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Korean Studies in Academia and University Settings
in Modern Russia

Photo-Igor Tolstokulakov
Igor Tolstokulakov
Far Eastern Federal University
Since an origin of Korean studies in Russia in the second half of XIX Century one of most important distinctive peculiarities was its complex character. Modern Korean Studies also are the specific field of Russian Orientalistics, including different sectoral directions such as geography, ethnography, history, philology (linguistics and literary criticism), economy, politology as well as the rest knowledges in country studies.

According to judgment of Russian Koreanistics patriarch Lev Kontsevich the development of Korean studies and education in Russia has several objective factors, such as geographic, geopolitical and ethno-cultural neighborhood of Pacific Russia and Korean Peninsula on the crossroads of continental and insular cultures, European and Asian universes etc.

We should look for the historical roots of Korean studies in Russia in the middle of XIX Century, Russian Koreanistics has a long and sometimes dramatic history. Starting in the middle of XIX Century, the development of Russian Koreanistics has a several stages:

- 1st stage. Beginning of the systematic acquaintance with Korea and country studding in tsar's Russia (the middle of XIX Century-1917);
- 2nd stage. Formation of humanitarian Koreanistics in USSR (1917-1945);
- 3rd stage. Forming of Koran studies as independent and large-scale branch of Soviet classical Orientalistics (1954-1990);
- 4th stage. Development of Korean studies as complex and practically oriented science in modern Russia (since 1990s).

Let’s consider two main directions of Russian Koreanistics: academic and university Korean studies, using a little bit of statistic.
Korean Studies at Academia Settings. Korean studies are realized at 10 scientific research institutions belonging to Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), also, we have 4 museums and more than 20 state and regional archives dealing with Korean agenda.
Korean Studies at University Settings. Teaching of Korean language and Korea-related disciplines is held at more than 30 Russian Universities, three of them (Moscow and St.-Petersburg State Universities, Far Eastern Federal University) are not only educational, but also rather reputable scientific centers, since they have both Korea-related educational and scientific programs, above mentioned universities have created own centers for Korean researches in aim to conduct professional investigation in different fields of Korean studies.

In 2004 leading Russian universities providing Korean educational and scientific programs have established the Russian Association of University Korean Studies (RAUK). 7 Universities participate in RAUK.

Three periodical Koreanistic issues are published in Russian universities: «Proceedings of the Russian Association of University Korean Studies» (MSU, Moscow); «Proceedings of the Center for Korean language and Culture») (St.-Petersburg SU, St. Petersburg) and «Proceedings of the Center for Korean Researches at Far Eastern Federal University» (FEFU, Vladivostok). As result of ageing of scientific personnel at research institutions we can certify that national center of Korean studies in Russia little by little is transferring to university sphere. One of the evidence is annual Koreanistic conferences, which are held at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies RAS and at the Far Eastern Federal University. Both conferences are leading in modern Russian Koreanistics.

We have one more tendency in development of Korean education in Russia during last 10-15 years: at the same time with conservation leading positions of traditional centers (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok) on Russian Far East the necessity of training specialists with knowledge of Korean language is rising simultaneously and we can see a plenty of new high schools oriented to Korean Studies in Siberia and Russian Far East. Several Russian universities have become the developed base for graduation the young generation of Russian experts in field of Korea. They have good language and other professional competences, however most of them leave universities after graduation, refuse to work in academic field and prefer practical sphere. All that tendencies are not good for perspectives of Korean studies in Russia.

There is an opinion (and I share it) insisting that modern Korean studies in Russia suffer from a lot of difficulties and troubles, such as:
● Korea-related educational process at Russian universities is not well-provided by student manuals, especially on non-language Korean subjects;
● Russia needs more publishing of qualitative scientific literature on Korean thematic;
● After graduating from universities only insignificant portion of students continue professional activity related to Korea, most perspective graduates prefer to leave Russia and find job abroad or to start private career in practical sphere;
● The modern generation of leading Russian Koreanists grows old and retires, especially in academic field;
● We have a lot to do in field of informatization of Korean Studies in Russia, today practically all leading educational and academic centers (especially RAUK members and research institutions) have websites in Internet, but websites have very poor content and there is no big number of private pages;
● It is necessary to create all-Russian electronic library or at least electronic catalogue of Korean stocks in libraries at Korea-related research and educational centers;
● Extremely less Russian Koreanists have publications in high-rating foreign and Korean magazines;
● Recently we can feel obvious structure disbalance in benefit to politology and economy in Korean studies in Russia, nearby the number of specialists and students in field of Korean history, ethnography and culture is reduced annually;
● One of the most burning problems is gradual disappearance experts in Korean linguistics specializing in theoretical grammar, language history and hanmun.

It is obvious that nearest perspectives of development for Korean studies in Russia are directly connected with solving of above mentioned problems. One of several directions is overcoming the disbalance in fever of practical-oriented Korean studies by strengthening scientific researches. To reach this aim is possible if academic and university branches of Russian Koreanistics will receive considerable confluent of young forces.

[ Announcement of "2017 AKS International Conference on Korean Studies" ]


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