Ashgabat Celebrated Fyodor Dostoevsky's birthday with a flower-laying ceremony.
On November 11, the birthday of the great Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, a flower-laying ceremony was held in Ashgabat at his monument, located in the Magtymguly Fragi Cultural and Park Complex.
The Dostoevsky monument was unveiled on the Alley of Famous Writers within the complex last May. Before the ceremony, Russian Ambassador to Turkmenistan Ivan Volynkin emphasized the symbolism of the site. The diplomat noted that the monuments erected there embody the ideas of friendship, brotherhood, and good neighborliness advocated by the Turkmen poet and thinker, after whom the complex is named. The Ambassador drew a parallel, stating that the ideas of the Turkmen philosopher and poet Magtymguly Fragi resonate with one of Dostoevsky's own slogans: "Beauty will save the world," which implies, above all, inner, spiritual beauty, whose life-giving force is capable of transforming humanity.
Ivan Volynkin expressed gratitude to the leadership of Turkmenistan for the decision to perpetuate the writer's memory. "The decision of our Turkmen friends to erect a monument to Fyodor Mikhailovich here testifies to their recognition of the enormous contribution of Russian literature to world culture," he added.
The Ambassador also noted that Fyodor Dostoevsky's works have been translated into 177 languages, and that the circulation in Russia alone has reached over 4.5 million copies, a figure that continues to grow.
In addition to the Russian Ambassador, the ceremony was attended by the heads and representatives of diplomatic missions from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, China, South Korea, and other countries. Immediately before the ceremony, students from the Joint Turkmen-Russian Secondary School named after A.S. Pushkin presented a theatrical performance, reading excerpts from Dostoevsky's famous works, such as "Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot," as well as memoirs from his contemporaries.
The Magtymguly Fragi Cultural and Park Complex was opened in the southern part of Ashgabat at the foot of the Kopetdag Mountains in honor of the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Turkmen poet and philosopher. The complex includes 24 statues of famous writers and poets from around the world, including Honoré de Balzac, Johann Goethe, Rabindranath Tagore, William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, and others.
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