Slavistics at St. Petersburg and Greifswald Universities (results of cooperation)

Abstract

The article offers a review on the history of Slavic studies at St. Petersburg and Greifswald universities from the era of Peter the Great to present day. The role of Professor Lyudmila Verbitskaya is highlighted who always actively supported the activities of the Department of Slavic Philology (for example, she approved the initiative to create a department of Ukrainian studies in the early 2000s). Thanks Verbitskaya, St. Petersburg University was historically recognized as the first university in Russia founded by Peter the Great in 1724, which was proven by archival materials stored in Greifswald. Peter the Great, in the assembly hall of the University of Greifswald in September 1712, at a meeting of the Academic Council received a proposal from the President of the German Academy of Sciences Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz on the establishment of a university in St. Petersburg with a European status. The status of the first university was officially recognized by a decree of the Government of the Russian Fed- eration in 1999 when the 275th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg State University was celebrated. As the Rector of St. Petersburg University, Verbitskaya in 2006 concluded an inter-university agreement with the Rector of the University of Greifswald Professor Jürgen Kohler. Slavic scholars and professors from St. Petersburg and Greifswald Universities collaborate closely. One of the active pedagogical and scientific areas of such cooperation is Slavic studies, which have long combined the efforts of Russian and German philologists.