Translated material
Friendship for export
The most famous university in Russia celebrated its 50th anniversary
President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated the world's most famous higher education institution in our country, the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN), on its half-century anniversary. “Tens of thousands of its graduates work in 170 countries around the world. Here they not only provide high-quality education, but also cultivate respect and interest in the cultures of different peoples,” says the presidential message, which was read by Education Minister Andrei Fursenko at a gala evening at the State Kremlin Palace last Saturday. He presented government awards to honored teachers and especially congratulated the rector, Professor Vladimir Filippov. Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov also noted the merits of both the current and previous heads of the university - Sergei Rumyantsev, Vladimir Stanis, Dmitry Bilibin.The uniqueness of this university is that, together with Russians, students from Africa, Asia and Latin America study there. For the first year they study the Russian language, and then, along with Russians, they master the professions of medicine, engineer, philologist, historian and others. By the way, thanks to such joint study, our students learn foreign languages faster. The author knows from personal experience that Russians here begin to speak Arabic fluently after the first two years of study, often without an accent, while in other universities this takes years.
RUDN University graduates can be found in many countries around the world, among them, for example, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov. The President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo, also a graduate of this university, came to Moscow for the anniversary. In his small country, located in South America, the Russian company RUSAL began mining bauxite several years ago. So the Russian and Guyanese presidents had a lot to talk about at their meeting in Moscow on February 2.
Today Dmitry Medvedev meets with another guest of the celebrations - the President of Sri Lanka. Experienced politician Mahinda Rajapaksa was re-elected to this post in January this year. He did not study in Moscow, but among the country’s outstanding figures there are many RUDN University graduates. According to Vremya Novostei, the president is interested in Russian weapons and may soon conclude important contracts. Russia, for its part, buys Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka.
On Friday, February 5, the Russian leader received in the Kremlin the famous fighter for African independence, the first president of Namibia, Sam Nujoma. He also arrived in Moscow for the PFUR holiday. At talks in the Kremlin, 80-year-old Nujoma remembered and thanked “Comrade Nikita Khrushchev for supporting the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America.” “Our liberation movement has benefited from the founding of this educational institution,” the African politician told Dmitry Medvedev.
Rector Vladimir Filippov told VN that “the idea of creating such a university was first announced by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.” This happened in Indonesia, which the Soviet delegation visited in the second half of February 1960. At an international conference in Jakarta, where they discussed assistance in training personnel for the former colonies, Nikita Khrushchev said that Moscow began to help earlier than others and had even created an unusual university. This was a surprise, although it is noteworthy that the government's decision was dated February 5, 1960. Later, the new Peoples' Friendship University was named after Patrice Lumumba in honor of the leader of the Congolese liberation movement, who died in 1961. This is what the university was called until 1992, now it is simply the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, whose motto is “Let us unite through knowledge.”