The Presidential Library for teachers

By decree of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the year 2023 has been declared the Year of the Teacher and Mentor. The Presidential Library’s collections contain a variety of materials that can be of great help in the work of teachers. They use modern technology to make lessons more interesting and meaningful.  

Many teachers in their work refer to the collection History textbooks which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal. It contains editions of the 19th century, as well as Soviet and modern textbooks, encyclopedias, research, scientific articles and even visual aids, which the children of the Russian Empire used to study.

A special place among the holdings belongs to World War II in Archival Documents Collection, which contains electronic copies of documents that spotlight the prehistory, course and results of the Second World War, documents from the personal collections of J. V. Stalin, V. M. Molotov, A. A. Zhdanov, as well as the collection Defence and Siege of Leningrad, which included, among other things, materials from family archives, memoirs and diaries of residents of besieged Leningrad, which allow looking at the war through the eyes of ordinary people.

A separate collection includes educational publications on geography, which clearly demonstrate how the territory of our country has changed over time. Textbooks in the Russian language are presented in one of the basic collections of the Presidential Library Russian Language in the section Textbooks Russian Language. Dealing with texts, children learn to find key points in historical materials, compare historical sources, and analyze.

The Presidential Library, in order to disseminate the latest pedagogical practices, is implementing the project Knowledge of Russia video lecture. The lectures given by prominent teachers and scientists of the country provide many interesting facts, for example, from the history of the Battle on the Ice, whether the 1917 revolution was inevitable, and much more. One has an opportunity to listen to video lectures both on the Presidential Library’s portal in the TV channel section. The lecture recordings are available at any time.

Teachers, parents and students will be interested in major collections of materials about historical figures as well as figures of science, literature and art. The collections include not only rare editions and contemporary research, but also photographs, manuscripts, diaries and letters.

The 350th anniversary of Peter the Great was celebrated last year. Secular education began in Russia with Peter Alekseevich. The rare edition of 1911 History of the Russian Army and the Navy by A. S. Grishinsky and others, published on the Presidential Library’s portal, says that by decree of Peter "in 1701 in Moscow, in the Sukharev Tower" a school of mathematical and navigational sciences" (later the Marine Corps) was established. Created to train sailors, it "at the same time was the first and only secular educational institution in Russia". Also, gifted teenagers were sent abroad to "pass the course of science". Tsar Peter himself took exams for those who returned.

In 2023 the Presidential Library will tell about the education which was developed in our country, about prominent scientists, writers, statesmen who were involved in the education of future emperors (M. M. Speransky, K. P. Pobedonostsev, V. O. Klyuchevsky, V. A. Zhukovsky), as well as about outstanding personalities who contributed to the development of pedagogical thought in Russia (L. N. Tolstoy, A. S. Makarenko, K. D. Ushinsky).