Forms of regional international cooperation. Historical view (on the example of the Ulyanovsk region)

Being in the Volga epicenter of the Civil War, the scourge of famine in the early 1920s, the status of the birthplace of the leader of the revolution in the first third of the twentieth century cumulatively formed prerequisites for international contacts on the territory of the Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk Volga region. The actions of the foreign legion of the Czechoslovak Corps, the activities of the APA, and the organization of the Swiss commune of F. Platten showed a variety of forms of international cooperation. Later, the creation of the Higher Flight Training School (hereinafter the Civil Aviation Center of the CMEA countries) turned the Ulyanovsk Region into an allied center for training foreign citizens. Centenary of the birth of V. I. Lenin completed the formation of the image of the region in the international space, namely the socialist countries. Ulyanovsk has become one of the most visited regional centers of the Soviet Union by foreigners. The visits of the delegations turned into a separate area of international contacts, since they were headed by the highest party leaders (Erich Honecker, Todor Zhivkov, Gustav Husak). On the regional material the article discusses the scientific and pedagogical, tourist, sports, cultural, officially-representative areas of international relations and performs the analysis of the forms of regional international cooperation in the twentieth century.