The Arctic Day in the Presidential Library Helps to Develop Northern Territories

Today, on February 28, 2018, on the last day of winter, the Presidential Library hosted the traditional event - the Arctic Day. "This is one of the most significant events that take place in our city", - said at the opening the vice-governor of St. Petersburg, Mikhail Kucheryavy. According to him, it is precisely today that much attention is paid to the socioeconomic development of the Arctic area, many state projects are being implemented. Among them, for example, the creation in St. Petersburg of a new authority - the St. Petersburg Committee for Arctic Affairs.

The deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vladimir Drachev also stressed the need for holding such events. In his opinion, to date, there is a large number of issues relating to the Arctic territories, which are urgently needed to find answers, but especially for the ecology.

In his greeting, the governor of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District Dmitry Kobylkin said: "For us, the northerners, such meetings are very valuable, and not only because of absolute positive enlightening and educational goals. The Russian Federation is a northern power, and it is important for us that the Russians understand that industrial and infrastructure projects that are becoming the locomotive of the development of our entire state begin to develop in the high latitudes now".

Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society, Professor, Doctor of Geographical Sciences Kirill Chistyakov especially stressed how the significance of the Arctic Day changed over time: "If in the beginning we mainly talked about history and traditions, set far-reaching goals, now we can already talk about some results of the work done. This concerns the creation of new research stations, the beginning of the process of clearing the Arctic of debris, the renovation of the icebreaker fleet, the development of transport and logistics systems and other areas of vital importance for our country".

The traditional Arctic Day in the Presidential Library is held annually in the last days of winter, and every year the event is becoming more and more large-scale. So, today only in the framework of the plenary session its participants got familiar with the history of drifting stations, heard the stories of the polar explorers about how these stations are arranged and what studies are conducted on them. In addition, the museum project "The North Exploration" was presented, and at the end of the meeting the co-chairman of the Association of Arctic Media Alexander Potekhin shared his experience in information support of projects in the region. Doctor of Historical Sciences, scientific director of humanitarian projects of MMC “Norilsk Nickel”, Professor of the Department of Herzen General History Julia Kantor and the scientific secretary of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg Irina Karpenko also presented a unique museum project "The North Exploration. Thousand Years of Success", the idea and strategy of which were developed in the company "Norilsk Nickel". It is dedicated to the development of the North and aims to attract interest in the history of the Russian Arctic and popularize unique collections from museum collections in nine regions of the country - from the Kola Peninsula to Taimyr. The intermuseum project allows for the first time to consider the thousand-year-old Russian way to the North through the prism of artifacts, documents, literary works and multimedia compositions. Each exposition, nine in all, will be accompanied by the publication of an illustrated popular science edition, which together will constitute the museum "Northern Encyclopedia", based on rare exhibits. Guests of the Presidential Library were able to get familiar with this project thanks to a multimedia exhibition located on the plasma panels of the first floor gallery.

The program of the event also included a video lecture from the cycle "Knowledge of Russia" "Arctic and North: Resources, Economics, Science", a multimedia lesson "Nuclear Icebreaking Fleet", the Presidential Library cinema club featuring and discussing the film "The Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. Pages of History", a master class on watercolor "Northern Landscape" with the participation of the Chairman of the Board of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists, Academician of the Petrovskaya Academy of Sciences and Arts, Alexander Saykov.

The event was attended by teachers and students of higher educational institutions of St. Petersburg, scientists, representatives of cultural institutions and business structures, employees of regional offices of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, the Komi Republic, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) under the President of Russia. In the mode of video-conferencing they were joined by residents of many regions of the country - from Vladivostok to Arkhangelsk.