Introduction and History

In the 1993-1994 academic year, Erciyes University Senate decided to establish the Department of Russian Language and Literature within the Department of Western Languages and Literatures, and in the 1994-1995 academic year by taking 20 students as a result of the ÖSYM exam, the department started education. Today, the Department of Russian Language and Literature continues its activities with 2 Professors, 4 Assistant Professors, 4 lecturers and 1 research assistant. The Department, which has been carrying out educational activities within the Faculty of Letters since 1994-1995 academic year, has started to be counted among the best departments of our country in Russian language education and teaching, and since 2013 with the Russian Preparatory Program it its quality of education has increased day by day. Leaving a quarter of a century behind, the Department has prepared more than 600 undergraduates for life and has offered its students an opportunity to study abroad by sending approximately 20 students by means of foreign exchange programs such as Erasmus and Mevlana every year. Today, the Department of Russian Language and Literature has not only undergraduate but also graduate programs within the Institute of Social Sciences. The Department, which has provided education in more than 20 graduate programs to date, currently continues its academic studies with more than 20 graduate and doctoral students. The Department, which has been carrying out many cultural and academic activities besides education since its establishment, in addition to regularly organized ‘Russian Culture Day’ event, has also managed to make a difference with the ‘Two Literatures – One World’ symposium held in 2010 and the ‘Turkey reads Solzhenitsyn’ held in 2014. In the following years, it continued its academic and cultural activities with the ‘Stefan Zweig’s Visit to Russia on the 100th Anniversary of Tolstoy’s Birth’, ‘Stefan Zweig: the Last Year of the Magnificent Life’ in 2018, the translator Uğur Büke’s panel, ‘The Manners of Translation/Literary Translation’ and events in the field of Russian literature with the participation of the member of the Moscow Writers’ Union, editor-in-chief of the journal ‘Literaturniye Znakomstva/Meetings in Literature’, reviewer, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Prof. Dr. Lola Zvonareva and the Vice President of the Russian Writers’ Union Vassily Shukshin Gold Medal and Alexander Nevski Award winning contemporary Russian writer, Doctor of legal sciences Pavel Krenev within the ‘2019 – the Year of Turkish-Russian Culture and Tourism’. The curriculum of the Russian language course to be taught in secondary and high schools of the Ministry of National Education was prepared by the faculty members of the Department in 2004, and after that, the Russian language was included in the curriculum for the first time. Later, assigned by the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Türkiye in 2009, the faculty members of the Department of Russian Language and Literature officially took part in the preparation of the course and workbook for the 1, 2, 3 and 4th grades of high schools, mainly taught in Vocational and Technical Secondary Education High Schools and in Trade and Tourism Vocational High Schools. With the creation of ‘The Cherry Orchard’ inside of the garden of our Faculty dedicated to the celebration of the Worldwide Year of Chekhov by UNESCO, with the celebrations of Pushkin’s 200th birthday and activities in 2010 celebrated as the Year of Tolstoy, with the conferences and symposiums given by various academics abroad and homeland, with the fairs, cinema days and trips organized at certain times of the year, our Department continues the active education-teaching model. With the increase in the quality of education, it has completed its short-term goal and has taken part among the leading Departments of Russian Language and Literature in Türkiye and is working to reach the European standards as its next target with its current teaching opportunities, number of publications and academic competence. The fact that our graduates are employed in the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the General Staff, the National Intelligence Organization, Higher Education Institutions and other public institutions, as well as the import-export departments of sectors such as tourism, construction and textile is the pride of our department