Conclusion

Cultural exchange programs between France and Russia demonstrate a virtuosic usage by French and Russian side its simple and projected stereotypes in process of implementation of such kind of events. L’annee France – Russie 2010 serves as an example of the stated above. As TV projects dedicated to this event show, Russia has deep-rooted stereotypes about France and its culture. These stereotypes originated and developed in the course of the centuries-old relations between two countries and are characterized by high level of steadiness. The recent state of affairs shows that modern image of France in Russia is still based mainly on the stereotypes coming from the course of the nineteenth or twentieth centuries and almost does not include up-to-date cultural events as a background for formation of new image of France. Thereby the French side of the exchange program demonstrates a yearning of the country to improve this situation and, besides the traditional and stereotypical vision of it, demonstrate its’ another part that was not available or widely presented before.

The cultural interaction between France and Russia in the course of the last three centuries were changed very quicly. In the eighteenth century Russia was in process of intensive absorption of the French cultural experience. At the same time France demonstrated its cultural superiority over yet uncivilized state. By the middle of the nineteenth century France cultural attitude towards Russia remained the same. The first changes occured in the second part of the century. They were due to the growing interest of the French intellectuals in contemporary Russian literature and were formed by the end of the nineteenth century that symbolized also the beginning of French – Russian political rapprochement. The attitude of Russia towards France also changed in this period. And though the impact of French culture was still strong, from the second decade of the nineteenth century actively developed Russian cultural self-awareness started to supplant it. In the beginning of the twentieth century there was a bloom of Russian culture that was appraised and perceived in France. The events of 1917 that led to the change of political regime in Russia had double effect. On the one hand, the revolution provoked migration of Russian intellectuals and nobility to Europe, in particular to France. Thereby work of many of them was since that moment the part of French culture. On the other hand, France and Russia supported official cultural relations that were based mainly on the functioning of various state French-Soviet organizations with strong pro-Soviet ideological component. This period, characterized by the closeness of the USSR influenced on the formation of cultural stereotypes about each other. The last twenty years demonstrate a qualitatively new era in cultural dialogue between the countries. This dialogue is based both on state cultural projects and the projects supported by private initiative. And if two countries continue in the same way, Rusia-France relations will be strong and profitable for both sides.