Born April 12, 1963, into a family of economists, he took the surname Ilyin (after his father). His mother, Izolda Aleksandrovna, died tragically in 1976. His father, Gennady Vasilyevich, died in 1985. He studied first at Prioksky District, and then at School No. 46 in the Sovetsky District of the city of Gorky. During his school years he repeatedly won olympiads at various levels in history, English, and chemistry. In 1980 he took first place in a regional essay competition. His choice of profession was decisively influenced by his history teacher, an Honored Educator of the USSR and Honored Educator of the RSFSR, Boris Ivanovich Zolotov (died in 2016). He received his higher education at the N.I. Lobachevsky Gorky State University, in the Faculty of History (specialty "History," 1987), and at the N.A. Dobrolyubov Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University, in the Faculty of English (specialty "English Language," 1993). He also studied at the M. Gorky Gorky State Pedagogical Institute. While studying he worked as a laboratory assistant, an orderly, and a postman.
Professional career
He then worked as a teacher of history, social studies, and English in various Nizhny Novgorod schools and colleges; as head of sector, senior editor, and head of department at the Nizhny Novgorod State Regional Universal Scientific Library). For a time he worked as a manager at the "Rech" ("Speech") Creative Foundation under the Nizhny Novgorod Branch of the Union of Writers of Russia. He additionally completed advanced training courses at the professional development faculty of the N.A. Dobrolyubov Institute under the program "Methods of Intensive Foreign Language Teaching" (1995), at the British Council's Summer School under the program "Modern Approaches to Teaching English" (1995), at the Open Society Institute (Budapest) under the program "Organizing and Conducting Debates" (1995), at N.I. Lobachevsky University (UNN) under the program "Innovative Approaches to the Management of International Relations at Universities" (2009), at the European Studies Institute at MGIMO University of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the program "EU Immigration and Asylum Policy, Border Protection: Current State" (2010), at the Institute of National Remembrance (Warsaw) under the program "Contemporary History" (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014), and at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.
Internships and professional development
under the program "Polish Culture and Language" (2012), and at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University under a similar program (2013). He completed internships at the Roman Curia (Vatican, 2001), IMEMO of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, 2003), the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium, 2004), the University of Greenwich (London, United Kingdom, 2007), the University of Gdansk (Gdansk, Poland, 2011), and Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (Magdeburg, Germany, 2011). In 1998 he defended his candidate's dissertation, "Integration Processes in Western Europe in the First Half of the 1950s and the U.S. Position," in the specialty "General History" (Kolobov)). Since 1999 he has worked at N.I. Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod (as professor since 2007). He was awarded the academic rank of associate professor in the Department of Regional Studies in 2005. In 2006 he defended his doctoral dissertation, "The Process of European Unification: The Search for a Universal Paradigm of Identity," in the specialty "History of International Relations and Foreign Policy" (academic consultant: Professor Oleg Alekseyevich Kolobov).
Academic and teaching career
In 2010 he received his professorial certificate in the Department of Regional Studies. From 2008 to 2009 he was academic secretary of Dissertation Council D-212.166.10 at N.I. Lobachevsky University. For a time he also worked part-time at the N.A. Dobrolyubov Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University (0.5 position as professor in the Department of International Relations and Political Science), and taught lectures on business etiquette at Anna Dmitrieva's model school. He heads the expert council for conducting state religious studies expertise under the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for Nizhny Novgorod Region. He is chairman of the board of the "Polonez" Society of Polish Culture, as well as executive director of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Public Organization "Foundation for European Studies in Nizhny Novgorod" and deputy chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Branch of the Association for European Studies (AEVIS). He speaks English fluently, speaks Polish and French, has completed introductory courses in Latin, Italian, Spanish, and German, and reads academic literature in all Slavic languages.
Literary work
He is a member of the Russian Union of Writers. He writes short stories, novellas, and poems, and is published in newspapers and literary journals. He has published seven works of fiction (five in co-authorship). He has posted several hundred poems and several dozen prose texts on various websites. He regularly participates in regional, all-Russian, and international academic conferences and seminars, often serving as one of the organizers. In particular, he took part in the 375th session of the Salzburg Seminar ("The European Paradox: Integration and Disintegration," Salzburg, Austria); the Russian-Polish conference "Prospects for Russian-Polish Cooperation: A Regional Dimension" (Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 2009); the international conference "A New Partnership for a Better Future" (Cracow University of Economics, Krakow, 2012); and a number of other international and all-Russian conferences, congresses, conventions, and seminars in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Ivanovo.
Academic works and publications
He has repeatedly lectured at international and all-Russian European schools. He has published around a hundred academic and instructional works (including 7 monographs). In the textbook "European Integration," edited by O.V. Butorina and prepared by MGIMO University of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2011, his monograph "Erit una Europa? The History of European Unification: Projects, Contradictions, Prospects" (2006) was classified as "core literature." In 2008 he developed the overall concept and wrote a substantial part of the fundamental two-volume (three-book) collective monograph "Europe: Problems of Integration and Development." In 2011 a monograph, "The History of European Unification from Ancient Times to the Present," was published in Germany. In 2012 the Moscow publishing house "Ves Mir" published a collective monograph under the imprint of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, "The European Union in the 21st Century: A Time of Trials," from the series "The Old World – New Times," in which A.G.
Branitsky wrote the third chapter ("Enlargement of the European Union in the Early 21st Century: Consequences, Contradictions, Prospects"). The textbook "History of European Integration," co-authored with G.V. Kamenskaya, was published under the imprint of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (with support from the Open Society Institute) in 2003. It became one of the first instructional works in Russia devoted specifically to the problems of European integration. He then co-authored the fundamental two-volume textbooks "Theory of International Relations" and "History of International Relations," as well as the textbook "Fundamentals of Religious Studies." From 1998 to 2001 he was a member of the liberal All-Russian Political Public Movement "Young Russia," but became fairly quickly disillusioned with liberal ideology. He does not engage in political activity. He travels extensively, having visited all European countries as well as some states in Asia and Africa.
Awards and personal life
He has assembled a good library in various languages. He holds a certificate of honor from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, a badge of honor from the Senate of the Republic of Poland, and letters of thanks from the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region, the administration of the city of Nizhny Novgorod, and the Representative Office of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nizhny Novgorod.