The Presidential Library to examine historical sources

December 8, 2020 at 11:00 Moscow time, the Presidential Library will host an interdisciplinary video lecture entitled “Learning to Analyze Historical Sources” as part of the Knowledge of Russia project. The event has been organized jointly with the Belinsky Sverdlovsk Scientific Library (Yekaterinburg).

Joining the video lecture is free. The meeting will be held remotely and will be broadcasted live on the Presidential Library's portal in Live broadcasts section in accordance with the program of live events, on the institution's YouTube channel, as well as on the page on the VKontakte social network.

Source study is one of the main academic disciplines that are based on scientific research. The video lecture will focus on different types of historical sources, on how the knowledge gained can be applied in practice. 

Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher of the Laboratory of Archaeographic Research at the Ural Federal University Anna Mikheeva will speak online from the Belinsky Sverdlovsk Scientific Library. She will tell about the peculiarities of the Cyrillic book and manuscript tradition. The lecturer will also consider how researchers work with sources of this type. Participants of the event will learn how, with what, what they wrote on, how they decorated and bound manuscripts from the 10th to the 20th centuries.

Anton Druzhevsky, the methodologist of the scientific and educational department of the Presidential Library, will deliver a speech “Tsar Ivan IV in the legends of foreigners of the 16th – 17th centuries (based on the Presidential Library’s materials)”. He will tell how foreign travelers and diplomats described in their writings not only the appearance and character of the first Russian tsar, but also the everyday life of the Moscow state. Participants of the event will learn about unique sources from the Presidential Library’s collections, containing testimonies of contemporaries of Ivan the Terrible, as well as the works of famous historians; special attention will be paid to the work of Vasily Klyuchevsky The Legends of Foreigners about the Moscow State.  

The theme “The Way Russia and the United States Established Diplomatic Relations. What the documents testify and what they are silent about” will be revealed by Sergey Isaev, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Acting Head of the Department of General History, Senior Researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Church History of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy of the Russian Orthodox Church. He will talk about the circumstances of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Russian Empire and the United States of America. In addition, the historian will share interesting facts related to this process. For example, he discovered that the letter from Secretary of State James Madison to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, Alexander Vorontsov, dated June 10, 1804, kept in the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Empire, originally had a different date. Why it was necessary to change it, the participants will learn from the speech of Sergei Isaev.

One of the main areas of activity of the Presidential Library is the digital preservation of the most important documents on the history, theory and practice of Russian statehood. The volume of the institution's electronic repository today is about a million depository items. Particular attention is paid to historical sources that can be useful for research work: digital copies of official documents, archival materials, photographs, newsreels, monographs, dissertations, periodicals, etc.

Some of the materials are presented in the public domain on the Presidential Library’s portal. They are available in full in the electronic reading room in the historical building of the Synod in St. Petersburg. An access to the library’s collections is carried out through a network of remote access centers: more than 1000 electronic reading rooms are open in all 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. 40 access centers are located in 30 countries abroad.

The Presidential Library regular provides interactive lessons and video lectures. The detailed information is available on the institution's portal in Multimedia lessons section and in Video lectures to school section, where records of past lectures and open lessons are presented.

Accreditation for media representatives is until 11:00, December 7, 2020.

Please forward applications for accreditation following the attached form marked “Media Accreditation” to the following e-mail addresses: media@prlib.ru, hudjakova@prlib.ru Kristina Titunina, tel.: (812) 305-16-21, ext. 781; mob. +7 (999) 218-05-98.

The letter should indicate the full name, date and place of birth, passport data (series, number, place of registration), a list of carry-on equipment, contact phone numbers, the name of the media.

We draw the attention of the media representatives that it is necessary to forward applications for accreditation and arrive at the event in advance.

Entrance to the Presidential Library is carried out only by prior registration and upon showing a passport: for media representatives - through entrance № 2, participants and guests of the event - through entrance № 1.

In order to avoid the spread of coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the use of personal protective equipment while in the institution is mandatory!