Information technology and history: An audiovisual center to be created to the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War

A large modern audio-visual resource will be created to the centenary of the First World War, which will combine the historical data not only from Russia but also from many European countries, said at a meeting of the Organizing Committee for the activities associated with the 100th anniversary of the First World War, the State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin on August 1, in the Day of Remembrance of the Russian soldiers who died in the First World War in 1914-1918.

“I think that it would be in demand new modern audio-visual resource that allows bringing to our young people the memory of that war. In general, our task is the First World War not to be a forgotten war”, - Naryshkin said.

He noted that the centenary of the First World War, which will be celebrated on August 1, 2014, will be an event on a European scale: about 20 countries are going to participate in commemorative events, among them - conferences, exhibitions, large-scale publishing projects.

Naryshkin said that the work on a plan for the commemoration of the fallen in the First World War suggests various activities until 2018. Meanwhile, he said, it is necessary to incorporate into the overall plan of the number of new proposals that are received in the course of the organizing committee.

In particular, the Chairman of the Heraldry Council under the President of Russia Georgy Vilinbakhov said that the Hermitage has full sets of drawings of captured banners of the First World War, and it is scheduled to make an exhibition with their use. There will also be restored memorials of the First World War.

According to the director of the State Archives of Russia Sergei Mironenko, it is scheduled to make an extensive multimedia exhibition, using materials newsreels, documents, photographs, and letters from the First World War. The suggestion to participate in this exhibition has already been done by partners from Germany, England and France.

In his turn, the MGIMO Rector Anatoly Torkunov put forward a proposal to include in multimedia projects about the history of the First World family history, because, according to him, many Russian families still cherish the award ancestors who took part in the hostilities, different materials and personal correspondence.