Presidential Library marks anniversary of Crimea and Sevastopol's unification with Russia

March 18, 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the reunification of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol with Russia. On that day in 2014, an agreement was signed between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Crimea, allowing the Republic to join the Russian Federation as a new subject.

The Presidential Library invites to virtual tour of the Crimean Peninsula, exploring rare guidebooks from the 19th and early 20th centuries, which have been added to the library's electronic collection.

Take a look at the guidebook to Crimea, published in 1894 by Nikolai Golovkinsky. The guidebook provides information about the history, sights, infrastructure, and climatic features of the peninsula. It also tells about famous people who have visited the Crimean coast, including Alexander Pushkin, who visited Gurzuf in 1820 and stayed with General Nikolai Raevsky, a hero of the War of 1812. While there, Pushkin wrote the poems Nereida and The Flying Ridge of Clouds is Thinning.

The author of the guidebook offers readers convenient routes to travel along, and provides useful tips. For instance, he informs us that in Bakhchisarai, a taxi driver charges 20 kopecks to travel around the city, and a room in a central hotel costs the visitor almost two rubles.

Nikolai Golovkinsky recommends Primorsky Boulevard as the best place to take a stroll in Sevastopol, stating that "here, in a beautiful pavilion, there is a yacht club and a restaurant, and nearby there is a public library with free admission and a summer branch of the city's club."

For more information about this wonderful city, one can turn to another edition from 1909 called An Illustrated Practical Guide to Sevastopol and Surrounding Area: with an Alphabet, Map, Plan in Four Colors, etc. Its author, Grigory Moskvich, has collected "detailed information, both general reference material and concerning the other living conditions in the city and its environs, as well as guided tours of the surrounding areas..."

The authors of the illustrated guide to Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Middle East, published in 1913, describe historical sites, including the Crimean peninsula. They call Yalta, the resort center of Crimea and the "cultural center" of the peninsula, a popular destination for tourists who flock to explore the coastal area. There is a branch of the Crimean-Caucasus Mountain Club in Yalta that organizes regular, affordable, and well-equipped excursions led by experts in geology, botany, zoology, and archeology.

The guide provides useful tips for travelers and includes a variety of advertisements, such as information about where to make bank transactions, purchase "the best galoshes in the world," carriage tires, medicine, steam engines, and more.

More interesting facts about the history of the peninsula can be found on the portal of the Presidential Library in the collection Republic of Crimea. This collection contains research, essays, archival documents, photographs, and other materials that introduce the socio-economic and cultural development of the region from ancient times to the present day.

All the beauty of the region's nature is presented in the Crimea in Postcards section, which includes 850 images of Crimea from the late 19th - first half of the 20th century: sea views, palaces, parks, and religious buildings.

A separate collection in the Presidential Library's archive is dedicated to Sevastopol, the city of Maritime Glory, and includes documents on its heroic history.