From 21 to 24 May the Pushkin State Institute of Russian Language under the auspices of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO and with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation hosted the largest scientific event in the world of Russian studies - the V Kostomarov Forum. Penza State University was represented by teachers and students of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language of the Institute of International Cooperation.

The Forum was established in memory of the Institute's founder Academician Vitaly Kostomarov in 2021. In four years, the Kostomarov Forum has become an influential international event in the field of Russian studies.

‘This year we celebrate the 95th anniversary of the birth of Vitaly Kostomarov. He devoted his entire scientific, pedagogical and creative career to the cause of promoting the Russian word and Russian speech. Many people all over the world learnt and loved the Russian language thanks to the activities of the Institute created by him. Vitaly Kostomarov and his colleague Evgeny Vereshchagin justified the importance of studying the language together with the culture of the country and created the scientific direction ‘Linguocountry Studies’,’ said Nikita Gusev, Rector of the Pushkin Institute.

In 2025, the forum organised round tables, workshops, exhibitions, platforms for debates, conferences, which brought together more than 600 leading scholars from Russia and abroad to discuss topical issues of Russian studies, language policy, promotion of the Russian language in the world, and methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language. Renowned scholars in the field of linguistics and language teaching (Maxim Krongauz, Vladimir Annushkin, Natalia Kulibina, Vladimir Karasik, etc.) held master classes for the forum participants.

Olga Barabash, Acting Head of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language of PSU, Candidate of Philological Sciences, spoke at the session ‘Russian Literature in Russian Language Teaching: Goals? Teaching Materials? Results?’ as an invited expert of the V Kostomarov Forum.

In the sessions of the international scientific conference XXVI Cyril and Methodius Readings were attended by the assistants of the Department of ‘Russian as a Foreign Language’ Natalia Zagumennikova, Anna Khabibulina, Ksenia Mityurnikova, who presented the results of their scientific research.

Master students of the department Hami Batul, Li Shutian, Liu Junchen, Hu Yan (supervisor - Olga Barabash) also made their reports in person and online.

An important result of the event for all participants was the exchange of experience in the study and teaching of Russian language and Russian literature, as well as the enrichment of new ideas in the sphere of support and promotion of the Russian language in the modern world.