Professor A. Sokolovki, is the Head of the Department of Southeast Asian and South Asian Cultures and Languages, and is also in charge of the Vietnamese Language Department. He is the first Russian to know Vietnamese in the Far East…
We respectfully introduce an article by Ambassador, Professor, Dr. Vu Duong Huan, Former Consul General of Vietnam in Vladivostok City, Russian Federation.
I have had 3 working terms at our country's representative offices abroad: Ambassador to the Republic of Poland (1995-1998), to Ukraine (2002-2006) and Consul General in Vladivostok, Russian Federation (2009-2012). Each term left me with the deepest impressions, especially in the close relationship with friends in the host country.
Ambassador, Prof. Dr. Vu Duong Huan, Former Consul General of Vietnam in Vladivostok City, Russian Federation.
In Russia, Vietnam has three representative offices: the Embassy in Moscow, the Consulate General in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg. In 2009, I was appointed by the Government as the Consul General of our country in the city of Vladivostok (located in the Far East of Russia).
The Far East is one of the eight federal districts of Russia, a large region in the East, occupying a very special position in the country and in the Asia-Pacific region, surrounded by the Arctic Ocean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the east. The western border of the Far East is the Siberian district; the southern border is China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. At the same time, the Far East also borders the United States across the Bering Strait and Japan across the Sea of Japan.
The Far East occupies 36.4% of the country's area (6.1159 million km2), but its population is very sparse, with only about 6.5 million people. This is the deepest and most remote region of the Russian Federation, more than 9,000km from the capital Moscow. In the city of Vladivostok is the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The Vietnamese community in the Far East at that time had about 3 thousand people including former international students and laborers who stayed to work and live after the collapse of the Soviet Union, mainly trading in markets in big cities such as Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Nakhodka...
After officially taking up the position of Consul General, I paid courtesy visits to the leaders of Primorye region, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok city, foreign Consuls General in the Far East, visited the Vietnamese Association in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, partners and friends of Vietnam, especially the Oriental University (since 2012, the University became a part of the Far Eastern Federal University), which has a faculty of Vietnamese language and culture and the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association in the Far East.
The Professor loves Vietnam very much
Professor A. Sokolovki, is the Head of the Department of Southeast Asian and South Asian Cultures and Languages, and is also in charge of the Vietnamese Language Department. He is the first Russian to know Vietnamese in the Far East. Originally a Sinologist, he switched to Vietnamese due to the request of the leadership.
Professor A. Sokolovki was the first Russian to know Vietnamese in the Far East. Photo: Author provided
The training of Vietnam Studies specialists has been conducted since 1980 under the guidance of Professor A. Sokolovki. Hundreds of Vietnam specialists have been trained, many of whom are now working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, scientific and educational institutions, and enterprises of the Russian Federation. During my time as Consul General, I also taught at the department.
Professor Sokolovki was also the President of the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association in the Far East for a long time. The Association was founded on November 17, 1971 with a large number of collective and individual members.
As President of the Association and Head of the Department of Vietnamese Culture and Language, the Professor has made many great and continuous contributions to strengthening and developing the friendly and cooperative relations between the Far East and Vietnam.
He is often the one who initiates and organizes friendship activities on major occasions of Vietnam and Russia-Vietnam relations. The Vietnamese Consulate General always actively coordinates. Every year, the professor organizes celebrations of National Reunification Day and President Ho Chi Minh's birthday. He and the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association have organized many cultural and artistic activities with the participation of the Vietnamese Association, especially students in Vladivostok, such as Vietnamese music and dance, Ao Dai performance, photo exhibition, Vietnamese film screenings, etc.
The grand art performance welcoming APEC 2012 was also organized by Professor.
To encourage the study of Vietnamese, in coordination with the Consulate General of Vietnam, Professor Sokolovki annually organizes the Vietnamese Olympic competition for students. In particular, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Russia-Vietnam relations and 30 years of training in Vietnamese studies (2010), with the initiative and encouragement of the Professor, Far Eastern State University organized a large scientific conference with the participation of many experts, which was highly appreciated by public opinion.
In May 2016, with the support of the Vietnamese Consul General in Vladivostok, especially the former Consul General's wife, a music and dance troupe with more than thirty teachers and students of the Vladivostok Children's Cultural Palace led by Professor Sokolovki and Ms. Irina Driuchia, President of the Vladivostok Russian Cultural Center, attended the Hai Phong City Cultural-Tourism Festival, visited the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi and had an artistic exchange with students of the Russian Language Department of the university. In particular, the delegation visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Presidential Palace relic site with many deep impressions of Uncle Ho and Vietnam.
The professor has visited Vietnam many times, is an important partner of the National Institute of Culture and Arts under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and is a close friend of Professor Dr. Nguyen Chi Ben. Every time he visits Hanoi, we always meet to chat and discuss Vietnam-Russia relations. He is a person who loves Vietnam very much, and has contributed a lot to strengthening the Far East-Vietnam relationship. The professor's daughter is also a Vietnamologist, has worked in Vietnam for many years, loves Vietnamese culture, especially poetry...
Source : https://vietnamnet.vn/chuyen-ve-nguoi-nga-dau-tien-biet-tieng-viet-tai-vung-vien-dong-2293071.html
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