Brief History of the Centre
The Centre of Russian studies (CRS) is a well known Centre for the study of Russian language, literature and culture in India.
The Centre was originally known as the 'Institute of Russian Studies', which was inaugurated on 14th November 1965 by Mr. M.C. Chagla, the then Minister of Education of India and Prof V.P. Yelutin the then Minister of Higher and secondary Education of the USSR at I.I.T., New Delhi. The Institute was set up to meet the growing demand of Russian Language experts owing to the increase in interaction between the Indian and Russian Governments. The establishment of this Institute was, as Mr. M.C. Chagla described, "a historic landmark in the history of education in this country".
The 'Institute of Russian Studies' acquired its present name 'Centre of Russian Studies' at the time of its induction in the newly formed Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1969. The Centre of Russian Studies is the oldest Centre of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Since its establishment almost five decades ago, it continues to be the leading Centre for learning Russian Language, Literature & Culture in India.
CRS Alumni
The Centre since its inception has been playing an important role in developing good relations between the two countries. The Centre has produced a large number of qualified interpreters and translators who are now employed in Central Ministries of the Government of India, including the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. The alumni of Centre are also working in various Public and Private enterprises and many have set up their own business concerns with offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other towns of the CIS countries. Even more significant contribution of the Centre is in promoting teaching of Russian Language, Literature and Culture in India. Many of former students are engaged in teaching Russian at a number of universities, colleges and schools across India.
Centre's Activities
The Centre regularly organizes International Seminars and Conferences on topical themes. The Centre from time to time also organizes lectures by Indian and visiting foreign academicians.
The Centre publishes a journal 'CRITIC' annually. It includes research papers, interviews, book reviews etc by both Indian and Russian philologists.
Besides the main central library, which houses about 70,000 books, the Centre maintains its own in-house library, which has about 2000 books, films and audio material in Russian.
The Centre has recently installed a customized computer lab equipped with Russian language learning software that assists in innovative teaching methodology based on Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).
The Centre has recently acquired a SMART TV with video conferencing facility.
The Centre regularly organizes extracurricular and cultural activities like debates, quiz, essay competition, poster competition, poetry recitation and plays and songs etc. for the students.
The Centre appoints course advisors every semester to address any academic issue that the students may face.
Centre of Russian Studies offers 3 year undergraduate and 2 year post graduate programmes as well as M.Phil & Ph.D research programmes.
The Centre promotes area specific as well as inter-disciplinary research activities in the field of Russian Language, Literature, Culture and Translation Studies. The Centre has an expertise in various aspects of Russian language and linguistics, 19th Century, 20th Century, as well as Contemporary Russian Literature. The Centre also provides expertise in methodology of language teaching, Translation and Culture Studies, Film and Media Studies and Popular Culture. The Centre provides for research in contrastive and comparative studies as well.
