Activities of the departments of Russian as a foreign language at Leningrad / St. Petersburg University: To the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg State University

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the activities of departments of Russian as a foreign language at St. Petersburg State University from 1945 to the present. The author's starting point
is to consider the history of these departments in pedagogical and social contexts. Their history appears, on the one hand, as a part of the history of teaching Russian as a foreign language in Russia,
on the other hand, as a phenomenon largely due to the socio-political situation in our country and in the world. The purpose of this article is to collect from various sources and consistently present information about the activities of the departments of Russian as a foreign language at Leningrad / St. Petersburg University from 1945 to the present. The material of the research is both written sources, including scientifi c publications, textbooks and teaching aids, and
the memoirs of the oldest professors of these departments. Research methods are the following: description, analysis and synthesis of the data obtained. The information collected in the course of the study indicates that the history of the departments of Russian as a foreign language at Leningrad / St. Petersburg State University is closely related to the history of teaching Russian as a foreign language in our country. It can be divided into three stages, largely due to the social
context. The stage of activity of the university-wide department of the Russian language for non-Russians, later transformed into the department of the Russian language for foreigners, was carried out during the 1940-1960s, during the period of the USSR's restoration after the Great Patriotic War. The stage of activity of the Faculty of Russian as a Foreign Language was associated with the time of the highest socio-economic development of the USSR. The activity of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language and Theory of its Teaching and of the Department of the Russian Language for Humanitarian and Natural Faculties was largely driven by trends in the development of education over the past thirty years, such as interest in testing as a form of control or the introduction of online learning. It was during this period that the activities of the departments of Russian as a foreign language at St. Petersburg State University were most productive.

Keywords:

Russian as a foreign language, Russian as a Foreign Language department, Russian language textbooks, St. Petersburg State University