On Friday, 6 June 2014, the German-Russian Year of Language and Literature will be launched by Minister of State Böhmer together with Veniamin Kaganov, the Russian Federation’s Deputy Minister of Education and Science, and Mikhail Shvydkoi, the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cultural Cooperation.

The year ahead will showcase the German language and literature in Russia and the Russian language and literature in Germany through a wide variety of events. These will include a special non-fiction programme at the Moscow International Book Fair as well as the opening of the new German-Russian University in Kazan.

In Russia the German-Russian Year of Language and Literature will kick off in Moscow with a street festival running from 12 to 14 September 2014.