29.04.2022
From April 24 to April 29, a number of events in the framework of “Vietnam Cross City Days in MGIMO and Saint Petersburg State University” were held by the initiative of the ASEAN Centre in MGIMO and the Ho Chi Minh Institute of Saint Petersburg State University. This format is aimed to extend academic and educational cooperation between the leading centers of Asian studies in Russia, and to establish contacts between Russian students studying the Vietnamese language and Vietnamese students living and studying in Russia.
The events in Saint Petersburg opened with an academic workshop, which took place on April 25 in Saint Petersburg State University. Moscow delegation was composed of students from the MGIMO, Institute of Asian and African Studies of Moscow State University, National Research University Higher School of Economics, RUDN University, Moscow State Linguistic University as well as the representatives of the MGIMO Vietnamese Students’ Community. The delegation paid a visit to the University and was welcomed by Dr. Petr Moskalev, Assistant of the Department of History of the Far East Countries, and by students of Saint Petersburg State University studying at the Faculty of Asian and African Studies.
During the workshop, the participants presented the preliminary results of their studies on various socio-political, economical and cultural aspects of ancient, medieval and contemporary Vietnam. Russia-Vietnam bilateral cooperation in the digital and agricultural fields was also covered during the discussion. The presentations aroused a great interest among the audience, and were also highly appreciated by the invited experts, including Dr. Vladimir Kolotov, the Director of the Ho Chi Minh Institute, the Head of the Department of the History of the Far East, and Dr. Svetlana Glazunova, Senior lecturer of the Department of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Lao languages at MGIMO. The Vietnamese students of MGIMO also introduced activities of their community and the history of such an annual event as “Vietnam Day”.
At the end of the discussion, Dr. Vladimir Kolotov provided a brief background of the Ho Chi Minh Institute, and presented a unique book collection of the Institute's library. He also gave several examples of non-professional publications distorting the image of Vietnam, and called for students to devote more attention to their experience in Vietnamese and regional studies. The programme of Vietnam Cross City Days in Saint Petersburg also included the ceremony of laying flowers at the Ho Chi Minh monument in the courtyard of the Faculty of Asian and African Studies on the occasion of the national holiday of Vietnam — Day of Southern Liberation for National Reunification.
As part of the programme, the Moscow students’ delegation also visited the main cultural attractions of Saint Petersburg, including the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum and Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s Village). The cultural programme of Vietnam Cross City Days in Saint Petersburg was aimed at enriching students' knowledge about the culture and history of the country, as their future career will involve communication with foreign partners.
The students’ delegation from Saint Petersburg State University will pay a return visit to Moscow in the framework of the 7th Day of Vietnam in MGIMO.