Moscow saw the conclusion of the InteRussia academic research fellowship program for specialists from the DPRK, the first of its kind. For a month, the Korean participants worked on two tracks: Russian studies and medicine.
The fellowship program for Russianists and diplomats from the DPRK took place at the Pushkin Institute. Lead specialists of the Institute spoke about modern trends in teaching Russian language and literature to foreign students, introduced the attendees to innovative methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language, topical issues of country studies, theoretical and practical basics of business Russian, as well as shared personal experience and methodological materials. The DPRK specialists carried out research work in addition to the educational part consisting of lectures and workshops. Under the guidance of academic supervisors, the fellows in Russian studies developed scenarios of practical classes on the Russian language and literature for non-native speakers and prepared reports in accordance with academic interests. Moreover, the DPRK fellows took part in the “International Lermontov Forum” timed to coincide with the 210th anniversary of the poet's birth.
At the same time, specialists in medicine underwent their first fellowship programme at top clinics and learnt about the cutting-edge achievements of Russian medicine. The fellows mastered methods of emergency care and ischaemic heart disease therapy, studied robot-assisted surgery and laser technologies for the treatment of urological diseases, exchanged experience in diagnosing and treating disorders of the central and peripheral nervous system, discovered modern approaches to non-invasive lung ventilation, and studied minimally invasive methods of treating tumour diseases of the female reproductive system. Apart from that, the Pushkin Institute organized a training course in Russian as a foreign language in biomedical sciences for fellows in medicine.
In addition to the academic research fellowship, the Pushkin Institute conducted an extensive programme of cultural and historical immersion in the Russian environment. The DPRK experts visited Moscow's historical sites, Red Square, Lenin's Mausoleum, Museum of Contemporary History, Moscow-based Dostoevsky House-Museum, Helikon-Opera Theatre, and the Slovo and Cosmos Pavilions at VDNKh.
The program, organised for the first time for participants from the DPRK, came to be an important step in the development of social ties between the Russian Federation and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. At the final meeting with the fellowship participants, the organisers noted the high level of the fellows' involvement and expressed their hope for similar educational projects in the future.
The fellowship is organized by the Gorchakov Fund and Pushkin State Russian Language Institute with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, Presidential Grants Foundation, Mezhdunarodniki Autonomous Non-Profit Organisation, as well as the Embassy of the DPRK in Russia.