The Institute of Philology, Foreign Languages and Media Communication of ISU finished the first online course of Russian literature in English “Reading Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita". Russian literature mini-courses programs were developed by associate professors of the departments of Russian and Foreign literature and Contemporary Russian literature in cooperation with the School of Russian and Asian Studies (the USA).

Julia Arskaya, Executive Deputy Director for International Relations of the Institute of Philology, Foreign Languages and Media Communication:

- The idea of this project is to offer those who are interested in Russian culture a careful reading of works that represent the contribution of Russian literature to the world literary heritage, under the guidance of scholars of the Faculty of Philology and Journalism of ISU. We are talking about such texts as “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Anna Karenina”, “Doctor Zhivago”, “The Master and Margarita” and “The Cherry Orchard”. The courses are taught in English. Taking into account the fact that F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, M. A. Bulgakov and B. A. Pasternak are famous worldwide, I think that this is one of the perspective direction of development of online courses for listeners from abroad. When people talk about promoting Russian culture abroad, they primarily mean language. But it seems to me that Irkutsk State University will be associated not only with Russian language but with literature in the minds of our listeners.

The course “Reading Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita” brought together participants from different US states: California, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. The lecturer was Yulia Bryukhanova, Associate Professor of the Department of Contemporary Russian Literature. In addition to lectures in English, revealing the main "secrets" of M. Bulgakov's novel, for those course participants who are studying Russian, classes were held for more attentive reading particular chapters of the novel and discussing them in Russian.