Russia, Germany sign statement on cross year of language, literature

BERLIN, April 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and Germany have signed a joint Russian-German statement on the Cross Year of Language and Literature in Russia and Germany in the German capital on Thursday, Russian presidential special envoy for international cultural co-operation Mikhail Shvydkoi told Itar-Tass. The cross year will begin in Germany on June 6, the day of birth of great Russian poet Pushkin. In his words, the cross year will open with a ceremony at the Berlin National Library where “books of Russian and German classical writers published in the two countries” will be put on display. A concert of Russian and German music will be also given, actors from Russia and Germany will recite poems of classical poets of the two countries and a biographical exposition devoted to Pushkin’s pieces of work prepared by the German Pushkin Society will be held, Shvydkoi said. A German programme of the cross year will begin in Russia’s capital, Moscow, on September 11-12 and will be held not only in Moscow, and St. Petersburg, but also in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, several cities of the Volga River region at traditional residence places of ethnic Germans in Russia, the Russian presidential special envoy said. In his words, the cross year is planned to end on June 6, 2015, in Moscow with the Day of German Language and Literature which will be dedicated to the 140th birth anniversary of famous German writer Thomas Mann who was also born on June 6 as Pushkin. “Today it is difficult to say at which political level the cross year will open, as this question was discussed with German partners, but remains open so far,” said Shvydkoi who held consultations with the director of the directorate for culture of the German Federal Foreign Office and met with State Secretary of the German Foreign Office Markus Ederer in Berlin. The talks showed that “despite a difficult political situation and different assessments of current events which are taking place in Ukraine in the last few weeks Germany and Russia believe that cultural ties are a sphere in which it is possible to do quite much,” Shvydkoi said. “We do not plan to curtail contacts in this sphere as well as education, youth exchanges, sport, so in everything that concerns the civil society and is defined as public diplomacy or cultural diplomacy,” the special envoy said, adding that “We and our German partners understand how it is important particularly at the moment of deteriorating political processes,” he added. “It is important that at consultations held at the German Federal Foreign Office we began discussing projects of further years of the two countries and in this case we agreed with German partners that a year of youth exchanges between Germany and Russia may become one of possible projects for 2016, because today the need for young people of the two countries to make friends is obvious,” the presidential special envoy said. “We look quite soberly at the today’s situation understanding its difficulties,” Shvydkoi added. In his view, “Russia and the West had not witnessed such serious exacerbation of relations, perhaps, for the last 25 years.” “However, our task in these circumstances is to preserve current relations, the programme of the Year of Language and Culture in Russia and Germany,” Shvydkoi said, adding that “Russia plans to hold 55 major events in Germany and Germans plan to hold the same number of events in Russia.” “It is important for us to preserve current relations, because Germany understands quite well Russian realities and feels domestic processes in Russian life better that many other our Western partners,” Shvydkoi noted. He said with hope that “if nothing extraordinary occurs the programme of the cross year will be preserved in full.” However, he did not rule out that “its political support may change as well as the level of protocol attendance at different events.” “But we would like to believe that the programme will be fulfilled as much as possible and we would like to hope that the common sense will prevail,” the Russian presidential special envoy added. Learn more on itar-tass.com