International Conferences: Conference “Russia and Great War” launched in Moscow

International scientific conference “Russia and Great War: experience and prospects of understanding the role of World War I in Russia and abroad” took place on December 8 2010 in Moscow.

The conference was held by the Russkiy Mir Foundation with support of the Administration of the President of Russia. Participants of the conference intended to work out the international program of activities timed to the centenary of beginning of World War I in 2014.

– In our country over the years feats of officers and soldiers of World War I passed into oblivion. This led to significant distortions in the minds of our society, – said the Head of the Administration of the Russian President Sergei Naryshkin at the opening ceremony of the conference.

Executive director of Russkiy Mir Foundation, Vyacheslav Nikonov, stressed in his speech: “The centenary of the Great war, as it is often called, is a significant event. The war itself became an event, which turned the course of not just Russian, but the World history as well. It determined many trends in the world policy of the last century, in fact defining further course of development of human civilization. For us World War I is an absolutely unknown territory, thought 5,5 mil. of our compatriots perished during it. Our debt to our ancestors is to preserve memory about its lessons...”

Executive director of Russkiy Mir Foundation underscored that “as for now in Russia there is neither an All-Russian monument, nor a specialized museum, dedicated to the history of World War I. We are the only country out of member-countries of that war, that has no mentions about it”.

While opening the conference Vyacheslav Nikonov identified another target for scholars, specialists and public figures who attended the conference: “We propose to set up today an International Society of Memory of World War I. The society will aim to organize expositions, dedicated to it, publish books on its history, and launch photo exhibitions on this subject. Generally speaking, everything that will help us to make the history of that war a public heritage and preserve it for descendants”.

The initiative of the Executive director of Russkiy Mir Foundation was supported in their speeches by the Director of the World History Institute, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Chubaryan, Director General of ITAR-TASS Vitaliy Ignatenko, the Chairman of the Heraldic Council under the RF President – Georgy Vilinbakhov, the Head of the Paris office of the Russian Institute of Democracy and Cooperation Natalia Narochnitskaya and other speakers.