International events: International symposium “Russia and the Netherlands: our common heritage”

20 October 2010
Source: the National Library of Russia

The International symposium entitled “Russia and the Netherlands: our common heritage” opened on October 19 2010 at the National Library of Russia (18, Sadovaya Str.).

High on the agenda are the problems of preservation and restoration of monuments of historical, cultural, scientific heritage of Russia and the Netherlands, study of collections of Dutch collectors in libraries and museums of Russia, topical issues concerning research and protection of artefacts of both countries.

The conference has brought together specialists of museums, libraries, archives of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Saratov, Kaluga, Kemerovo and Astrakhan.

Within the symposium framework will be unveiled a book by the mayor of Amsterdam Nicolaas Witsen “Northern and Eastern Tartary” (firstly came out in 1705 in Dutch) published in the Russian language.

The book by Witsen is a unique source of data dealing with the history of Siberia. The author used numerous Russian and foreign materials, as well as his own observations. Since 18th c. the work has been arousing interest of Russian scientists, however just now it has eventually become available in the Russian language.