"Treasury of Maritime History". The Presidential Library's virtual tour spotlights the history of the Navy RGA

The new virtual tour Russian State Archive of the Navy is dedicated to the largest institution preserving the most important documents on the history of the Russian fleet from the moment of its creation at the end of the 17th century until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. 300 years of history". One can view it on the Presidential Library's portal.

The virtual tour has been based on the exhibition of the same name, which ran in the Presidential Library in January–March 2024. It was timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the Russian State Archive of the Navy (RGAVMF), which was celebrated on January 28.

Among the exhibits presented at the virtual exhibition one can see the first document indicating the creation of the Archive of the Admiralty Board - an entry in the journal of the State Admiralty Board dated January 17 (28), 1724, stating that Emperor Peter I, who was personally present at the meeting, “orally ordered” “to appoint an archivist and copyists for him to collect files in the archive”. 

Thanks to numerous official documents, engravings, rare publications, plans, drawings, photographs and other interesting materials, users of the Presidential Library's portal can trace the history of the archive from the 18th century to the present day. A small repository at the Admiralty Collegium, which collected documents from the central authorities of the fleet, grew into a general archive of the department, which then, in accordance with the decree “On the reorganization and centralization of archival affairs” of June 1, 1918, became a state archive. The archive collections contain more than 1 million 250 thousand documents, 26 of which are included in the State Register of Unique Documents of the Russian Federation.

Virtual projects are an actively developing area of activity of the Presidential Library, thanks to which unique materials become available to a wide audience. One can view virtual tours and excursions on the Presidential Library's portal in the Exhibitions section at https://www.prlib.ru/about_exhibition.