Russian culture abroad: Center for the Study of Russian Language and Culture to open in the University of Pisa

The "Russian World" Foundation opens a Center for the study of Russian language and culture at the University of Pisa. The official ceremony, which takes place September 21, 2011 in the presence of the Foundation and the University leaders, was timed to the Year of Russian culture and Russian language in Italy.

According to representatives of the Russian side, the Center under the Russian Language Department will receive a collection of thousands of books in Russian, multimedia programs used for studying Russian language.

It is no mere chance that the University of Pisa was chosen - it is one of Europe's oldest educational institutions and among the most prestigious in Italy. Thus, Associate Professor of Mathematics of this university was Galileo Galilei. In addition, it has a strong Faculty of Russian Language, which ranks third in popularity after English and Spanish, ahead of German and French.

The "Russian world" Centre is the second one created by the Foundation in Italy. Since December 2010, under a University of Rome, "La Sapienza", has successfully been working the Center for Russian Studies, engaged with development and strengthening of scientific and educational contacts between Italy and Russia in various fields of knowledge. In the long term it is planned to open similar centers at leading universities in Milan and Naples.