The Era of Great Reforms was discussed at the Presidential Library

Today, May 25, 2018, the All-Russian Scientific Conference "The Era of Great Reforms: History and Documentary Heritage (to the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Alexander II)" was held at the Presidential Library. The event was attended by historians, journalists, staff of libraries and museums, teachers and students of universities in St. Petersburg, via video-conferencing mode - their colleagues from the regions of Russia and abroad.

As it was noted, the era of the Great Reforms - the time of the reign of Emperor Alexander II, is one of the most significant in the history of Russia. Experts gathered in a building on the Senatskaya Square to discuss the unique experience of state modernization, the time when the emphasis was shifted in the relationship between government and society, new public institutions arose, and so on.

Round tables, conferences, seminars of historical themes take place in the Presidential Library regularly. This contributes to solving one of the main tasks of the institution's work on preserving electronic resources on the history, theory and practice of the Russian statehood.

The Presidential Library now has a representative collection of documents related to the personality of the Emperor-Liberator and his government. A selection of materials about Alexander II can be found in a large-scale collection dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty's reign. It includes research papers, periodicals, official documents, archive documents, memoirs, diaries, letters, maps, photographs and much more.

The Presidential Library portal also features the collection "Peasant Reform of 1861". It combined works that reflect, in general, the history of landownership, peasantry and serfdom in Russia, materials on the history of enslavement of the peasants, legislative acts and government orders, reference and statistical data, studies devoted to the reform, and changes in the situation and life of peasants.

The collection "Judicial Reform of 1864" included several hundred items of storage, including documents of the State Council, the State Chancellery, ministries and departments, provincial government bodies involved in work on the Judicial Charters of 1864 and their practical implementation.

The Presidential Library portal also features videotapes of lectures devoted to the reign of Alexander II. Lectures on "Zemsky self-government: historical experience and prospects" and "Introduction of zemstvo in the southeast of Russia according to the law of June 9, 1912: the last zemstvo of Russia" tell about zemstvo reform and the history of zemstvo”. The 150th anniversary of the adoption of the University Statute of 1863 was devoted to the lectures "Charter of 1863 and University Corporation of Petersburg" and "Traditions of T. N. Granovsky and the Charter of 1863 at Moscow University". Separate speeches tell about the gymnasium reform of 1864 and the law on the press of 1865.

Within the framework of the scientific and practical conference "The Era of Great Reforms: History and Documentary Heritage" (dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexander II), the Presidential Library held a plenary session, four sections included: "Alexander II, his entourage and the highest bureaucracy in political realities of the second half of the XIX century", "Great reforms in the history of Russian statehood", "Russian society in the era of Alexander II: history and documents", "Post-reform Russia as a historical phenomenon", at a round table there were discussed the topic "Personal libraries of Emperors of Russia: Issues of Preservation in the Digital Environment". Following the results of the event, it is planned to publish a collection of research papers, the materials of which will be included in the Russian Scientific Citation Index (RINC).