INTRODUCTION
The Institute of Youth is located in Moscow, a treasure house of Russian culture, featuring many art museums, theaters, concert halls, and public libraries. The Institute of Youth is located on a 150-acre site in the Vykhino district, known for its parks and gardens, with easy access from downtown Moscow by bus and subway. Numerous shops, a movie theater, a museum, and an open air market are all within close proximity. The Institute is a State/Private higher educational institute with an academic faculty of 200 scholars and researchers. Its modern, well-equipped buildings include classrooms with televisions and VCRs, and a large library.

COURSES

Located at The Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, formerly The Institute of Youth, the program seeks to involve students personally and actively with the Russian people and their language, history, art, and traditions. It offers a required intensive Russian language course, which is taught at all levels by lecturers trained at the Pushkin Institute, and a series of three courses on Russia: Russia Today. It is a unique weekly lecture series in which students dialogue with distinguished lecturers and political officials from throughout Russia.students. The program is open to students at any undergraduate level with a 2.5 GPA.

RUSSIA TODAY

Current issues: The social, political and economical situation in Russia (6 lectures).

1. Russia as a World Civilization.
   

2. The Political System in Russia (political parties, government, etc.).
   

3. The Population of Russia: demographic survey. Russia and the entire World: comparative analysis of the basic social and demographic problems. Demographic structures and their dynamics. Breakdown of the population. Regional peculiarities in reproduction of the population. Employment and unemployment. Employment migration. Brain drain. Living standard at transition period.
   

4. Meeting with the deputy director at the Mayor's office. The Problems of a sustainable Moscow. The secrets of Moscow's wealth.
   

5. Economy of Russia: patterns of development.
   

6. Industry in Russia. Visit to Red October Chocolate factory.

Modern Russian History (6 lectures)

1. The Political Development of Russia, 1991-2000. Vladimir Putin: the New Deal.
   

2. The Multiparty System in Russia. The Armed Forces of Russia: Problems and Perspectives.
   

3. The Political Role of Mass Media, Advertising and PR.
   

4. Corruption: the Roots of the Problem.
   

5. The Social Nature of the Russian State.
   

6. A Changing Russia in a Changing World. Foreign Policy of Russia and International Realities. The Future of Russia: Civil Society or the Authoritarian State.
   

Introduction To Russian Culture And Art Of 11-20th Centuries. (6 LECTURES)

The course is aimed at giving the basic outline of key concepts and problems of Russian culture in historic perspective from the state's inception to the 20th century. The course consists of lectures supplemented by field trips to museums, places of historic interest, theatres, etc.

• Orientation tour by bus
  

  This tour includes visiting Moscow highlights, such as the Red Square, the Sparrow Hills Observation Platform at the foot of the Moscow State University skyscraper, the Victory Park. Red Square is the famous historical center of Moscow, next to the Kremlin walls. Feast your eyes on Saint Basil's Cathedral, the Historical Museum, the Minin and Pozharskiy monument, and the Lenin Mausoleum. The best view of the Kremlin will be seen from Sofiyskaya naberezhnaya, across the river.
  

  Excursion to the Moscow Kremlin
  The Moscow Kremlin is the heart of the city and country, the place to which most Russian roads lead and from which most Russian power emanates. The Kremlin was once the center of Russia's Church as well as our state. The Kremlin occupies a roughly triangular plot of land covering little Borovitsky Hill on the north bank of the Moscow River. A Kremlin is a town's fortified stronghold, and the first short, wooden wall around Moscow's was built in the 1150's.
  

  Excursion to the Golden Ring town of Sergiev Posad with St. Sergius Monastery
  Sergiev Posad is the town around the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius, one of the Russia's most important religious and historical landmarks and a place of both spiritual and national pilgrimage. Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk) is 60 km from the edge of Moscow on the Yaroslavl road. The monk Sergius of Radonezh, who became the patron saint of Russia, founded the monastery around 1340. It is a Lavra, or "exalted" monastery, and the main link in a chain of fort-monasteries defending Moscow; it grew enormously wealthy through the gifts of tsars, nobles and merchants looking for divine support.

  Excursion to the Tretiakov Picture Gallery
  The Tretiakov Gallery reopened in 1995 after a nine-year renovation. The Tretiakov houses the world's best collection of Russian icons and an outstanding collection of other pre-Revolutionary Russian art, particularly the 19th-century Peredvizhniki. There may be more masterpieces per sq meter in than anywhere else.

  Kolomenskoye State Historical, Architectural, Natural and Landscape Preserve
  Kolomenskoye is a picturesque place in the south of Moscow on a bank of the Moskva River. In the 15th to the 17th century Kolomenskoye was first Grand Dukes' and later the Tsar's residence. Peter the Great spent his childhood there. The architectural ensemble of Kolomenskoye includes the Church of the Ascension, the church-cumbelfry of St.George the Warrior, the Church of Our Lady of Kazan, the Water Tower and several auxiliary buildings. Among its green plantations of special value are its lime-tree lane planted in the 19th century and a relic oak-tree grove where some trees are from 600 to 800years old.

  Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
  The museum was opened to the public in 1912 as a Museum of Fine Art named after Emperor Alexander III under the Moscow University. Its present name was given to it in 1937. The museum has one of the biggest collections of foreign works of art from ancient times to this day. The museum's collections of Dutch, Flemish and French schools are especially interesting. One can see here invaluable Impressionist and Postimpressionist paintings, but also this museum has a broad selection of European works from the Renaissance onward - mostly appropriated from private collections after the revolution - and a good display of ancient Egyptian art.

  Novodevichiy Convent and Cemetery
  The ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent situated in a most picturesque place in the southwest of Moscow, in a bend of the Moskva River. It is an outstanding monument of 16th and 17th century architecture; an exceptionally expressive complex of structures in the Moscow Baroquestyle. By 1926 the Convent was transformed into a historical, life-style and arts museum.
  

  Excursion to the Golden Ring towns of Vladimir and Sandal
  Vladimir gave way to Moscow as Russia's capital is now little different from a hundred other medium-sized Russian industrial towns - except that it has two of the most beautiful buildings in Russia (Assumption Cathedral, and Cathedral of St Dimitry) Suzdal, 35 km north of Vladimir, is special not just for its lovely old monasteries, convents and churches but also because they haven't been strangled by 20th-century ugliness, noise and pollution. Suzdal is uniquely peaceful among Russian tourist towns, and the slightly unreal 'living museum' atmosphere resulting from its protected status is a small price to pay.

COSTS

Tuition and fees Truman Fee CCIS Fee Insurance Room and Board Visa Total Cost - One Semester

$2,680       200       110         60    1,200       150 $4,400.00

Costs Included:
Instructional costs abroad, administrative fees, room and board, cultural excursions, visa, insurance.

Personal costs, passport, airfare. All costs, fees, and dates are subject to change. Please contact ciea@truman.edu to verify all costs, fees, and dates for this program.

OTHER INFORMATION
OrientationThere is an on-site orientation during the first week of the program.

FORMS
To request more info
To apply

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