The educational expedition is taking place in Kazakhstan from 2 to 10 December 2023. The participants are eight volunteers, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian Literature and Intercultural Communication at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, programme methodologist Tatyana Kudoyarova and organiser Tatyana Vashchenko, Head of the Project Activities Support Department.

The media partners of the expedition are TV BRICS and Eurasia Today.

Two groups of volunteers are working in Kazakhstan at once. Russian language ambassadors conduct classes for students and schoolchildren in the cities of Kyzylorda and Shymkent. The programme includes an introduction to the traditions of celebrating the New Year in Russia, the peculiarities of Khokhloma painting and Gzhel, master classes on playing spoons and making dolls, dance flash mobs and other events.

The volunteers are visiting Kyzylorda for the first time. They have already had time to communicate with children from the Sunday school of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which is an architectural monument of state importance. The children had a master class, during which they learnt about traditional painting and could try themselves as masters – painted toys.

In the House of Friendship of Kyzylorda volunteers met with members of the local ensemble of spoon players, which unites folk music lovers aged 5 to 20 years old. With them, the Russian language ambassadors discussed the features of Russian and Kazakh folk instruments, and then together they performed the composition “Valenki” on spoons.

“Kyzylorda is an amazing new Kazakh region for our programme. More than 90% of the Kazakh-speaking population lives here, and yet there is a Sunday school at the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, a centre “Slavs”, there are Russian classes in schools, there is a department of Russian language and literature at the Kyzylorda State University named after Korkyt Ata. Students, teachers and children have a huge interest in Russian representatives and Russian culture. Even those who study in Kazakh-language classes speak excellent Russian, so we prepare our classes in much the same way as for native speakers. All the ambassadors are inspired by the first days of the expedition. We have been given a very warm, friendly welcome. We hope that our arrival will be the beginning of new joint projects,” said programme methodologist Tatyana Kudoyarova.

Russian language ambassador Margarita Bogveradze shared her impressions: “Today we held our first classes in Shymkent with children from the Palace of Schoolchildren, pupils of “Galatea” studio and students of South Kazakhstan Pedagogical University named after Ozbekili Zhanibekov. We are delighted with the warm welcome! With students we travelled in time and sang songs of different historical epochs, revealed spiritual evolution of Russian society, which was reflected in songs about Moscow. And the pupils of the Schoolchildren’s Palace learnt about Russian folk crafts and were able to paint wooden blanks in their favourite technique”.

The international volunteer programme “Russian Language Ambassadors in the World” is a format of humanitarian volunteering, development of international youth cooperation in the interests of promoting the Russian language, Russian education and science in Russia and abroad. The project has been implemented since 2015 by the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. The programme promotes the development of Russia’s relations with other countries and the involvement of young people in volunteer activities.

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