Derzhavin university hosted the finals of the III International Derzhavin Olympiad, dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin. The Olympics are organized by Derzhavin University together with partners from the Samarkand Institute of Economics and Service. This year the Olympiad was held online and brought together more than 250 students from Uzbekistan, the Republic of Belarus, China, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, and Egypt who are studying Russian as a foreign language. In the qualifying round, participants took a test and wrote an essay. In the final, they demonstrated their discussion and public speaking skills. Students who speak Russian at an advanced level expressed their attitude towards Pushkin’s work and analyzed fragments of poems about him in the oratory competition.
“The participants of the final convincingly and enthusiastically analyzed poems by Sergei Yesenin, Joseph Brodsky, Vladimir Nabokov, Konstantin Balmont, Novella Matveeva, dedicated to Pushkin We were struck by their deep understanding of the essence of the poems, as well as their interest in Russian culture,” says Valentina Pavlova, deputy dean of the Faculty of Philology and Journalism for academic work.
