One of the key events of the IV International Literary Festival for Children and Youth held in Astrakhan was the round table "We read – the world reads. Russian Russian language and culture promotion abroad through books and family reading", where a new project was launched – the creation of a Center for Friendly Literatures of the Caspian Littoral states.
The event was moderated by children's writer Anna Goncharova and the editor-in-chief of the Internet portal "Knizhnoye obozreniye", Secretary of the Moscow Writers' Union Alexander Nabokov. Ilya Toropitsyn, Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations of the Astrakhan Region, Lyudmila Gubina, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Astrakhan Region, Tajik Hari Mohammad, Vice Consul of the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Astrakhan, and Bulat Kokenov, First Secretary of the Consulate General of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Astrakhan, greeted the participants of the meeting.
Anna Anishchenko, a teacher of Russian language and literature at Astrakhan Socio-Pedagogical College, dedicated her speech to the traditions of family reading of the peoples of Russia and the Caspian countries. Dmitry Yemets, a child and adolescent writer and screenwriter from Moscow, spoke about the role of family reading and increasing interest in learning Russian abroad.
Colleagues from Kazakhstan joined the dialogue in the video conference mode. Russian Russian Ethnocultural Association "Bylina" head of Atyrau Andrey Korablev shared his experience in promoting the Russian language and culture in his country. He spoke, in particular, about the activities of the people's library with a collection of over 30 thousand copies of books, including rare ones. Russian Russian House in Astana, Olga Skalchuk, Head of the Department of Cultural and Educational Programs, reported on educational programs to promote Russian culture in Kazakhstan.
Then the presentation of the Center for Friendly Literatures of the Caspian Littoral States took place.
Last October, during a meeting with the winners of the All-Russian competition "Teacher of the Year of Russia", President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin supported the proposal of Andrei Zhurbin, teacher of Russian language and literature at Astrakhan evening (shift) secondary school No. 10 in Astrakhan, to open Friendly Literature Centers in Astrakhan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, which would contribute to the popularization of national literature, arousing interest in reading and books in countries with which we have developed centuries-old good neighborliness.
Lyudmila Kasyanova, Dean of the Faculty of Philology and Journalism of the V.N. Tatishchev Astrakhan State University, announced her support for the idea of creating the Center at a round table.