History of the Department
The Department of the Russian Language and Literature was founded on July 19th, 2000, when the Teaching and Scientific Council of the University in Niš approved the curricula of the newly founded departments at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, which included this department with its original name – the Department of Slavic and Balkan studies. The classes at the Bachelor level (a four-year program) started on October 1st, 2000, in line with the approved syllabus, which included the study of the Russian language and Literature, a mandatory Greek language course and an elective South Slavic language course, either Bulgarian or Macedonian.
Teaching staff
At the very beginning, the Department had one full professor who was the first Head of Department, Dragoljub Veličković, PhD and one teaching assistant, Violeta Ilic-Džonić. The list of visiting lecturers included Predrag Piper, PhD, full professor at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, Irina Antanasijević, senior lector at the Faculty of Philosophy in Kosovska Mitrovica, Klaudija Tasić, the Macedonian language lector, Athanasios Bintas, the Greek language lector and Cenka Ivanova, the Bulgarian language lector. In July 2002, the Department changed its name to the Department of Russian Language and Literature. At that time, the following professors and lecturers were hired: Nadežda Lainović-Stojanović, PhD (for teaching the Russian language/former teacher of Russian at the Faculty of Electronics in Niš), who was the Head of the Department from 2002 to 2004; Irina Antanasijević, PhD (for teaching the Russian literature); Dejan Marković (the Russian language lector), who was the Head of the Department from 2011 to 2017; Živojin Trajković, a senior lecturer for the Russian language (for teaching Russian at other departments) and Tamara Kostić-Pahnoglu, the Greek language lecturer. Moreover, there were also Hristo Bondzolov (the Bulgarian language lector), Mihail Harlicki, Zoja Popova, Ana Mitrofanova (the Russian language lectors), Dimostenis Stratigopoulos (the Greek language lector), who all worked as foreign language lectors.
In addition to the permanent employees at the Department of Russian Language and Literature, the professors from other faculties were teaching as well, such as: Zoran Božović, PhD, Bogoljub Stanković, PhD and Radmilo Marojević, PhD from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, Larisa Razdobudko-Čović, PhD, and Abdulah Mušović, PhD, from the Faculty of Philosophy in Kosovska Mitrovica, Marija Stefanović, PhD from the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad and Dragan Koprivica, PhD from the Department of Russian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Nikšić.
The successful work of the Department is reflected in the fact that a significant number of graduate students enroll in postgraduate studies and receive the degree of Doctor of Philology. The Department is proud of its first students who constitute the majority of the teaching staff now: Velimir Ilić, PhD, (the current Head of the Department), professor Jelena Lepojević, PhD, professor Maja Veljković, PhD and professor Nenad Blagojević, PhD. Additionally, two former students work at the Department as teaching assistants or teaching fellows: Emilija Jović and Milica Đorđević. Olga Trapeznjikova was hired as a foreign lecturer for the Russian language.
The Department has a successful scientific and professional cooperation with the Russian Federal agency "Rossotrudnichestvo", The St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo from Bulgaria, with the Belgorod State Technological University "Shukhov", The Kemerovo State Institute of Culture and further development of cooperation with European higher education institutions is planned. The outcomes of this cooperation are multiple student exchange programs, postgraduate student exchanges and visiting professors, which contributes to the fact that the students of our Department regularly participate in the academic exchange programs, while the students from Russia come to study the Serbian language.
An agreement on cooperation was signed in 2021 with the Russian Center for Science and Culture - the Russian House.
Professors and teaching assistants at the Department are actively involved in organizing scientific conferences, participating in conferences both in the country and abroad and publishing their work in scientific journals. Publications of coursebooks, handbooks and methodology literature for the students of Russian language are one of the top priorities of the Department of Russian Language and Literature. Scientific cooperation is established with other faculties as well. The professors at the Department of Russian Language and Literature have written four university level textbooks of Russian for the students of physics, biology and ecology from the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, for the students of the Faculty of Economics and for the students of the Faculty of Law of the University of Niš.
Accredited study programs
The Department of Russian Language and Literature teaches at all three levels of study: Bachelor Academic Studies of Russian Language and Literature, Master Academic Studies of Russian Language and Literature and Doctoral Academic Studies of Philology.
Useful links
For more information about our study programs visit: