История преподавания русского языка в Ливане: хронологический обзор от "московских школ" Императорского Православного Палестинского Общества до настоящего времени

First-wave emigrants considered their duty to preserve and pass on to their descendants the values and traditions of Russian culture. “In this regard researchers of the Russian Language Abroad, primarily give credit to the parishes of the Orthodox church and the Russian educational parish establishments which contributed to maintaining the `purity' of the national language” (Nedopekina, 2011: 71). Russian emigrants in Beirut as well as many communities of Russian dispersion were united by the arrival of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia (ROCOR). In the “Thursday school”, the Russian emigrant children were taught the Russian language, history and geography of Russia and gymnastics; in parallel, the clergy taught the divine law (a compulsory subject).

By the end of the year, successes in subjects, conduct, attendance of the Russian Thursday School for Children in the City of Beirut and grades were found on a sheet as handwritten statements signed by the school's principal and supervisor. Furthermore, knowledge of the Russian language was evaluated according to five parameters: written, expressive reading, poetry, grammar and spelling (knowledge of the rules). Based on the student's information and characteristics, the school committee decided whether to transfer her/him to the following grade.

This is how Irina Dmitrievna Malisheva, the school's attendee, describes the events of that period: “Russians who worked in the Lebanese municipality of Beirut teamed up and created a Russian club. Initially it was a male association, and later on women decided to open a school. In the beginning of the school's activities, Anna Vyacheslavovna Kovalenko, who was actually a Czech Catholic who turned Orthodox when she married Kovalenko, was the supervisor. At the school, A.V. Kovalenko taught gymnastics classes and led the church choir. Afterwards the director of the school was Elagin Aleksandr Aleksandrovich. Every Thursday, classes at school began at two in the afternoon and lasted until four. Every half hour the students moved from one room to another. Classes were taught by the parents themselves: Russian language, geography and history of Russia. The divine law was taught by Father Germogen, who at the time was in Lebanon.

Back then the Russian cluster was very friendly; we often met up at the Nazarov family and celebrated various holidays and birthdays. Many guests gathered around Elizabeth Fedorovna's huge table. She used to teach elementary grades at the school. In order for us to be entertained; by the end of the school year, on Easter or on New Year there were performances on stage. I remember how I played some aunt in Chekhov's play... I was 7 years old.

The school started from kindergarten until the last grade - 16-17 years. The theatre was very important because they taught us Russian literature and at the same time it was very interesting. Now I am an adult and I understand how they taught us.

With time the school ceased to exist and the grown-up youth started to attend Russian Youth's Circle. On Sundays after four we met at Kovalenko, who owned a big house between the American University in Beirut and the sea. Many Russians lived there. We brought with us sandwiches and pies. We had an hour of class with Kirpicheva who taught us Russian language lessons. After that we danced and sometimes sang. It was fun, we fooled around, fell in love sometimes but all remained friends. That is the most important thing. I still am friends with Irina Nazarova who now lives in Switzerland” (story told by I.D. Malicheva, recorded by the author of the article N.V. Semaan on March 24, 2020 in Hadath, Beirut).

Gregory Aleksandrovich Serov, grandson of the famous painter Valentin Serov, is another representative of the Russian Diaspora among the emigrants in Lebanon. While remembering the Russian Youth's Circle, he talked about: “At the end of each Russian language class, which always had to end with a dictation (lit. diktovka), there were often lectures and discussions on certain topics with Russian guests in Beirut or the students' parents. Theatre performances were distinguished by high and professional levels. Rehearsals took place two to three times per week” (interview given to N.V. Semaan, author of the article, on January 10, 2020 in Russian Center for Science and Culture, Beirut).

The time interval between the 20s and 40s of the last century can be rightfully considered as the second period of teaching the Russian language in Lebanon when first-wave emigrants, who held on to the spiritual connection between Lebanon and Russia, independently supported the study of their native language in Thursday School and Russian Youth's Circle. Up until the 3^rd of August 1944 when diplomatic relations were established between the USSR and Lebanon, when the latter attained its independence from France in 1943.

In the post-war period, the Soviet Union began to actively assist countries that were members of the “socialist camp”. The Lebanese state was not considered a member due to its political and economic structure, but after France conceded its position in the Middle Eastern region, the influence of the United States and Great Britain started to increase significantly.

However, this did not hinder with establishing a cultural cooperation between the USSR and Lebanon. In 1950 Beirut, the Soviet Cultural Center (SCC) originally opened in a rented apartment of a residential building, which was located in one of the districts of Beirut. There was a small cinema, library and Russian language courses in the SCC. This was the beginning of the “Soviet period” in the history of teaching the Russian language in Lebanon.

Gradually, the activities of the Soviet Cultural Center expanded. For this reason, it had to be moved to a separate building in the center of the Lebanese capital during the early 60s and then once again in 1981 to its own building which was specially built for the SCC.

At that time the SCC in Lebanon carried out its activities under the auspices of the Friendship Societies with Foreign Countries (lit. SSOD, 1958-1992). The SSOD was the successor of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (lit. VOKS, 1925-1958), whose mission was the widespread establishment of cultural ties with foreign countries including those of the Middle East. The Soviet party actively supported the SCC's activities, where the Russian as a foreign language (RFL) was taught on a regular course basis. The SCC was supplied with textbooks and methodological literature; in addition, the opportunity was given to Lebanese teachers in order to attend advanced training seminars in Patrice Lumumba University (nowadays known as Peoples' Friendship University of Russia - RUDN University) and at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute. The Soviet Cultural Center's staff included not only managers of the RFL courses from Moscow, but also highly qualified specialists working in the field. Among them were Yousef Atalla and Irina Yakhievna Beshkok (Dana), who subsequently led these courses herself and by the end of the 90s she taught the Russian language for bilinguals. During the 80s, RFL was taught in the SCC under an intensive program, 4 lessons per day for an hour and a half. Anyone willing to learn the Russian language could do so for free and were provided with textbooks. These were mainly young people, who were sent to educational Soviet institutes in order to receive various specialties and degrees. The Soviet state enthusiastically helped Lebanon train qualified personnel by providing quotas that were distributed for enrollment. At that time, the Soviet Cultural Center was the only place in Lebanon where future students had the opportunity to take Russian language courses in order to adapt to their studies in the USSR.

In the SCC concerts and exhibitions were always organized, a library operated with widely available (translated into Arabic) works of Russian classics and Soviet writers and the local youth was introduced to an active lifestyle through creative activities of music, dance and sports.

It is important to note that the period between 1975 until 1990 was an extremely turbulent and dangerous time for Lebanon. A civil war lasted for fifteen years, but the SCC in Beirut did not stop its work. The year when this long war in Lebanon ended coincided with the onset of a crucial turning point in the Soviet history or rather with its collapse in 1991, to be more exact.

The fundamental changes in the economic, political, cultural and educational spheres of the post-Soviet life affected the promotion of the Russian language abroad. This was a transitional period for both ideology and organization plans. All the structures of the Russian government were transforming; among them was the reorganization of the SSOD in 1992 to become the Russian Center Abroad (lit. Roszarubej- tsentr), and the Soviet Cultural Center in Beirut was renamed and became known as the Russian Center for Science and Culture (RCSC). It remained the only place in Lebanon that taught Russian as a foreign language to adults and since 1997 to bilingual children.

During that time, motivation to learn the Russian language significantly declined. Most of the participants in the RFL courses were young people who wanted to “receive general language training with a focus on every day informal interpersonal communication, with some cultural and historic information” (Demesheva, 2006: 49).

At that point, the Lebanese showed an interest towards learning Russian because of the desire to create families with representatives of Russia or the Commonwealth Independent States, which completely differed from the motivation of the previous generation who wanted to get an education in Soviet universities. Nonetheless, both of these factors after the collapse of the USSR led to the creation of a large number of mixed Russian-Lebanese families and the emergence of bilingual children. With the adaptation of the federal law “On state policy regarding compatriots abroad” in 1999, all Russian citizens residing in Lebanon along with Russian speaking citizens of the former USSR, received the status of compatriots.

Since 2004 a period in Lebanon started relying on Russian language courses, when organizations of compatriots began to be created everywhere in: Baaqline, Baalbeck, Batroun, Beyt Meri, Byblos, Jdaide, Zahle, Nabatieh, Sidon, Tyre and Tripoli. With the support of the RCSC in Beirut, Russian Embassy in Lebanon, Association of USSR Alumni, Association of Russian Federation Alumni and thanks to independent efforts, these public organizations actively developed and reformed into centers, clubs and societies. And in 2011, they merged into the Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots (lit. KSORS).

As part of the federal target program “Russian Language”, approved in 2001 and designed for phased implementation over the next 20 years, projects have begun to be implemented abroad to support compatriots and improve the status of the Russian language throughout the world. Also teaching Russian as a foreign language in Lebanon gradually reached a new high level.

The Russian Center for Science and Culture in Beirut (is the representative of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation, more commonly known as Rossotrudnichestvo, in Lebanon since 2008) became not only a modern educational and methodical center for teaching RFL but also a place where in 2007 “Kedf' (lit. “cedar” - school of Russian language for bilingual children was formed. This school began to hold classes at levels corresponding to the classes of the Russian school curriculum.

With the support of Russia's humanitarian mission to Lebanon in 2017, the Russian language was included as a compulsory subject in the curriculum of the Bekaa International School (BIS), in which students from the primary and secondary classes began to study Russian as a second foreign language twice a week.

On the 11^th of January 2019 with the support of the RCSC in Beirut, the creation of the Lebanese Society of Russian Language and Literature Teachers organization (more commonly known as LOPRYAL) was a great achievement in maintaining and promoting the Russian language in Lebanon.

Separately, it should be noted that teaching the Russian language in higher educational institutions of Lebanon, is a direction that has developed relatively recently.

In 2009, the American University of Science and Technology (AUST) in Beirut became the first Lebanese university that approved of the “Russian language” as an academic discipline and included it in its programs. This happened thanks to the initiative and support of the chairperson of the International Affairs Department of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Dr. George Masse - PhD in World History and Foreign Policies.

Three step-by-step courses, “Russian I”, “Russian II” and “Russian III”, were introduced as the main subjects in the bachelor's program for future diplomats and as elective courses for students of different majors. Such an approach is completely reasonable since the Russian language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. The appropriately constructed program of the “Russian language” subject successfully fit into the credit system of this joint American-Lebanese University, and has become attractive to students and worthy of positioning itself against other foreign languages such as Spanish, Italian, French and German.

Later on, in 2010, thanks to the assistance and support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation (Russian World Fond), the Faculty of Russian as a Foreign Language was opened in the School of Translators and Interpreters of Beirut in the Saint Joseph University (USJ). Subsequently in 2012, the Lebanese American University in Lebanon demonstrated an initiative to teach Russian as foreign language on an elective basis.

Additionally, in 2018 the Lebanese International University (LIU) joined the list of private universities where Russian was introduced as an elective subject for the undergraduate program in various majors.

As for the Lebanese University (LU), the first attempt in teaching the Russian language as an elective subject to students of several majors was made in 2014. The Russian language would be included in the foreign languages bureau alongside with French, English, Spanish, German, Italian and Chinese languages. However, it was only in 2018 that the “Russian language” subject was introduced as an elective in the Lebanese University bachelor's program of various faculties and different majors. This was possible after the signing of an official agreement in 2017 on the cooperation between the management of the Lebanese University and Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. In the academic year 2019-2020 an important outcome of this bilateral agreement was the implementation of a joint master's program in the “Russian-Middle Eastern relations and interaction” major. Therefore, the two subjects: “Russian language” and “Introduction to the basics of historical and diplomatic translation” (in combination with Russian and Arabic), received the status of basic subjects at the Faculty of Philology and Humanities of the Lebanese University. Undoubtedly the training of qualified specialists in this area is extremely important for the further building of relations not only between Russia and Lebanon, but also with other Middle Eastern countries.

As interest in the possibility of obtaining an education in Russia is increasing among the Lebanese youth, the motivation for studying Russian as a language is progressively growing. The representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Lebanon is doing a lot of work on the allocation of quotas, according to which foreign citizens are given affordable enrollment opportunities in Russian universities.

Evidently, the mutual interest of Lebanon and Russia in strengthening and expanding their intercultural relations has recently increased noticeably, which may be the key to maintaining the position of the Russian language in this region. Time will tell how the situation will unfold further on. Moreover, such a chronological analysis gives reason to conclude that the outcome of historical events was one of the factors that influenced the promotion of the Russian language in this Middle Eastern country.

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