President of Russia: Vladimir Putin took part in the Russian Literary Assembly on the issues of reading, Russian language and literature support

November 21, 2013 President of Russia Vladimir Putin took part in the Russian Literary Assembly held at the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples.

This large-scale meeting of the literary community brought together more than 500 professionals from a wide range of fields: writers, poets, columnists, publishers, literary scholars and translators, school and college teachers of literature, museum and library staff, and theatrical figures from Russia and around the world.

In his speech the Head of State noted: “Russian language has always played a powerful unifying role for our multi-ethnic nation, and established a common cultural and educational context in our country.

Then the President in his speech highlighted the problems of reading, interest in books, teaching Russian language and literature, especially in high school.

He also noted: “Of course we must impart a taste for reading and good literature from an early age, and not only through time-tested classics. It is necessary that young readers recognise new names and new heroes. We established the Presidential Prize in Literature and Art for Children and Youth precisely to support contemporary authors. It will be awarded as of 2014. As you know, next year has been declared the Year of Culture and it will definitely include a range of activities associated with Russian literature. In particular, one initiative will be to give our national wide reading support programme an official status. I think that declaring 2015 the Year of Literature in Russia is worth thinking about.

Our challenge is to attract society’s special attention to national literature, and to make Russian literature and language powerful factors in our country’s influence on the development of ideas throughout the world. Along with this, at a national level we must establish an environment in which education, erudition, knowledge of literary classics and contemporary literature are among common decencies. And naturally it is important to focus on resolving critical issues for the literary sphere. This involves establishing the conditions for writers to create, reviving the traditions of literary criticism, developing balanced editorial policies, and actively using the opportunities offered by libraries, literary museums and writers’ memorial houses. Overall, we need long-term, well-thought-out systemic measures to support our national literature. As I’ve already said, I know that you discussed these and many other questions at roundtables.

Vladimir Putin also agreed to create a Foundation to support literature. The actor Sergei Bezrukov agreed with his proposal on the creation of the Foundation by analogy with existed Cinema Foundation. According to him, the foundation could support the drama, theater and cinema.