-political realities society present to specialists. In lieu of this, teaching of Slavic languages has been conducted in the next three directions:

·  teaching languages to language majors (at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies),

·  teaching languages to non-language majors (at Liberal Arts departments of the Lomonosov Moscow State University),

·  pre-university school children education.

The Department has strong ties with the national Ministries of Education in Bulgaria, Poland, Serbia and Czech Republic, Slavic universities and study centers , academic institutions, leading scientists and non-governmental organizations of those countries, participates in interuniversity collaboration programs, creates textbooks of foreign/Slavic languages for universities and schools of Russian Federation and CIS, and also works on other projects. Department’s Slavic languages specialists work on improving the collaboration between Russia and the rest of the Slavic world; participates in scientific and practical exchanges in the areas of study and teaching of Slavic languages together with other Slavic centers, and contributes to cultural ties between the countries of Central and Southeast Europe. 

The Department leads a number of various, diverse, and multilateral activities to promote science and culture of Slavic people, which includes: students’ and professors’ participation in the Days of Culture, thematic meetings, presentations, artistic evenings, movie clubs, exhibitions, and other events. Meetings with renown scientists, writers, journalists, culture activists are organized, as well as interactions between school and university youth that are studying foreign/Slavic languages with their counterparts from the countries of the studied languages. The Department organizes trips for students to the countries of the studied languages. Language competitions for students and schoolchildren are organized with the support of the embassies. Polish language specialists from the Department have initiated (at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies) creation of the regional organization for Polish Language Specialists (founded in 1996 by V.Ya. Tikhomirova).