The Presidential Library summed up "Alexander II: Two Centuries in the Memory of Russia" International Academic Conference

The Presidential Library hosted a summary "Alexander II: Two Centuries in the Memory of Russia" International Conference. Marking 200th anniversary of the emperor, a whole cycle of events dedicated to the celebrated date was held at the Presidential Library. All of them make it possible to judge not only the scale of the reforms made by the Tsar Liberator, but also the character of his remarkable individual, as well as reflect on the paradoxes of his fate, the bitterness of which was balanced by the most outstanding achievements after Peter the Great in the history of the Fatherland.

On May 24-25, 2018, the All-Russian Academic Conference with International Participation "The Epoch of Great Reforms: History and Documentary Heritage (marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexander II)" was held. In the course of the conference, participants were able to get familiar with two electronic exhibitions: “Judicial reform of Alexander II in Russian historiography” (the exhibition was presented by the permanent partner of the Presidential Library - St. Petersburg State University represented by the Gorky Research Library) and “Epoch of Great Reforms and Alexander II” - this exhibition, prepared by the Presidential Library, covers materials from its unique collections, including archival documents.

On the eve of the conference, the Presidential Library hosted the video lecture on “The Foreign Policy of Alexander II”. In the lectures of two scientists, Lyudmila Spiridonova, Head of the Department of Scientific Publications of the Russian State Archive of the Navy, and the Chief Researcher at the Center for North American Studies at the Institute of Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexander Petrov, raised questions about the creation and activities of the Russian-American company, Russian studies in the North parts of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the transfer of Alaska to the Americans under Alexander II. According to the results of the conference, two collections of research papers from the “Electronic Archive” series will be published.

The Presidential Library has published several books on Alexander II’s reforms. One of them was donated to the conference’s moderator, director of the Research Institute of Educational Regional Studies of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia Vladimir Yakovlev.

Post-graduate student at the Tver State University, Andrei Ptashkin, noted that each presentation at the last conference is certain fresh ideas that will be tested in the process of professional communication and develop as we dive into the topic of preserving historical memory. “I will definitely join the Presidential Library and come here to work”, - he said. “The main thing is not the beginning, the main thing is the continuation”.

Natalya Harding, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, and Alexander Martin, professor at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, also spoke about the Presidential Library’s electronic library.

The Presidential Library’s portal provides free access to the materials dedicated to Alexander II: “The great reforms of the 60s in their past and present. Judicial reform”, “Social movement in the reign of Alexander II”, “Tsar-liberator, transformer and enlightener of Russia, Emperor Alexander II”, etc. The prevailing public opinion with consistent easing in censorship helped to a large extent in carrying out the main reform of Alexander II - the abolition of serfdom in Russia. The electronic collection of the Presidential Library "Peasant Reform of 1861", presented on the portal, covers all the stages of breaking up serfdom and creating a new socio-economic model of the state. The decisive role in this process, according to the famous lawyer A. F. Koni, set out in the book of 1903 “The main figures of the liberation of the peasants”, belongs to Alexander II.

The sole sovereign in Russian pre-revolutionary historiography was given a special epithet for a reason - the Liberator.