HSE UNITY FEST 2025: Cross-Cultural Communication and the Synthesis of Traditions
HSE UNITY FEST, a large-scale, three-day celebration of national cultures, has taken place at HSE University. The event was an opportunity to make new friends and experience a true sense of unity, and visitors could immerse themselves in the cultures of different nations, explore their traditions and values, and take part in workshops and games. Students shared their impressions of the event with the HSE News Service.
HSE UNITY FEST is an annual student event that promotes cultural diversity, tolerance, and intercultural understanding among HSE students and staff. National student clubs take an active part in the festival.
During the event, guests were invited to try national dishes, enjoy songs and dances, and join in quizzes and competitions.
First-year Software Engineering student Anvar Ilyasov represented Dagestani culture. ‘I am Lak,’ he explained, ‘an indigenous people of Dagestan. This is my first UNITY FEST, and the atmosphere here is wonderful. At our club’s stand, we tell guests about the landmarks of Dagestan, its famous figures, and traditional crafts. We also prepared a crossword puzzle—and those who solved it correctly received gifts.’
Third-year History student Ivan Komzolov was one of the organisers of the Belarusian Club stand, where visitors could read literature and poetry and taste traditional dishes such as machanka (a meat stew), cheese balls, kalduny (dumplings), and draniki (potato pancakes). ‘This is a great example of cross-cultural communication—an interaction, a synthesis of different traditions, and an opportunity to better understand other people,’ Ivan said. ‘Language plays a special role in this process: when you start learning norms typical of another language, you begin to understand how people of another culture think.’
Viktoria Timofeeva, second-year master’s student of the Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: From Neuron to Cognition programme, attended the event because she was interested in the Belarusian Club. ‘I learned about the festival from a Telegram announcement and thought it was a great opportunity to get to know Belarusian culture and the people involved,’ she shared. ‘Students presented works of art, paintings by the artist Marc Chagall (who lived and worked in Vitebsk), as well as traditional Belarusian crafts included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.’
Fourth-year Public Administration student Durdona Azimzhonova never misses HSE UNITY FEST. ‘I come from Uzbekistan, and when I was a first-year student, I helped organise such events myself,’ she said. ‘This year, all the participants have done a wonderful job presenting their clubs, national symbols, and cuisine.’
Durdona came to the festival with her classmate Anastasia Silaykina, who was attending for the first time. ‘This is such an important event!’ Anastasia said. ‘You can learn about different cultures and make new friends, which we have already done today. For example, we found out what a dreamcatcher—an amulet of the indigenous peoples of North America—is and where it comes from. It is always more exciting to learn about such things firsthand, from someone who is actually from that country, rather than just googling them. I really hope HSE holds events like this more often.’
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