International events: New cultural project launched to the 200th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations of Russia and Switzerland in Yekaterinburg

In the year of the 200th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Switzerland at the site of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum (Yekaterinburg) opened an international exhibition project "Switzerland and Russia. Onesimus Claire", revealing the history of the partnership between the two countries through the prism of the fate of the native of the Swiss Confederation, a Russian citizen Onesimus Egorovich Claire (1845-1920). 

This man's life was closely linked to the Urals. He is considered one of the main initiators of the beginning of scientific activity in Yekaterinburg, the founder of the Ural Society of Naturalists (Wole), the creator of the most powerful regional museum of the Ural region.

Visitors of the exhibition can see unique authentic artifacts: documents the birth of Onesimus Clair and the end of his school in Neuchâtel, on the award by his Russian and foreign orders, exhibits telling about studying in schools of the Urals in Switzerland, on trade and industrial activities of the Swiss in the Urals.

The project presents a unique diplomatic documents prepared by the Embassy of Switzerland in Russia. A special place in the exhibition is previously unpublished decree of the Russian Emperor Alexander I, dated 1814 year, the appointment of Count Ioannis Kapodistrias by Extraordinary Envoy and Minister of Plenipotentiary of the Federal Seym in Switzerland. It is the date of the Decree became the starting point of diplomatic relations between the two countries.