Материалы чтений памяти Б. Н. Мельниченко и С. Е. Трифонова

113 The educational institutions in Thailand realize the importance of knowledge about Russia. Consequently, they initiate the studies regarding Russia’s history, politics, and economy since Russia is the Great power that has the potential to dominate the world. It is inevi- tably necessary to learn about Russia. The first time the Russian lan- guage was taught at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat Universi- ty. The idea was initiated by professor Dr. Adul Wichiancharoen, who was the previous Dean of Faculty of Liberal Arts and was the acting rector of Thammasat University. Upon his request, Princess Galyani Vadhana was a lecturer and head of the Western Language Depart- ment at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University. More- over, the two daughters of the Thai ambassador at Moscow, who were about to finish their master’s degree in Russian language and liter- ature, were invited to become the lecturers at the Faculty of Liber- al Arts. Followingly, Thailand started to hold the Russian language classes in 1975 [ ภิรมนตรี 2546: 67]. It could be indicated that the begin- ning of building the understanding of Russia in Thailand was started by the educational personnel that realized the importance of learning and understanding other countries although Thailand and Russia had different political ideologies. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the international political climate which was tense during the cold war years became relaxed and moved towards peace and cooperation [Kunwongse 2007: 145], specifi- cally in terms of trades and traveling between the Thais and Russians. Consequently, the Russian language received more attention. Howev- er, Russia was facing domestic political and economic problems in the 1990s and its power in the international arena decreased, hence, the country focused on resolving the domestic problems and maintain- ing its influence within the region rather than spreading its culture in Southeast Asia. Due to the factors of both Thailand and Russia, they still could not establish the relations during the 1990s, and the level of their international relations at that time became consequently the ob- stacle for the smooth development of their relations later in the next era. Nonetheless, the important result from the educational opportunity that Russia provided for the Thai students to study in the Soviet Union resulted in appearance of a group of people developing the knowledge of Russia, especially in the field of Russian language teaching, the ini- tiative that eventually led to including the Russian study (that involves all spheres) in the curriculum. Considering Thailand, the initiative of the educational institutions like the university and the graduates, who