The World Youth Festival 2024 continues in Russia, during which participants have visited South Ural State University.
The participants’ acquaintance with SUSU began with a welcoming speech from the Director of the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities (IMSSH) Lidiya Lobodenko. She told the guests about the university and the upcoming educational program prepared by the teachers and staff of the IMSSH, after which she took the students on an excursion to the People and Technologies of the Urals University Museum. Here the students were able to immerse themselves first in the era of the Ancient Urals, and then learn how inhabitants of the Urals lived during the period of industrialization.
The SUSU IMSSH Professor Andrey Epimakhov and Head of the People and Technologies of the Urals University Museum Iuliia Vasina spoke about the appearance features of the people of that time, about how and what they ate, what crafts they used, and much more. Also, the participants of festival were shown the exhibition "Finds from Our Street", in the creation of which SUSU history and architecture students had taken part.
"During such excursions, of course, I feel proud of our work, and of our students, and of how various exhibitions are presented at our university. Just yesterday representatives of the Academy of Sciences visited us, and they noted that among student museums, ours is one of the best in all of Russia and the best in the Ural region!" said Iuliia Vasina.
The excursion did not leave anyone indifferent. Guests actively asked questions, took photographs, and filmed the exhibition objects. It is noteworthy that the guides’ speech was interpreted into several languages and broadcast on the participants’ headphones since many of had come from other countries.
"I really liked everything because this museum complex presents a large number of exhibits that in one way or another reflect the era of the South Ural region. It seems to me that so many archaeological finds can rarely be discovered in various cities and regions, but here there are enough of them to see how the ancestors of the Ural people lived in ancient times and in the era of the industrial Urals," Iana Teteliuk, a participant of the World Youth Festival 2024 from Moldova shared her impressions.
After an interesting excursion to the SUSU museum and exhibition complex, the foreign guests gathered at the Sigma university complex. There, Professor, Doctor of Sciences (History) Andrey Epimakhov gave them a fascinating lecture about the history of the South Ural region from the Stone Age to the present day.
"For most of the guys, this was their first contact with foreign and regional history. Everything I told was new to them, but it was important to rely on what would be more interesting to them. Therefore, I focused the listeners’ attention on the fact that the Urals are an integral part of the world history and played a decisive role in some historical processes," noted Andrey Epimakhov.
The listeners were impressed by the new information about our region. They learned that the South Ural region had been an important link in historical processes and events throughout its history. Its role in the history of our country was determined by its mineral wealth, as well as its strategic location in the centre of Eurasia at the junction of landscape zones.
"I like visiting different countries, learning about their cultures and traditions. I think this is especially important for students. Today at the university we have been told many interesting facts about Chelyabinsk and the significance of the South Ural region in the history of this country. The lecture was very informative and interesting," shared Abduelrahman Embabi, a participant of the World Youth Festival 2024 from Egypt.
At the end of the event, the Professor recommended guests who were interested in the history of our region to study the e-book developed by scientists from South Ural State University.