OSA / Guide / Fonds / HU OSA 349

HU OSA	349 C
Authority entry:	International Foundation Cultural Initiative

Parallel Entry/Entries IFCI

Non-preferred Term(s) Cultural Initiative, CI

Date(s) and Place(s) of existence 1988-199

Legal status Non commercial charitable organization

Mandate, functions and sphere of activity

International Foundation Cultural Initiative (IFCI) was founded in 1988 by initiative by George Soros as non commercial charitable organization, aimed on organizing several humanitarian programs and projects in the Russian Federation. It was firstly organized as a Joint Committee “Cultural Initiative” by the Foundation “George Soros - Soviet Union” and the Soviet Foundation of Culture according to their agreement in 1987. In 1988 on the basis of this Committee the mentioned Foundations and the Soviet Foundation for Peace established the Soviet-American Foundation “Cultural Initiative”, which was renamed into the International Foundation “Cultural Initiative” (IFCI) in 1992.

One of the main goals of the newly organized foundation was to preserve the country's scientific potential, to help the most talented scholars survive the economic crisis without abandoning the academy or leaving the country, and to support new principles of financing and organizing (managing) scientific research, as well as independent scientific and educational centers; in other words, to help the social sciences make the transition to an organizational model for scholarship in a democratic society at a lower cost.

The legal status of the IFCI as an independent charity organization was proved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1989. The Statutes was adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1989 and changed in 1992.

The foundation provided financial and material support to the initiatives and projects of the public in the spheres of culture, education, health protection, social maintenance in order to expand the opportunities to the creative activities in the different spheres and to deep and to develop new forms of the cultural dialog between the USSR (later the Russian Federation) and the other states. One of its main objectives was to help to bring up to date the technical and material equipment used in cultural, educational and scientific institutions, to give practical assistance to the specialists, postgraduate researches and students for study visits and instruction in other countries and to engage in economic activities.

During 1988-1994 following programs were in operation: Visits (1988), Social Science (1988), Electronic Archives (1988), Education of Personality (1988), Ecology of Human (1988), Open List (1988), Legal Culture (1988), Civil Society (1989), Education (1990), Economic Initiative (1990), then transformed into Economic Culture (1991), Media (1991) with the competition “New Names” and “School of Parliamentary Journalism”, Publishing Initiative (1990), Transformation of Humanities (1992). Transformation of Humanities was the most successful project of the foundation. It included the competitions “Humanitarian Education in High School” (1992), “Humanities for Humanitarian Education” (1993) and competition of textbooks (1993).

In 1993-94 the International Foundation Cultural Initiative, part of the Renewal of Humanities Education in Russia program, held an open competition for textbooks and study materials for secondary schools and higher education, in which 1,500 scholars participated. The purpose of the competition was to encourage Russian authors, in consultation with foreign experts, to produce a new generation of textbooks. The foundation devotes considerable attention to publishing monographs and collections of articles on economic and sociopolitical problems and to supporting independent publishing centers.

Administrative structure

The administrative structure included the Board of Trustees, the Board, the Executive Committee (1992), the Secretariat, the Direction (headed by the general Director), the Audit Council, Public Expert Council and permanent commissions of the Programs. The title of the head of the Secretariat (Executive Secretor) was renamed into the Executive Director in 1992.

Joint Committee was the basis for the Board. It was responsible for making decisions about the main activites of the International Foundation Cultural Initiative (IFCI). In 1992 the Executive Committee was established as a part of the Board.
There are several programs that were operating during the activities of IFCI.
Program named Transformation of Humanities was launched in 1992 based on the idea proposed by George Soros. The Strategic Committee and Selected Strategic Committee were organized for coordinating the program.
Other programs - Civil Society, Legal Culture, Science about Culture, Media and East-East, Media, Central European University - were operating within the main framework of the Soros Foundations Network.

Relationships

The main office was located in Moscow, the USSR (later the Russian Federation). The activity of the Foundation spread throughout the USSR (after 1991 the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), but also Czechoslovakia, Great Britain.

The foundation established several branches: Georgian (1989); St. Petersburg (1990), Novosibirsk (1992), “Soros-Nizhnii Novgorod”. They were renamed into Informational Centers in 1993. The Povolzhskii Informational Center (Samara, Tolliati) was founded the same year.

Rules or conventions

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families General Intenational Standard Archival Description; OSA Internal Rules.

Dates of description

Online version updated 18 December 2008