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Regular version of the site

Summer School "Russian Emigration in Serbia"

When?
August 25-31, 2019

Abstract
The HSE International Laboratory for the Study of Russian and European Intellectual Dialogue, Belgrade University, the Faculty of Philosophy of MSU, and the Faculty of Philosophy of the Baltic Federal University invite students to take part in the summer school Russian Emigration in Serbia, being held on August 25-31 in Belgrade, Serbia, on the basis of the University of Belgrade.
School participants are going to enjoy lectures, workshops, historical and cultural excursions. 

What is it about?
It is planned to show the history of the relationship between Russia and Serbia, tough destiny of Russian emigration. Despite the fact that most of the "portraits" of Russian emigrants describe the events and fate of the people of the twentieth century, lectures and workshops will be devoted to the events of the earlier period and the modern problems of the Balkans as well. It will help to reconstruct in detail the context of the centuries-old and amicable dialogue between Russia and Serbia.

Topics
The history of the Russian Society of Scientists in Belgrade, the ideas of Russian emigrant philosophers, the dialogue on the political development of the Balkans, the history of intellectual ties between Russia and the Balkan states.

Educational and research components 
  • Lectures and workshops by leading Russian and European scholars on Russian history, the history of Russian philosophy, literature, and art;
  • Excursions based on the method of the philosophical study of local history;
  • Practical work with archival materials in the funds of Russian emigrants;
  • Research work in groups;
  • Public presentation of research work results.

Summary (by V.K. Kantor)
I collected the lecturers' statements, their impressions and thoughts about the school, which were posted on social networks, and enclosed them with my resume as the head of the School.
The time frame is from August 25 - August 31; The heat was serious, by the way: 36-37 °C every day.

Alexey Kozyrev: The international summer school "Russian Emigration in Serbia" at Belgrade University brought together students and lecturers from Moscow State University, the Higher School of Economics and the Baltic Federal University. The school was greeted by the dean of the Faculty of Philology Professor Liliana Markovich and the dean of the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow State University prof. Vladimir Mironov (videorecording). Today in the lecture program are Arseniy Kumankov, Vladimir Kantor, Andrey Teslya and prof. Leonid Luks. During a week Participants of the school will visit Novi Sad and Sremski Karlovtsy, take a tour of Russian Belgrade and present their projects on the topics of the school. My graduate students Anna Makarova and Anna Nasyrova, as well as the student Daniil Baboshin (Mass communication), take part in the school.

Andrey Teslya: The Belgrade school on the history of Russian emigration of the interwar period in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenian (since 1929 - the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) ended yesterday. It was held jointly by the University of Belgrade, HSE, MSU, and BFU under the supervision of Vladimir Kantor. Summer schools, as we all know, are very uneven and successful ones among them are definitely in minority. It is so difficult to organize everything correctly, build a balance of topics, select participants and etc. This school turned out to be one of the few in my life that not only lived up to but strongly exceeded my expectations in terms of work intensity, topics discussed, and, most importantly, in the multidimensional effect - due to the multiplicity of research optics, including national perspectives and traditions. Schools are formally organized primarily for students. However, I learned not less than students. If something I didn’t have enough for the school, it is sauntering in Belgrade and its neighborhood. But this is also a big plus for the school, where all the time (except for the time absolutely necessary for rest) was spent on the work, whether formal or informal. And if we, ordinary participants, returned home tired, but happy, I don’t know how much strength and energy was in Irina Antanasijevic who endured the huge share of the work on the organization and still managed to maintain a sense of humor. In a word, I really hope that this project will have many various sequels (on which, in fact, they have already begun to work).

Marina Kiseleva: Today the International Summer School "Russian Emigration in Serbia" has completed its curriculum, united scientists and students from the University of Belgrade (Serbia), Moscow State University, NRU HSE, and BFU. Every day, from August 25 to 30, students listened to lectures by Russian professors at the Russian Center at Belgrade University and went on excursions conducted by prof. Irina Antanasievich and Boban Churich. And today the student’s defense took place ...

Colleagues from Serbia: Yesterday we were visited by teachers and professors of Moscow State University, Higher School of Economics (HSE, Moscow) and the Baltic University named after Immanuel Kant (BFU) in the framework of the Summer School "Russian Emigration in Serbia". We discussed the importance of Russian emigration for the development of Serbian culture, and gave possible ideas about future research work. The summer school was initiated by prof. Dr. Irina Antanasijević.

Vladimir Kantor:
Dear friends and colleagues, I, as the head of the Summer School in Serbia, indisputably fall the obligation to at least briefly talk about our activities - failures and successes. I must say right away that, according to the general feeling, the School turned out to be an unconditional success.
The idea of ​​the School came to me from a conversation with Alexey P. Kozyrev. We talked about the fact that today's students are losing their samostoyanie ("self-standing" - in the words of Pushkin), losing faith in the power of the Russian mind. They forget and do not want to know the great Russian philosophers studied by Europeans, do not see the relevance of the work of such thinkers as S. Frank, G. Shpet, S. Bulgakov, let alone the people expelled from Russian whose names we have almost lost, but whose intellectual baggage was used by the West. They are inventors (Igor Sikorsky), and founders of modern sociology (Pitirim Sorokin), and the Russian Dante - F. Dostoevsky, not exiled, but long denied, who turned and complicated European thought. We are as if shy of the level of our geniuses.

The stories of Russian professors in academic lectures often do not reach the mind and heart of students who are used to the fact that what is done in the West is a priori better.
Our task was to introduce Russian culture in a different context, in a situation of “find-out-of-place”, a situation that gives binocular vision. Serbia was suitable for this purpose like no other culture. The country with a tragic fate is able to understand Russian tragedy. After the civil war (1918-1920), no country accepted so many exiles from Russia as little poor Serbia.
That is where we decided to hold a Summer School calling it “Russian Emigration in Serbia” and immersing students in the material.
In the autumn of 2018, M.S. Kiseleva and V.K. Kantor made presentations in Belgrade. There, my preliminary conversation took place with Belgrade professor Irina Antanasievich, who is just dealing with the problems and heroes of the Russian emigration. And the figures there were very significant: P.B. Struve, V.V. Zenkovsky, E.V. Anichkov, E.V. Spektorsky, N.O. Lossky, D.S. Merezhkovsky, General P.N. Wrangel, Metropolitan bishop Anthony Khrapovitsky, first-time chairman of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, etc.
Irina supported the idea. On the Serbian side, it turned out to be a decisive figure. Irina overcame all obstacles, one after another. The organization of the School from the HSE side (passports, insurance, etc.) was undertaken by E.V. Besschetnova. She proposed the principle of selecting students for the School - according to their summary of future reports. But difficulties were arriving. It turned out that Belgrade University and HSE do not have a cooperation agreement. It is good that Moscow State University, which had this agreement, turned out to be our partner. I will not retell all the bureaucratic squiggles. As a result, there merged three Russian universities - HSE, Moscow State University, BFU (Kaliningrad), and Belgrade University. The most difficult thing, however, was to draw up a program taking into account the interests of students and the interests of the Serbian side, combining educational excursions and lectures. Here is the obvious victory of our two professors Irina Antanasievich (Belgrade) and Marina Kiseleva (Moscow). The merit of compiling the Program, which every one accepted is, of course, their merit.
Elena Valerievna managed to get money for students' tickets, and Irina Antanasievich got a free hostel and free meals for students. Two topics of projects were proposed for students: 1. “Russian emigration - a consequence of the civil war” (leader A. Kumankov, curator Daniil Morozov). 2. “Orthodoxy - the preservation of the national and cultural identity of Russian emigration” (leaders A.P. Kozyrev and V.K. Kantor, curator Anna Makarova). At the last stage, a decisive support to our project was provided by V.A. Kasamara.
We arrived on Sunday, August 25th. And on Monday, after the Welcome speech by the Dean of the Faculty of Philology Lilyana Markovich and a thank-you note from the head of the school prof. V.K. Kantor, reports began. The first report was delivered by A.D. Kumankov "Russian waves on the Danube: white emigration to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes." Then everyone listened to prof. Leonid Luks ​​"Russian statesman P.B. Struve." And on the same day there were two more reports: “Serbian stories in journalism of I.S. Aksakov" by the associate professor A.A. Teslya (BFU) and “Emigration Rethinking of Past Russian Thought: Professor Evgeny Anichkov”. by professor V.K. Kantor (HSE).
The next day, there was an excursion around Belgrade, where the tireless Professor Antanasievich peripathetically read us two reports. Having led us to the Royal Palace on Dedinj, she made the report “On Russian Architects of the Royal Palace”. Then there was a reception in the palace and we listened to the Queen Mary. After lunch there was a tour of Russian Belgrade and the Russian necropolis and Irina gave the lecture “Russian Necropolis in Belgrade and the Russian Church on Tashmaydan”. We saw the grave of the General Alekseev and the General Wrangel. In the evening there was a meeting with the film director Bosko Milosavlevich about Russian emigration, he showed an excerpt from a new film about V.V. Shulgin.
On August 28, three lectures were delivered. Kaliningrad lecturer Vladas Povilaitis read a report on the topic “Completely alien to each other ...”: how the Russian emigration realized itself. ” Perhaps the key-report of this day was the report of Aleksey Kozyrev, “The dispute about Sofia: Metropolitan bishop Anthony, the Karlovac Synod and the zealots of Orthodoxy”. The lecture by Marina Kiseleva “Petr Struve in Belgrade: the end of the drama” was final. In the evening there was a meeting with the most famous young writer, by the way, a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy, who delivered a very interesting message in beautiful Russian and spoke about the influence of Russian literature on him.
Thursday, August 29, was a day of sightseeing. We started with a trip to the monastery Novo-Hopovo - Novi Sad (90 km), a tour lecture was presented by prof. Boban Churich. And after lunch, there was a fantastic meeting with Aleksey Borisovich Arsenyev, a descendant of Russian “first wave” emigrants, a researcher of the culture of the Russian emigration, the largest expert on fate of Russian emigrants. Then we took a bus to Sremski Karlovtsi, where Alexey Arsenyev spoke about the “Russian emigration to Sremski Karlovtsi”.
On Friday, August 30, there were presentations and discussion of student projects. 1. “Russian emigration - a consequence of the Civil War” (participating students: Daniil Morozov, Tatyana Aleksanova, Daniil Baboshin). 2. “Orthodoxy: preserving the national and cultural identity of Russian emigration” (participating students: Anna Makarova, Anna Nasyrova, Kirill Martemyanov, Polina Blinnikova, Ekaterina Podobueva, Maria Mironenko). The discussion of the presentations was very productive. The result of this discussion was a proposal by the editor-in-chief of the journal Philosophical Letters (that is, my proposal) to turn these projects into review articles for the journal.
Saturday was a free day - we went our separate ways.
In conclusion, supporting the opinion of my colleagues, I can say that the Summer School in Serbia turned out to be one of the best events of this kind in terms of intellectual saturation.

 

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