The Presidential Library presented educational projects at the XXVI St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

The Presidential Library subordinate to the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation traditionally hosted participants and guests of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which was held this year from June 13 to 17.

The new electronic exhibition project of the Presidential Library Business Petersburg of Tsarist Russia was presented at the stand of St. Petersburg at the SPIEF. On the multimedia table, guests could see an interactive map of the city of the early 20th century, which showed financial institutions, industrial and commercial enterprises, including the Mint, the Admiralty, the Foundry and Rope Yards, the Obukhov and Putilov factories, the Imperial Porcelain Factory, the Exchange, the Passage, the Elisseeff Emporium, the House of the Carl Faberge Jewelry Company, etc. Each object was illustrated with historical documents and images from the electronic collections of the Presidential Library.

The SPIEF events at the St. Petersburg stand were attended by Olga Lyakina, Deputy Head of the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation, Sergey Grinevich, Head of the Information and Communication Technologies Department of the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation, Yuri Nosov, Director General of the Presidential Library, and employees of the institution.

As part of the SPIEF cultural program, guests and participants of the forum, as well as accredited representatives of the media, had an opportunity to visit the historic Synod building at Senate Square, 3, explore several exhibitions at once, and also become participants in a meeting with the famous orientalist Ilnur Nadirov entitled Countries of the Oman Peninsula and the Russian Empire.

During the tours, visitors were told about the history and architectural features of the Synod building, built in the second quarter of the 19th century by the project of the outstanding architect Karl Rossi. The guests learned about the main activities of the Presidential Library, which is Russia’s largest nationwide electronic repository of digital copies of the most important documents on the history of Russian statehood, as well as a multifunctional cultural, educational, scientific, information-analytical centre with the status of the national library of Russia.

In the electronic reading room, visitors learned how to work with the Presidential Library’s resources, how its collections are formed, what digitized materials are presented there. Documents from the electronic collection Russian State and Economy were displayed on the plasma panels of the reading room.

The library visitors saw the restored interiors of the Holy Synod, as well as the Column Hall and the transforming multimedia hall, created for holding all-Russian and international events and equipped with modern technical equipment.

Forum participants visited the exhibition 285 Years of Russian Ballet, dedicated to the anniversary of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, one of the best ballet schools in the world. For many years, the staff of the Academy has been collecting and carefully storing objects associated with outstanding people of ballet. The exhibition at the Presidential Library is a rare opportunity to see part of this unique collection and plunge into the history of ballet art. The exposition showcases ballet shoes and theatrical costumes, book rarities, authentic posters and photographs, paintings and sculptures, personal belongings of famous graduates of the Academy: Mathilde Kschessinska, Anna Pavlova, Agrippina Vaganova, whose name the Academy has been bearing since 1957, George Balanchine, Galina Ulanova and others. The exhibition will run in the Presidential Library until September 30, 2023. To visit the exhibition, one must pre-register by phone: (812) 334-25-14, (812) 305-16-21 (ext. 641), (812) 305-16-21 (ext. 161), or send an email to excursion@prlib.ru.

In 2023, the United Arab Emirates was the guest country of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. In this regard, the Presidential Library, together with partners, has prepared an electronic exhibition Arabic Manuscripts. Highlights of St. Petersburg Collections. It could also be visited during tours of the historical building of the Synod.

For this exhibition, the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences provided copies of the earliest Arabic miniatures that have come down to us – illustrations of the 13th century for literary works, excerpts from the Koran written in Kufic and Maghrib script, richly ornamented pages of the Koran.

The Eastern Department of the Gorky Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University presented for the exhibition copies of old manuscripts with images of the shrines of Mecca and Medina, constellations from the astronomical treatise of the great scientist of the tenth century Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, as well as descriptions of the regions of the Arabian Peninsula and the islands of the Persian Gulf.

The multimedia exposition dedicated to the Arab East was complemented with paintings by the Russian artist Anatoly Annenkov. Member of the Union of Artists, teacher at the Imperial Academy of Arts, he works in an impressionistic manner, paints in oils, watercolors and pastels. Annenkov travels a lot, studying the culture of different countries. He spent several years in the United Arab Emirates.

The paintings created during this period spotlight national traditions and customs, centuries-old rituals, colorful landscapes, amazing architectural structures, such as the Grand Mosque of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (White Mosque), or one of the most beautiful museums in the world – Museum of the Future.

For anyone interested in the Arab culture and history of the United Arab Emirates, as well as the history of travel, on June 15, 2023, the Presidential Library held a meeting with Ilnur Ilbarisovich Nadirov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, orientalist, researcher of Aramaic, Arabic, Mandaic texts. The participants of the event learned about the history of visits by travelers from the Russian Empire to the territories that are now known as the United Arab Emirates.

During the SPIEF, a number of cooperation agreements were signed with the partners of the Presidential Library: Uchitelskaya Gazeta Publishing House, the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant – a branch of Rosenergoatom JSC, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (MGIMO), the Sirius Federal Territory, the North-West Institute of Management of RANEPA, TASS News Agency. Plans of joint activities for the use of the library’s information and educational potential in the regions for 2023-2025 were signed with the Government of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area – Yugra and the Government of Kurgan Region.