The Presidential Library: meeting with the media

Video recording of a recent meeting of the Director General of the Presidential Library Alexander Vershinin with representatives of the regional mass media, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Leningrad Oblast and a featuring the electronic collection on The Leningrad Oblast: pages of history, is published on the library website. A dialogue of the head of the major information center with journalists, which lasted for more than two hours and was of a debating nature, evidenced of the active development of the Presidential Library as an institution working high on the agenda and challenges of the future.

 

About the Presidential Library

 

Speaking to reporters, Alexander Vershinin outlined the main directions for the development of the Presidential Library. Not only does it pool together historical traditions and cutting-edge technologies, forming a nationwide electronic resource, where the books and periodicals, archival documents, photographs and other reflecting the centuries-old history of Russian statehood materials are presented in digital form, but beyond. Particular emphasis is placed on the fact that along with increasing the content, the Presidential Library implements various educational, outreach and awareness raising projects, among which — public video lecturing of the “Knowledge of Russia” series, “Russia in the electronic world” interactive Olympiad in history, social studies and Russian language for school students, “Foreign View” international photography competition for professionals and laypersons and others. Internet users from the Leningrad Oblast actively participate in these projects.

Currently, more than 200 institutions and individual contributors nationwide and abroad act as the partners on building the library stock. Since its inception in 2009, the Presidential Library electronic holdings exceeded 550,000 entries. 55 percent of the fund consists of archival documents, to the determining role of which in retaining a history Alexander Vershinin paid special attention:

“Next year, — he said, — the country will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the archival service of Russia, which went through several archival reforms along with reforms in other areas. For the Presidential Library, this is definitely a double celebration, because the building of the former Synod, constructed in the ensemble with the Senate, accommodates the premises of the Presidential Library. In Soviet times there was an archive here, which is now located in a specially designed for this building. However the archival business remains in our old walls, only on a new wreath — in electronic format, and the amount of archival materials exceeds the number of rare books and all other documents. We are going to celebrate in a large-scale in 2018 the anniversary of the archive business with a range of special events — conferences, publication releases, installed in our exhibition complex expositions.”

As Alexander Vershinin, information-sharing campaigns are becoming more aware and structured. The library, which in 2016 completed building of a full-fledged regional network, having arrayed the remote centers of access to its holdings in all 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, continues to develop departmental and foreign networks. All information agencies in Russia now in coverage of historical and political topics have an access to electronic sources and made possible owing to the efforts of the staff-employees of the Presidential Library.

Journalists enthusiastically chime in with comments and questions on key issues, and it all plunged in the room into vigorous debate.

 

About historical accuracy

 

Yury Radchenko, the general director of the Sosnovy Bor “TERA-Studio” Television and Radio Company, pointed out how Peter I, who returned from Holland, brought with him from there several local literates and appointed them to write Russian history — this led to a misrepresentation of certain facts. “Does the Presidential Library lead any scientific work in the field of studying Russian history on the basis of available in it the digital sources?” — he asked.

“It's difficult, perhaps, to compare a scope we have with other national libraries, — Alexander Vershinin said. — In the former “Publichka,” now the National Library of Russia, and in “Leninka” — the Russian State Library — several thousand researchers work in different directions. Nevertheless, our scientific and educational division is developing quite effectively. For at least seven years, public video lecturing have been held, to lecture on which we are capable to invite the best of professorate of the country — “in person” or via video conferencing — owing to this type of communication, students sometimes from the dozens of cities can listen at the same time, asking the respected scholars their questions. Such “brand” projects, as the “Russia in the electronic world” Olympiad, which takes place in three rounds, also grow; multimedia lessons, in which a familiarity of school students with our resources is reinforced by the practice with using the online tools. The collected works of the Presidential Library of the “Electronic Legislation,” “Electronic Library,” “Historical Jurisprudence” series come out each year. Webinars, conferences, roundtables on the most pressing areas in the humanitarian field take place.”

 

About the first President of the Russian Federation

 

The editor-in-chief of the “Vyborgskie Vedomosti” newspaper Irina Leontiyeva told about the meeting of Boris Yeltsin in 1980 with the city of Vyborg residents, about which her, a young journalist, asked to make a report. “With what degree of frankness?” — she asked the editor. He made round eyes, because at that time the Glavlit (General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press) was censoring newspapers — and the journalist had to apply all her art of writing, so that a quite sharp reportage nevertheless came out on the paper spread. A spirited conversation on the theme of press freedom in Soviet and current times started among the audience of the Presidential Library. “That time has gone, — Alexander Vershinin summed up the spontaneous discussion, — we have experienced a transition from the closeness of information to its full transparency. There are plenty of declassified documents in the Presidential Library stock. We have announced a journalistic competition in the “Journalist Investigation” category, in which, basing on documents and archival materials, journalists of editions of any level can take part, if there’s a will to explore in depth a declared contest subject.”

 

Ukraine can borrow from Switzerland a model of federalization

 

The editor-in-chief of the “Znamya Truda” newspaper Aleksey Alexandrov, who came to the meeting from the town of Slantsy, based on discussed above, asked whether the library does counter-propaganda work and addressed the question personally to Alexander Vershinin: what ending is waiting for torn apart by contradictions Ukraine?

“The best propaganda, as well as a counter-propaganda, — the Director-General of the Presidential Library answered, — is inside the documents we have kept, they speak for themselves. As for my subjective view of Ukraine, then, in my opinion, it may sooner or later be divided into three parts: central, eastern Russian-speaking and western Polish. It would be desirable, however, for the country to develop in the future on a federative or confederative basis like, for example, a prosperous Switzerland: they have different dialects in the cantons, and four languages at the same time in the state: German, French, Italian (in its Swiss version) and the more rare Rhaeto-Romanic languages. And no one imposes anything on anyone, teaching is conducted in different languages, respectively.”

 

On the development of cooperation with the media

 

During the meeting, the main editors of the newspapers “Gatchina-INFO” Galina Palamarchuk and “Krasnaya Zvezda” Oleg Tyurin (Priozersk) expressed their intention to work more closely with the Presidential Library, so they can “write more and in-depth about the history of the Russian state.” By the way, the precedent has already been established: the Kingisepp regional newspaper “Vremya” basing on the documents of the Presidential Library leads a permanent rubric on disclosing of historical truth.

There is every reason to hope that their colleagues will eventually pick up this initiative. After all, as the Latin proverb says, “Blessed the ones who are in possession” — in this case, of the untold riches of the unique Presidential Library fund.