The challenges of the Albanian language in St. Petersburg, Russia have been the topic of a meeting organized by the COD (Center for Openness and Dialogue) with Russian professors of the Albanian language department at St. Petersburg State University.
Prof. Alexander Rusakov says that this university is the only branch of the Albanian language in Russia which started its work 60 years ago.
"The only branch of the Albanian language in Russia and in the former Soviet Union and now works for 60 years without interruption and this is very important because even at the time of the severance of relations with Albania our branch continued to work, I started learning the Albanian in 1974. For us this was a very important experience. Now I can say that the branch of the Albanian language worked according to the directions given by the famous linguist Nisicke who founded our branch. From the beginning, our branch was directed towards the scientific study of the Albanian language and during these 60 years, the Albanian language branch has prepared many scientific workers who continue to work in the field of study of the Albanian language, Albanian culture, and ethnography of the Albanian people. Our branch is not an exhausted institution in our city, it works in close cooperation with the scientific center, the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy, and the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy. "We all work in the Albanian language branch as teachers and in scientific institutions", he says.
Currently, in this branch of the Albanian language in St. Petersburg are 11 students divided into three groups. "Today, we now have admission to this branch once every two years. This is a tradition that started in the 60s. The Albanian language is also heard by those of general linguistics as a third language. "Today we have 11 students in three groups," said the professor.
While the assistant professor Maria Morozova said that they deal with language contacts and study the relationship of Albanian with other Balkan languages. "If my students are interested in Albanian, I am happy and always a topic related to the study of language contacts," she said, among other things.
This meeting was attended by Dr. Alexander Rusakov, professor at St. Petersburg State University, a researcher at the Institute of Linguistic Studies, Academy of Sciences, Prof. assoc. dr. Alexander Novik docent, St. Petersburg State University, director of the Institute of Linguistic Studies, Academy of Sciences, and Maria Morozova docent, St. Petersburg State University, researcher, Institute of Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences.