A Delegation from Armenia and Kyrgyzstan Visited PetrSU

The visit took place as part of the International Youth Marathon "The Great Victory in the Memory of Generations. The Karelian Front," of which PetrSU is a participant.

The Republic of Armenia was represented by Elena Shuvaeva, the Lecturer at Yerevan State University (Ijevan branch), Deputy Chair of the Marshal I.Kh. Baghramyan Association of Veterans of the Republic of Armenia, and Editor-in-Chief of the Association's journal, "Veteran."

The Kyrgyz Republic was represented by Zanfira Miskichekova, Associate Professor of the Department of World Literature at the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication at Osh State University and Director of the Russian Center at the Osh branch of the Russian State Social University; Zamira Sabiralieva, Head of the Department of World Literature at the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication at Osh State University; Lada Evgenyevna Khasanova, an internationally recognized cultural heritage guide, member of the Union of Guides and Interpreters of Kyrgyzstan, member of the World Federation of Tourist Guides, and local historian; and Gulnaz Kurmanbekovna Sultanova, Komuz Teacher at the P. I. Tchaikovsky Children's Art School and Soloist with the "Aska" pop group at the Ryspay Abdykadyrov Osh Regional Philharmonic.

The visit's program was extremely busy. First, the delegation visited the Humanitarian Innovation Park. Elena Rafkhatovna Guseva, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics and Head of the Laboratory of Regional Linguistics and Language Ecology, and Lidiya Kamay, a fourth-year student studying Russian as a Foreign Language and Chinese Language and a laboratory staff member, presented the results of the student project "The Russian World of Karelia: Tea-Drinking Traditions" (project manager: Lidiya Kamay), supported by a grant from the Head of the Republic of Karelia in 2025. The guests were presented with materials from three expeditions to Karelian Pomorie, Zaonezhie, and Pudozhye and watched a video film based on the expeditions. A unique thematic dictionary, "Let's Show Off Ourselves with a Samovar," published in 2025, was also presented.

The guests participated in a Karelian tea ceremony, during which they not only sampled Karelian rosebay willow-herb but also immersed themselves in the culture of tea drinking in Karelia. Particular attention was paid to dialectal words, proverbs, sayings, and superstitions associated with tea. The delegation members shared their national tea traditions and noted the high level of student research at PetrSU and the importance of engaging young people in preserving and promoting Karelian folk culture.

The visit program also included an international scientific and educational seminar, "The Russian Language in the Educational, Cultural, and Historical Space of Central Asia and Transcaucasia. The Great Victory in the Memory of Generations." During a vibrant and emotional discussion, the participants discussed current and, in the opinion of all participants, extremely important issues of preserving the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War and the role of each person in achieving the common goal of the Great Victory. The discussion also touched on the functioning of the Russian language in Kyrgyzstan, the demand for Russian language teachers in the school education system, and possible trajectories for developing academic mobility between Osh State University and PetrSU.

The seminar was attended by faculty and students from the Institute of Philology and the Institute of History, Political, and Social Sciences, as well as O. G. Abramova, Director of the Institute of Philology; M. S. Gvozdeva, Head of the Directorate for International Affairs at PetrSU; and A. V. Kudryavtsev, Advisor to the Representative Office of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Petrozavodsk. All participants noted that the discussion was warm, informal, and very useful, especially considering that the participants represented different generations.

At the end of the visit, Z. Ya. Miskichekova and Z. M. Sabiralieva delivered an open lecture to students of the Institute of Philology on Kyrgyzstan's participation in the Great Patriotic War and intercultural interaction between the peoples of Russia and Kyrgyzstan.

Events of the "Great Victory in the Memory of Generations. The Karelian Front" project will run from December 1, 2025, to October 30, 2026, at the initiative of the Credo Poetry Theatre with the support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation, the Grant Fund of the Head of the Republic of Karelia, the Ministry of National and Regional Policy of the Republic of Karelia, and Petrozavodsk State University. The project director is I. A. Gaevskaya, a graduate of the Philology Faculty of Petrozavodsk State University.