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On 28 March at 7 pm, HRH Princess Alexandra presided over the presentation of the Russian contribution to the Andersen bicentenary celebrations at a press launch at the Malyj Theatre in Moscow. The events programme includes a new translation of Andersen's fairytales and a co-production with the International Chekhov Festival.

At the press launch, Secretary General of the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation, Lars Seeberg, presented the programme for the Russian events celebrating the Andersen bicentenary. It includes the publication of a new translation of Andersen's fairytales and a co-production with the International Chekhov Festival as well as a wealth of different exhibitions, educational resources, puppet theatre performances, films, children's competitions, and music. Russia is furthermore to celebrate Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen where several Russian artists are to exhibit at the Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre. Please see below for a complete list of Russian bicentennial events.

HRH Princess Alexandra of Denmark presided over the presentation and appointed 12 Russian Hans Christian Andersen Ambassadors: author Marija Arbatova, scholar Ljudmilla Braude, artist Boris Diodorov, museum director Elena Gagarina,  actress and director Renata Litvinova, clown Vjatjeslav Polunin, ballet dancer Aleksej Ratmanskij, filmmaker Eldar Rjasjanov, headmaster Sergej Semjonov, TV news anchor Svetlana Sorokina, conductor Jurij Temirkanov and author Tatjana Tolstaja.

The press launch was hosted by the Russian Ministry of Cultural Affairs in collaboration with the Royal Danish Embassy in Moscow and the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation. Hosting the event was chairman of the Russian Culture and Film Agency Mikhail Sjvydkoj. The Russian Ministry of Cultural Affairs also presented entertainment in the form of a theatrical medley featuring several Andersen fairytales.

Shortly after the presentation, the Royal Danish Embassy in association with the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation hosted a reception for invited guests. The reception took place at the Royal Danish Embassy in Moscow.

The Russian Hans Christian Andersen 2005 programme:

LITERATURE:

The Vagrius Publishing House
Contact person: Analolij Chekansky
Translation into Russian of Hans Christian Andersen's collected fairytales and other tales including the autobiographies "The Fairytale of my Life" and "Levnedsbogen". The four-volume edition will be illustrated with new Russian illustrations and will be featured in the publisher's classics series. Vagrius is one of Russia's largest commercial publishing houses with great market penetration.
Translators: Analolij Chekansky (ed.), Oleg Rosdetvenskij, Aleksander Sergejev, Tatjana Moskivicheva, Alla Nikolajevskaja.
www.vagrius.com

THEATRE/OPERA:

The Chekhov International Theatre Festival 
Project Manager: Galina Kolosova, Programme director.
The prestigious Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Russia's largest international theatre festival, will co-produce an Andersen-inspired performance with the Children's Theatre Festival to be featured in the town of Svendborg and the County of West Zealand in Denmark. The performance will be directed by the celebrated young director Olga Subbotina. The script will be by playwright Xenia Dragunskaya.
www.chekhovfest.ru

The Helikon Opera
Rusalka
The celebrated Helikon Opera in Moscow will stage Dvorak's lesser-known opera from 1901 entitled "Rusalka - The Little Mermaid". The performance will be directed by Artistic Director Dmitri Bertman, who is one of Russia's leading directors and the creator of graphically visual, well-choreographed performances with a psychological approach. The opera will feature as an imaginative synthesis of the realm of imagination and the real world.
Dmitri Bertman states: "Our production will offer psychoanalyses of two realities - real and virtual. My idea is that this will open Dvorak as a very contemporary composer, and Andersen as not so much a storyteller as a realist whose reality becomes fairytale to us."

EXHIBTIONS:

The Odense City Museums
The international touring exhibition organised by the Odense City Museums will be featured in Russia. The exhibition is based on textual and visual material from the collections of the Odense Museum in addition to display boards featuring information on the life and work of Hans Christian Andersen. The exhibition is scheduled for the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, 7 April - 31 May 2005.
www.odmus.dk

RESEARCH AND EDUCATION:

The Centre for Children's Literature/ Educational resources at the HCA portal
Children the world over are familiar with Hans Christian Andersen, and schools the world over feature Andersen's fairytales in their curriculum, especially in junior elementary school classes. Andersen's works are interpreted, discussed, illustrated and dramatised. The Danish Centre for Children's Literature has launched a Hans Christian Andersen 2005 web portal, mainly aimed at educationalists at primary school level. The web portal is to feature as the official educational website in relation to the 2005 Hans Christian Andersen bicentenary. The inspirational educational resources offered at the website are targeted at teachers, educationalists, consultants and others planning an educational programme related to Andersen.

The web portal is constantly updated with new material and will feature, among other things, a number of inspirational articles and bright ideas based on educational experience and a number of studies conducted on the subject. The Danish University of Education has in collaboration with the Danish Centre for Children's Literature devised educational resources targeting elementary school teachers worldwide. The aim of the project is to inspire teachers to adopting new methods of teaching in relation to Hans Christian Andersen. The resources include articles on the life and work of Hans Christian Andersen, suggested educational approaches, background material and a virtual exhibition featured in 24 languages. The material was made available in full as of 1 February 2005 and can be downloaded free of charge at the official HCA2005 web portal: hca2005.com

CITY INITIATIVES:

The Royal Fairytale Theatre, City Celebration in Saint Petersburg
A major Andersen celebration for the children of St. Petersburg. All theatres in the vicinity of the city as well as international theatres will take part in the parade from the Nevsky Square. The theatres will additionally perform at different points on the Mikhailovsky Square and the Youth Theatre at Fontanka.
Coinciding with festivities on the street and outside the palace, celebrations will also take place on floating stages in the river. There will be music and songs from Denmark and excerpts of Andersen's plays with music, dance and merriment. The Danish Cultural Institute has initiated and organized the city celebration in association with the St. Petersburg Municipal Department of Culture and Education and a number of Danish and Russian sponsors.
Date: 3 September 2005
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg at Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

FILM/TV:

Nordisk Film/ DR
"Young Andersen". A two-part TV mini series on the young Andersen directed by Rumle Hammerich and co-produced by Nordisk Film and Danish national broadcaster, DR. The TV series will feature the young and vulnerable Andersen, who from being a self-conscious young upstart develops the dark inner narrative voice, which later was to bring him world fame. His journey is prompted by headmaster Meisling at the grammar school in Slagelse where Andersen was admitted at the age of 17. Meisling was a tyrannical figure who punished Andersen for his creative imagination by forbidding him to write and subjecting him to psychological harassment.
Nonetheless, Meisling was highly intelligent, and Rumle Hammerich's TV production questions whether Meisling really was the demon he has always been made out to be.
"Young Andersen" is the story of the formative period in Andersen's life and the story renders entertaining and thought provoking insight into the young Danish author's sensitive soul. The TV series is scheduled for broadcast in Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Slovenia, Australia, Russia, the Baltic countries, Slovakia, and Ireland. Furthermore, it will also be screened on the Norwegian channel NRK and the Swedish channel SVT who have co-produced the series.
www.nordiskfilm.dk

RUSSIAN PRESENTATIONS IN DENMARK:

The Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre
Project Manager: Director of exhibitions Elisabeth Delin Hansen; curator Ann Lumbye Sørensen.
The Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre will mark the 2005 Andersen bicentenary with an exhibition offering a contemporary perspective and reflecting the universality of Hans Christian Andersen across time and culture. The exhibition will feature works by concept artist Joseph Kosuth, who investigates the contextual relationship between language and images, and works by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, who deal thematically with memory and existence visualised by images, text and space.
The art work will establish a complex web of relations between Hans Christian Andersen and Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Furthermore he is working on an outdoor project that employs a text by Andersen, which will be represented in white neon light on the outer walls of the art centre.
Emilia and Ilya Kabakov have planned a project entitled "The Enchanted Night" where layers of reality, like a Russian doll, instil an uncertain balance between reality and fairytale.
Ilya Kabakov is celebrated as one of Russia's most noteworthy artists on the international art stage, not least due to his ability to devise unique realms - just as Andersen himself.
The exhibition will be on show from 17 June to 28 August 2005.
www.nikolaj-ccac.dk

The Tinderbox, Odense
The Tinderbox in Odense will feature an exhibition of drawings by Russian children aged 7 - 16 at the arts school: Russia 302001 Orel Art School UL. u KARACHEVSKAJA, 61, Art School
The artworks will be exhibited from October ? November 2005
www.fyrtoejet.com


LOGO PARTNERS:

Murzilka
The Russian Murzilka Magazine devoted their February 2005 issue to Andersen and featured articles on Denmark, the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation, Odense, and Copenhagen as well as crossword puzzles that drew on Andersen's fairytales. Children's competitions were hosted and an exhibition of children's drawings was organised in association with The Tinderbox children's culture house in Odense with drawings by Danish and Russian children.
http://murzilka.km.ru/

UNESCO
In association with UNESCO, Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales will be published in the languages of the southern Caucasus including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
http://www.unisco.ru

OTHER PROJECTS (by the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg):

Brodyachaya Sobachka
In association with the Danish Cultural Institute, the St. Petersburg puppet theatre Brodyachaya Sobachka staged a festive rendition of Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling", which premiered on 2 October 2004. The play now features on the theatre's regular repertoire and will be staged as part of the International Puppet Theatre Festival in Zagreb in 2005 as well as at a major Russian cultural festival in Northern Jutland in Denmark. The Danish director Jacques Matthiessen and the Russian actors have created an exceptional synthesis of Danish and Russian theatre tradition. The famous St. Petersburg artist and winner of the prestigious Golden Mask, Alevtina Torik, has created the set design. Music: Sergey Ushakov. Cast: M. Shumilova, S. Tolstov, A. Somkina, and S. Yagudkina.
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg at Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

IV International Children's Festival, Unifilm, St. Petersburg
The Danish Cultural Institute presents 30 new animated films based on the fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen. The films are produced by Danish filmmakers A. Film A/S in Copenhagen. The films, entitled "The Fairytaler" render the fairytales in a contemporary visual idiom. A Film will receive the 2005 Award's Committee Hans Christian Andersen Award for the films. The award will be presented on 2 April 2005 at a major award ceremony in Odense. The children's Unifilm Film Festival will take place 23-28 March 2005. For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Conference: Andersen through the ages
The conference will be attended by professors, teachers and translators from the Institute of Scandinavian Philology at the University of St. Petersburg. The delegates include B. Zharov, L. Braude, I. Kuprinova. E. Krasnova. To mark the end of the conference, students from the Danish Department will perform "The Swineherd" and screen films produced by children from the Primorsky District.
Date: 26. March 2005
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Competition
The Danish Cultural Institute, the Central Public Library of St. Petersburg and the children's magazine "Kostjer" will celebrate the International Day of Children's Literature with an exhibition of selected drawings, paintings and installations based on the theme: My Andersen. Children from all across Russia will take part in the competition, and the winners will receive diplomas from the Danish Cultural Institute.
Date: 1 April
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Exhibition
On 2 April, the Danish Cultural Institute will open the exhibition entitled "Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale Land" exhibiting selected drawings, paintings and installations made by children from the Primorsky District, St. Petersburg.
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Two birthdays
The Andersen bicentenary year coincides with the tercentennial of the founding of the town of Peterhof. In association with the University of St. Petersburg, the Danish Cultural Institute will present three new Danish books in Russian and will screen selected episodes of the animated film series by A. Films entitled
"The Fairytaler"
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

The Hans Christian Andersen Festival
The official closure of the Andersen bicentenary project hosted by the Danish Cultural Institute and the daycare centres of the Primorsky District. Competitions will be hosted within four categories throughout the academic year in the Primorsky District:

- The animated film: "Let's Animate a Fairytale". Produced throughout they year with equipment donated by the Municipality of Copenhagen.
- Visual art: "Andersen's Fairytale Land"
- The theatre play: "Guests of Ole Lukoie"
- Theatre and dance: "How charming fairytales are"

This marathon event will conclude with a two-day festival, which will take place at the Mirage cinema and the Tjornaya Rechka theatre.
The children will be awarded prizes and diplomas. The Danish Cultural Institute will host an exhibition of the artworks contributed by the official winners to be followed by the staging of plays by the winning groups. A panel discussion will conclude the festival featuring administrative representatives from the Primorsky District, the Municipal Daycare Centres and the Danish Cultural Institute.
Date: 4 - 11 April
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Puppet theatre
The Danish puppet theatre "Konkylje" (featuring Bende and Preben Harris) will stage a performance of Thumbelina in Sebezh, Pskov and St. Petersburg.
The tour will be organised by the Danish Cultural Institute.
Date 25 - 30 May
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Hans Christian Andersen in concert
Concert at the Malyhj zal Philharmonic. Soloists from Denmark: Elisabeth Westenholz, piano, and Susanne Elmark, soprano. The concert is hosted by the Nordic Association, the city of St. Petersburg and the Danish Cultural Institute.
Date: 21 May
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Ballet
Performance by the Copenhagen City Ballet and School of Choreography: Three ballets based on fairytales by Hans Christian Andersen. The event is organised by: Astra Sterns and the Danish Cultural Institute.
Date: late October 2005
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Ice sculptures
Ice sculptures of "The Snow Queen's Palace" created by Danish sculptor Ole Videbæk and Russian artists.
Place: The Winter Palace Court Yard. Project management: The Danish Cultural Institute.
Date: 16 November 2005 - March 2006 (i.e. mid-winter in St. Petersburg)
For further information, please contact the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg on Tel.: 007 812 571 43 72 or email:

Other Hans Christian Andersen-related events:

Opening of the Russian Children's Literature Festival
Events hosted throughout Russia during the Andersen year by the Russian Children's Literature Festival will adopt an Andersen theme.
Date: 23 March in Moscow 
Date: 2 April in Velikij Novgorod
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

Hans Christian Andersen Festival at Moscow International House of Music
The Moscow International House of Music presents a Hans Christian Andersen children's festival at several Moscow theatres featuring Andersen fairytales staged for children.
The festival will take place during the Russian school break in March and April 2005:
20th March 2005, at 2 p.m.
The Moscow International House of Music
"The Ball in H.C. Andersen's Fantastic Universe"
26th March 2005, at 2 p.m.
New Moscow Dramatic Theatre
"The Steadfast Tin Soldier"
29th March 2005, at 2 p.m.
Theatre "BUFF"
"The Snow Queen"
31st March 2005, at 2 p.m.
Moscow Suburban National Theatre
"Who is Stronger than the Snow Queen" - "Modern rendition of Andersen's "The Snow Queen"
1st April 2005, at 2 p.m.
Moscow National Academic Children?s Theatre of N.I. Sats
"Thumbelina" - opera-ballet
2nd April 2005, at 12 a.m. and 2 p.m.
St. Petersburg E.S. Demmi National Puppet Theatre 
"The Sandman's Fairytales" (Ole Lukoie) - fantasia
3rd April 2005, at 2 p.m.
Moscow Dramatic Theatre on Malaya Bronnaya
"The Tinder Box" - musical performance
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

The Chudovperiah Puppet Theatre
The Chudovperiah Theatre will perform "The Ugly Duckling" at schools across Russia throughout the Andersen bicentenary year. The performance will be staged by teenagers.
For further information, please contact

Conferences
The State University of Education in Moscow will host a conference entitled "HCA and Russia". 300 Russian and international delegates are expected to attend the conference, which will focus on the issue of Andersen as an author who wrote for children and adults alike.
Date: 5 April - 8 April 2005.
A conference has also been scheduled for the town of Kasimov, dealing with the reception of Andersen in Russia. Speakers at the conference will include Galina Simonova from the Royal Danish Embassy, Boris Diodorov and T. Gorelisheva.
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

The Russian National Children's Centre, Orlyonok
The Russian Children's Centre Orlyonok is to take part in a UNESCO Andersen initiative. Events scheduled include a drawing competition, a letter-writing competition, a speech-writing competition, and reading clubs all with Andersen as the theme.
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

The exhibition
The Russian State University for the Liberal Arts in association with Danish Days will host an exhibition with works by young Russian artists that draw inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen. Boris Diodorov will present the works.
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

Exhibition
The Pushkin Museum in Moscow will host an exhibition of illustrations for Andersen's fairytales by
Boris Diodorovs.
Date: June - August 2005
The Pushkin Museum will furthermore feature an exhibition with Andersen dolls made by artist Olina Ventsel.
Date: September - October 2005
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

Children's Theatre Festival
An Andersen children's theatre festival is scheduled for the town of Zelenograd, 1- 7 November. The festival is organised by the Russian theatre "Vedogon" and the Danish theatre "Fair Play"
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

Film Festival
The Russian film company Kinotavr will host an Andersen children's film festival in the town of Sochiin. The event is scheduled for 1 - 7 November 2005.
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

Hans Christian Andersen Statue
In December 2005, a statue of Hans Christian Andersen will be unveiled in Moscow. The statue has been created by the Russian artist Alexander Rukavisjnikov.
For further information, please contact Galina Simonova at the Royal Danish Embassy

Film
The filmmaker Eldar Rjasjanov has planned a Hans Christian Andersen film. He states: "I have co-written the screenplay with my colleague Irkalij Kvirikadsjse. The film is an artistic rendition of Hans Christian Andersen's (auto)biography, which will be interspersed with excerpts from his fairytales. Eldar Rjasjanov admits to have been mesmerised by Andersen's fairytales as a child, and to create a film about the storyteller is a great dream of his which finally comes to fruition. The cast will feature Russian actors, but the title character will be played by a Dane. Production will start in January 2006.

Short profiles of the Russian Hans Christian Andersen Ambassadors

Hans Christian Andersen Ambassadors are celebrated artists, politicians, journalists, businesspeople and athletes from around the world, who have been asked by the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation to represent the bicentenary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. All are highly respected within their field and are acclaimed and credited for their contributions to the world.

The Hans Christian Andersen Ambassadors are to help generate awareness of the bicentennial celebrations in their home countries, either by their presence at different events related to the 2005 bicentenary or by conveying their view of Hans Christian Andersen to the world.

The Hans Christian Andersen Ambassador will further more represent the humanitarian foundation the HCA-abc Foundation, which will join in the struggle against illiteracy in the name of Hans Christian Andersen.

The Russian Hans Christian Andersen Ambassadors:

Marija Arbatova is a successful dramatist, author who is especially known for the novel "My Teacher". Marija Arbatova has throughout her career been an outspoken and committed women?s rights activist.

Ljudmilla Braude: Scholar in Hans Christian Andersen and Scandinavian Children's Literature. As an Andersen scholar and translator of Scandinavian children's literature Ljudmilla Braude is a great asset to Andersen research in Russia and internationally. She has not least made her mark as co-editor of two major Russian editions of the collected works of Hans Christian Andersen.

Boris Diodorov: visual artist and illustrator Boris Diodorov is celebrated throughout the world. Boris Diodorov has received several accolades for his artistic merit. Diodorov's work is represented at institutions throughout the world, including the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense.

Elena Gagarina: Director of the Kremlin Museum. Elena Gagarina has formerly worked for the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and has received several awards for her commitment to the arts.

Renata Litvinova: Actress, director and screenwriter. Renata Litvinova has throughout her career featured in every aspect of filmmaking and is celebrated for her achievements within all her disciplines.

Vjatjeslav Polunin: The clown Slava Polunin is inspired with an amazing talent for storytelling, and no matter where he stages his show he can conjure up the most wonderful snowstorm.

Aleksej Ratmanskij: Ballet dancer with an international career. Ratmanskij is artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. He has formerly been assigned as soloist at the Royal Danish Ballet.

Eldar Rjasjanov: Celebrated filmmaker throughout a lifetime who has inspired generations of film lovers. Eldar Rjasjanov is currently creating his own cinematographic contribution to the Andersen bicentenary based on Andersen's autobiography.

Sergej Semjonov: Headmaster at a school for juvenile delinquents in Pskov. As head of the school, Semjonov seeks to adopt new educational approaches in rehabilitation based on reward rather than punishment.

Svetlana Sorokina: TV news anchor with a dedicated career spanning 20 years.

Jurij Temirkanov: Conductor. Temirkanov has worked with symphony orchestras throughout the world for a number of years, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra where he has been principal conductor since 2000.

Tatjana Tolstaja: Tolstaja is related to Leo Tolstoy and is one of the most talented writers within Russian prose today. Several of her stories have been published in magazines such The New Yorker and The Paris Review.

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