Mr. Vladimir Ivanov, Head of the Representation of Rossotrudnichestvo in Bulgaria and Counsellor at the Embassy of the Russian Federation

For six years now Vladimir Pavlovich – the director of the Russian Cultural and Information Centre (RCIC) – has been at the heart of Sofia’s cultural and diplomatic life. Sofia is now used to the intelligent, kind and benevolent presence of this Russian diplomat. And there’s hardly anyone who’s entered the centre for an exhibition, a concert or just for a cup of coffee, who hasn’t heard his cheerful “Zdravstvuite!”
Born in 1946 in Vladivostok, Vladimir Pavlovich graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MSIIR) and earned a PhD at the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. He worked in the Committee of Youth Organizations and as vice president of the youth travel bureau Sputnik. Before coming to Sofia, he was director of the Russian Cultural Centre in New Delhi, Katmandu and Ulan Bator.

Mr. Ivanov, in 2010 the RCIC celebrated 35 years of its establishment. How did you mark the anniversary?
With a series of events dedicated to the anniversary. The culmination was the official session in May in the Big Hall of the RCIC. It was attended by some 400 guests among whom Parliament Vice Speaker Georgi Pirinski, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Milen Lyutskanov, Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Science Petya Evtimova, Deputy Minister of Culture Dimiter Dereliev, representatives of ministries, the astronaut Georgi Ivanov, etc. The session was opened by the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Bulgaria H.E. Mr. Yuriy Isakov. He read a congratulatory message from the Chairman of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Sergey Mironov and underlined that the RCIC has proved to be a significant factor for real diplomatic work. With great attention the audience listened to the congratulation of the Head of the Federal Agency Rossotrudnichestvo F. M. Mukhametshin.
Here I will quote the congratulatory message of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Georgi Parvanov on the occasion of our anniversary: “RCIC will always be the bridge which brings closer our countries and peoples and which forms the basis of friendship, mutual respect and clear priorities.”

What were the other accents and priorities in the 2010 RCIC program?
Main event in 2010 was the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Victory in World War II. In its preparation participated actively partner organizations in Bulgaria. On November 24, 2009 on the initiative of the Federation for Friendship with the Peoples of Russia and the CIS, an Initiative Public Committee for the celebration of the anniversary in Bulgaria was established. 39 state and non-governmental organizations participated in the committee. For the January-May period of 2010 over 70 different events have been carried out dedicated to the great victory, in which over 13 thousand people took part. The RCIC decided to organize a film panorama for the 65th anniversary not only in Sofia but also in Skopje and Bitola (Macedonia), which was a success.

Now, at the end of the year we have another important anniversary – 85 years of the establishment of our organization, which is the successor of the VOKS (All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with foreign countries) established in 1925, later transformed into SSOD (Union of the Soviet Societies for Friendship and cultural relations with foreign countries), then into Roszarubejcentre, and today – Rossotrudnichestvo. Our whole program is dedicated to this date.

Russia has an extraordinarily rich cultural life. How is this possible in the conditions of world economic crisis, which in the other countries affected the culture sphere in the first place?
There is, of course, a cut in the culture expenses. But as the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation assured us, culture is among the branches undergoing minor funding cuts. The overall expenses of the federal budget for culture in 2010 are about 73 billion roubles, i.e. almost 20 billion more than initially planned. Besides, there’s a target program operating with the ministry, “Russian Culture”, with a budget of 64.1 billion roubles. Its aim is to find complex solution to the problems of preserving and developing the country’s cultural potential. We mustn’t forget our big banks and corporations which finance foreign tours of Russian artists, exhibitions. Among them there are medium-sized and even small companies which finance regional culture. Everyone understands that culture is a task of national importance to be solved by all and that it requires maximum intellectual effort, organizational and financial resources.

How do you manage to find the funds to maintain the cultural institutes in this time of crisis?
A crisis is always painful. Culture makes no exception. The word crisis in Chinese is written with two hieroglyphs – one means “danger” and the other – “a good opportunity”. It is important to see these good opportunities.

Thanks to our good partnership with the administrations of many Russian regions and their fraternized regions in Bulgaria, the RCIC has kept its program for the tours of Russian ensembles and artists to the medium-sized Bulgarian towns – places where no official events have been carried out for years. In May 2010, at RCIC’s invitation the folklore songs ensemble of the Lotoshinsky district of Moscow region Dusha and its soloist – Russia’s honoured artist V. Gotovtseva – performed in seven Bulgarian towns; the Russian romance singer L. Tarasova toured 6 towns drawing an audience of over 10 thousand people.

RCIC is a partner of the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria, of the Bulgarian National Television and the Bulgarian National Radio, of the National Film Fund, the NPC, Sofia Municipality, Sofia City Library, etc. This makes possible a series of remarkable Russian culture events to happen. Together with Sofia Municipality in June 2010 a Month of Russian Culture was organized.

What is RCIC’s contribution to the popularization of Russian language in Bulgaria?
A priority of Rossotrudnichestvo in Bulgaria and of RCIC in Sofia is to support the learning of Russian language and literature. Russian still occupies the second place among foreign languages in Bulgaria. In schools, universities, language courses it is being studied by over 200 thousand people. There are about 3000 Russian language teachers in Bulgaria. An important factor in language training is the National network of basis schools where Russian is taught, which comprises 35 schools and 5 universities.

For 14 years now RCIC, together with the State Institute of Russian Language A. S. Pushkin and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, have been carrying out exam sessions for international Russian language certificates. In the past year more than 300 persons earned an international certificate. By this index the RCIC occupies the first place among the European countries. With our cooperation in 2009 over 200 Bulgarian teachers have attended courses for upgrading their qualification. At the RCIC there are always Russian language courses attended annually by hundreds of people.

The Bulgarians still prefer some of your universities and now the EU has discovered them as well. Like the MSIIR, one of the best diplomatic schools in the world.
Russian education was the subject of several international conferences held in Sofia and in other university centres in the country. Presently, at the invitation of the Russian government, in Moscow are studying 15 Bulgarian university students, and another 300 with contracts in Russia.

In Bulgaria there are branches of Russian higher schools offering distance training courses. A project is under way for the establishment of a Russian-Bulgarian faculty in one of the Bulgarian universities. We also support the initiative for founding an Association of Higher Schools in Bulgaria and Russia, to be established by the end of 2010.

At the RCIC in Sofia operates the Club of Russian (Soviet) Higher Schools Graduates, the Association of the MSIIR Graduates. For the last 20 years only, Bulgaria has had MSIIR graduates at high official positions – one president, two prime ministers, five foreign ministers. Mrs. Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO is also a MSIIR graduate.

How does your country successfully maintain the high quality of higher education?
The pace of development of modern economy, science, IT requires life-long learning. In the era of globalization education is not a mere social sphere. It is investment in the country’s future. In 2007 changes were made to the Education Law. These changes, approved by Vladimir Putin, are related to the improvement of the regulation of licensing and state accreditation of educational institutions and scientific organizations. The law specifies a system of measures for state control over the quality of education, the observance of the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of education by the educational institutions.

In recent years the Russian education system underwent serious reforms – the secondary school now finishes after grade 11, a European system of higher education was introduced – with bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

What is the current level of exchange in the field of science between Bulgaria and Russia? In the past it used to be very well developed.
The dynamics in the political and socio-economic life in our countries and the profound changes of the past 20 years demand new approaches. Recently President Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russia intends to build near Moscow a new centre for development of high technologies in order to speed up economy modernization and decrease its oil and gas dependence. The task is clear; it has five directions: energy efficiency and energy saving, nuclear technologies, space, medicine, IT. Many connect this project with the hope to make a breakthrough in national science and industry and this will inevitably affect our relations with other countries.

If we leave economic crisis aside, the RCIC grants full support to the cooperation between scientific organizations, universities, artistic and professional unions of Russia and Bulgaria; it organizes seminars, roundtables in the field of science and business partnership; it presents Russian regions, introduces the Bulgarian public to the development of economy in Russia, the investment climate, etc. At the close of 2009 an agreement was signed on the establishment in Bulgaria of the first Russian overseas Centre of Intellectual Property and Innovations between the National Research Institute and the RCIC in Sofia.

As Head of the Representation of Rossotrudnichestvo in Bulgaria you work for your compatriots abroad. What are the accents in your work with the Russian diaspore?
With the establishment of Rossotrudnichestvo Federal Agency the work with our compatriots has significantly increased. On the grounds of the law on state policy of the Russian Federation regarding the compatriots abroad, the RCIC has aimed its activity at supporting the Russian diaspore to preserve their cultural identity and the Russian language. We participate in the organization of the celebration of all big holidays – New Year and Maslenitsa, of the national competitions for children’s creative writing in Russian, of the annual National Festival of the Russian Song, the children’s drawing contests. The Russian Club – Sofia, uniting the veterans of the Great Patriotic War living in Bulgaria, and the Russian Chamber Theatre – one of the three surviving amateur theatre companies of Russian citizens in Europe, hold their events at the RCIC.