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More than 250 1^st Year students from the host Department and the Institute of Cross-Cultural Communication and International Studies joined in with the celebration. Teachers from the Department of Russian Language and Literature read a dictation called 'The Significance of the Written Word', and organised a festival themed on the culture of language.

Students and teachers from the Department of History and Philology took part in a local history conference on the 'Historical and Religious Heritage of Belgorod Region'. The conference, which was concerned with the issues around studying local history and culture, was held at the Belgorod State Scientific Library and sponsored by Belgorod Regional Government's Department for Cultural Affairs and the local chapter of the 'World Russian People's Council'.

With help from Professor Irina Chumak-Zhun, students produced work with a Ukrainian theme. Poetry had pride of place in the work of students studying with Professor Svetlana Kosharnoy and Professor Larisa Plotnikova, with their work focusing on the way written Russian, especially in contemporary literature, shapes the Russian mentality. They presented work on 'Written Russian in Poetry.'

'Fountain', a poem by Fyodor Tyutchev, was used as a template for an interesting poetic exercise. Students were asked to fill in missing epithets from the poem in a creative way. After an amusing discussion of the answers provided, teachers read out their favourite versions.

Associate Professor Elena Shirina helped students conduct a flash mob called 'Slovo Sholokhov, Slovo Brodsky'*, in honour of Joseph Brodsky and Mikhail Sholokhov's 78^th and 113^th birthdays respectively. By coincidence, both Nobel laureates were born on the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture. It was a fitting tribute to two great men of letters.

Professor Andrei Papkov, head of the Department, summed up the festival by underlining the importance of such events, as they demonstrate the great pleasure derived from a language that preserves the richness of a speaker's culture and spiritual life.