+ REGISTER ON SPIMUN
March 25, 2011
left before SPIMUN 2026 SPIMUN history - Articles
In Russia, the first school level model of the United Nations was established in the city of Ivanovo. The first Saint Petersburg International Model United Nations conference was held in March 1997 on the initiative of Dmitry Polivyanny, the professor at Ivanovo State University, and Natalia Rychkova, the assistant headmaster of Gymnasium 157.
SPIMUN started as a small 3-day simulation of the ECOSOC and was represented by 75 delegates from Athens, Geneva, The Hague, Zurich, Ivanovo, and Saint Petersburg MUN groups.
The 10th anniversary SPIMUN brought together about 700 delegates and teachers from 14 countries of the World. The TV channel 100 presented a 40-minute program dedicated to our Model UN program.
In 1999, the most active participants of the SPIMUN, I. Zelentsova and M. Nazimok, were honored to meet the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Over the past 30 years, schools from many countries of the World have participated in SPIMUN conferences. The list includes schools from Belarus, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, United States of America.
The Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS countries provided assistance in organizing the conferences. As a result, the Opening ceremony of several SPIMUN conferences were held at the historic building of Tauride Palace.
The list of former SPIMUN student officers includes Alexander Malich, director of Alexandrinsky Theatre and TV presenter; Tamara Yakovleva, employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Sergey Bandurko, General Director of a consulting company (PhD in Economics); and Svetlana Krivokhizh, Head of the Department of International Relations and Political Processes in Asia and Africa at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg (PhD in Historical Sciences).
SPIMUN allows students to play the roles of diplomats and to learn to negotiate and debate in a formal way. The objectives of the conference are to seek through negotiation solutions to the various problems of the world dealing with economic, social, environmental, and cultural issues. The young delegates in seeking solutions to these problems can learn to develop true international cooperation.
