International Likhachov Scientific Conference

The International Likhachov Scientific Conference at St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences was originally held in May 1995. It was devoted to the Days of Slavonic Literatures and Culture and the City Day. The conference was initiated by Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachov and professors V.E. Triodin, R.S. Milonov and A.S. Zapesotsky of St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Since then the Conference has been held annually. D.S. Likhachov made presentations there with his papers on ‘Declaration of the Rights of Culture and its International Importance’ (1996) and ‘The Peace-Making Nature of Great Culture’ (1997).

After Dmitry Likhachov passed away, writer D.A. Granin and Professor A.S. Zapesotsky proposed that the Conference should receive the official status of International Likhachov Scientific Conference, which was granted by the Decree of President Vladimir Putin of Russia ‘On perpetuating the memory of Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachov’ No. 587, dated of 23 May, 2001. 

Co-founders of the Conference are the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Education, the Congress of St. Petersburg Intelligentsia. The Conference is held under the aegis of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The topics of the International Likhachov Scientific Conference were ‘Academician D.S. Likhachov’s World of Humanitarian Culture’ in 2001 and 2002, ‘Education Under Conditions of Forming a New Type of Culture’ in 2003, ‘Education in the Process of Humanization of the Modern World’ in 2004, ‘Culture and Global Challenges of the World Progress’ in 2005, ‘The Humanitarian Problems of Modern Civilization’ in 2006, ‘Dialogue of Cultures and Civilizations in the Global World’ in 2007.

In 2008, St. Petersburg University of the Humanities and Social Sciences in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs started carrying out a diplomatic programme of the Conference titled ‘International Dialogue of Cultures’.

Year by year, the International Likhachov Scientific Conference is getting a wider scope and becoming more representative. The Conference brings together dozens of leading figures of Russian and foreign science, culture and arts, public and political figures. Over the years academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences participated in it, among them were G.A. Arbatov, N.P. Bekhtereva, O.T. Bogomolov, T.I. Zaslavskaya, A.M. Panchenko, N.N. Skatov, academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Education Sh.A. Amonashvili, L.A. Verbitskaya, I.S. Kon, N.D. Nikandrov, public figures and statesmen O.G. Dmitrieva, A.A. Sobchak, M.O. Chudakova, M.E. Shvydkoi, culture and arts figures I.O. Gorbachov, N.M. Dudinskaya, Z.Ya. Korogodsky, K.Yu. Lavrov, A.P. Petrov, M.L. Rostropovich.