Oxford University Russian Society
Russian Studies in the UK dates from the 19th century, when it was introduced first at Oxford (1869), then at Cambridge (1889). Since then, the relative health of the field has fluctuated in correspondence with the state of the United Kingdom's relations with Russia.
The Oxford University Russian Society was founded in the Oxford University in 1909 by Prince Felix Yusupov, then a student at the University College, Oxford, in order to promote links between Russia and the University. Almost a hundred years onwards, the society continues to espouse the same values with cultural events and talks by well-known and influential figures. It is not affiliated with any political party or movement, which allows it to host political speakers of great diversity.
The Russian Society currently numbers around 900 members. The aims of the society are to unite compatriots in Oxford, to promote Russian language and culture, and to support Russian-speaking students who wish to study in Oxford. In order to realise these aims, the Russian Society regularly holds many events, such as screening Russian films, organising conversational lunches, holding Russian celebrations and concerts, organising lectures by famous politicians and prominent cultural figures from Russia and other countries on the topics related to contemporary Russian politics and culture.
The website of the Oxford University Russian Society is listed in the British Library's Guide to Slavonic and East European internet resources.
Read more about Oxford University Russian Society: External Links
Famous quotes containing the words oxford, university, russian and/or society:
“Christianity as an organized religion has not always had a harmonious relationship with the family. Unlike Judaism, it kept almost no rituals that took place in private homes. The esteem that monasticism and priestly celibacy enjoyed implied a denigration of marriage and parenthood.”
—Beatrice Gottlieb, U.S. historian. The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age, ch. 12, Oxford University Press (1993)
“It is in the nature of allegory, as opposed to symbolism, to beg the question of absolute reality. The allegorist avails himself of a formal correspondence between “ideas” and “things,” both of which he assumes as given; he need not inquire whether either sphere is “real” or whether, in the final analysis, reality consists in their interaction.”
—Charles, Jr. Feidelson, U.S. educator, critic. Symbolism and American Literature, ch. 1, University of Chicago Press (1953)
“What man dare, I dare.
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble. Or be alive again
And dare me to the desert with thy sword.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I come from a place that likes grandeur; it likes large gestures; it is not inhibited by flourish; it is a rhetorical society; it is a society of physical performance; it is a society of style.”
—Derek Walcott (b. 1930)