Olga Sirotinina celebrated her century-old birthday on June 27 with her family, close friends, and colleagues. On June 29, Professor Olga Sirotinina received congratulations at work: the staff of the Institute of Philology and Journalism, SSU, congratulated the outstanding researcher of the Russian language in syntax, dialectology, phonetics, morphology, the culture of speech, and rhetoric on a unique anniversary.
This impressive date and the scale of the personality of the oldest SSU employee (Sirotinina's university working experience is 75 years!) determined a special scenario of the event.
Governor of Saratov Region Roman Busargin came to the university to congratulate Olga Sirotinina personally. The meeting took place at the Department of the Russian Language, Speech Communication, and Russian as a Foreign Language, Olga Sirotinina’s alma mater department, to which she devoted her entire professional life. The Governor admitted that it was quite difficult to talk to a person who was considered an absolute authority in the Russian language and who owned outstanding achievements in stylistics and the culture of speech. He presented Olga Sirotinina with a Certificate of Honour from the President of the Russian Federation Valdimir Putin, flowers, and a gift, wished him good health and hoped she would continue working, enriching a new generation of linguists with her knowledge.
Then Olga Sirotinina was congratulated by SSU Rector Aleksei Chumachenko. ‘Thank you that our university has you!’ he noted with gratitude.
On the same day, there was held a solemn meeting of the Academic Council of the Institute of Philology and Journalism dedicated to Professor Sirotinina’s 100th anniversary in Room 208, Bldg. 11.
Olga Sirotinina's appearance in the crowded institute room was greeted with friendly and loud applause from her colleagues, students, and representatives of other universities.
Director of the Institute of Philology and Journalism, SSU, Lyudmila Borisova told the audience that colleagues from many Russian universities, including Volgograd State, Irkutsk State, Penza State, North–Eastern Federal, North Ossetian, Siberian Federal, and Ural Federal universities, colleagues from Yakutia and Barnaul joined the numerous congratulations. ‘All congratulations express respect, gratitude, and love. Olga Borisovna's life is not only a model of selfless service to science, knowledge, and truth, but also a unique example of human courage, the ability to overcome the insurmountable and achieve the unattainable,’ Lyudmila Borisova emphasized.
Scientific Supervisor of the Institute of Philology and Journalism, Professor, Chair of the Department of General Literary Studies and Journalism Valerii Prozorov in his congratulation speech called Olga Borisovna a person with unique destiny and thanked her from the bottom of his heart for the recently published book of memoirs Life In Spite of, or I Am a Happy Person. ‘You told us about your parents, whom we fell in love with and whose instructions you keep all Your life, including the obligatory word “must” for you. Thank you for the memories of your wonderful teachers who helped you in your professional rising, about colleagues of different generations who, together with you, helped to ensure that an atmosphere of benevolence and decency prevailed in our philological environment, in our institute.’
During her professional life, Olga Sirotinina has been a member of the Russian Language Council under the Government of the Russian Federation, served as Deputy Chair of the Academic Council, for 20 years (1973-1993) chaired her alma mater Department of the Russian Language, Speech Communication, and Russian as a Foreign Language, etc. A few years ago, for the anniversary of the university, the department prepared a documentary film, a small part of which was shown to the audience.
The solemn meeting of the Academic Council was also attended by philology students, who, under the guidance of Professor Tatyana Milyokhina, prepared an expressive and touching literary and artistic performance based on the pages of Prof. Sirotinina’s book of memoirs.
Symbolically, Olga Sirotinina's personal diaries And Life Will Fly by Like a Dream... (1939-1954) were published just before her anniversary. Professor Olga Myaksheva, who edited and adapted them for public reading together with Tatyana Sirotinina (Olga Borisovna's daughter), proudly demonstrated the book. According to her, the diaries reflect the scale of the future personality of a very young girl at that time, as well as the era of severe trials in the life of our country. Written with the utmost sincerity and youthful maximalism, it at the same time amaze with the depth of thought and breadth of erudition. In these diaries, the author repeatedly returns to the idea of human destiny.
At the Academic Council meeting, many students heartily congratulated Olga Sirotinina on this day, who brought up more than one generation of students in the best traditions of the classical school of higher education. The hero of the day was congratulated by a graduate of the Faculty of Philology, SSU, a deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma Julia Litnevskaya. The congratulatory address on behalf of the rector of Saratov State Medical University Andrei Eremin was delivered by Chair of the Department of Russian and Latin Languages, SSMU, Larisa Prokofyeva.
At the end of the meeting, Olga Sirotinina asked for the floor and, to the applause of people who respected and loved her, noticed that currently she received congratulations even from those who had never seen or met her. The Honoured Professor of the university expressed her gratitude to different generations who had become a part of her life for a century.
