CSUN Hosts Benefit for Russian Program

Valentin M. Berezhkov, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin’s interpreter during World War II, will speak at a brunch Sunday hosted by Cal State Northridge’s foreign language and literature department.

The brunch is a benefit for the university’s Russian language program, which is currently in limbo due to a lack of funding, said CSUN professor Ludmila Posner.

Students may still minor in Russian, she said, but during the 1996-97 semesters, no Russian classes were offered at CSUN, stranding students who had expected to complete their Russian studies.

Posner said that, according to the head of the foreign language department, the only way the university can offer Russian classes is if they are privately funded. Money raised at the brunch will go toward an instructor’s salary to teach Russian.

Berezhkov served as an assistant to Viacheslav Molotov, Soviet minister of foreign trade in 1940, and was an interpreter at the Berlin talks with Molotov, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Later, Berezhkov was Stalin’s interpreter at the 1943 talks in Tehran with Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

Sunday’s brunch will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at the Russian Village restaurant, 13325 Moorpark St. in Sherman Oaks. Russian-Armenian food will be served. Reservations will be accepted through Thursday.

For more information, please call the CSUN foreign language department at (818) 677-3467.