March 2, 2017: a "video bridge" communication was organized by Taganrog Foreign Relations Office within the framework of the International Project "The Heritage of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the modern world" between senior high school students of Taganrog Municipal School No. 5 and "Hristo Botev" primary school from Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It was dedicated to Bulgaria's National Liberation Day from almost 500 years of Ottoman rule.

Taganrog school students greeted their Slavic friends with Bulgarian national anthem, Ivan Vazov poems and showed their drawings and posters devoted to Bulgarian culture and Greco-Roman wrestler Boyan Radev.


Pupils of Hristo Botev primary school recited Bulgarian poetry and sang a number of festive songs in Bulgarian language. School director Mr. Penev, who is an admirer of Taganrog-born Russian writer Anton Chekhov, told about his initiative to establish a Russian language club at his school, which offers schoolchildren an opportunity to learn more about Russian language and culture.

Mr. Penev emphasized the importance of relations between Russian and Bulgarian children and teachers and expressed the intention to strengthen the educational and personal ties between schools and cities. "Regardless to politics, the ordinary people of Bulgaria and Russia love each other", Mr. Penev said. Many teachers at "Hristo Botev" speak and understand Russian.

The topic of the next video bridge between the two schools will be "Russian and Bulgarian art".