The Presidential Library to digitize 3.6 million scans of documents from RGIA

The Presidential Library and the Russian State Historical Archive go on active and fruitful cooperation. The plans for 2019 are to digitize the historical materials of RGIA with their subsequent placement in the Presidential Library’s electronic collections of 3,600,000 scanned pages. Of these, 3 million 490 thousand scans belong to especially valuable archival documents, 100 thousand to personal funds and 10 thousand to other rare papers.

Partly it is referred to the continuation of work on the previous collections, but in a number of cases, scanning specialists from the Presidential Library are starting to convert completely new archive data into electronic form. Let us dwell on the latter in more detail.

Among the 3.49 million scans of especially valuable archival documents, there are papers of the commission on police reform in the Russian Empire. Here you can find various transformation projects, materials about the work of the police in the Russian provinces and abroad.

Among the most valuable documents is the collection of the Synod, consisting of liturgical manuscripts of the XVIII – XIX centuries.

Personal collections of RGIA include new materials for the digitization. They are the documents on the activities of the head of the board of the Russian society of shipping and trade and at the same time the vice-president of the Russian Theatrical Society, A. E. Molchanov (1856–1921). These are his letters addressed to such prominent cultural figures as A. V. Lunacharsky, V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, S. P. Dyagilev and others. From the documents you can also find out about the state of St. Petersburg and Moscow theaters in the 19th century, for example about the composition of the troupe, the amount of income, the programs of court performances and even the content of obituaries dedicated to famous artists. No less diverse are the documents concerning the second role of A. E. Molchanov - his work at the post of the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade. Among these materials are letters from diplomats and businessmen about the development of trade relations between Russia and the Middle East.  

The collection dedicated to the well-known noble family of Perovsky, which gave Russia several prominent representatives: writer A. A. Perovsky (pseudonym Antony Pogorelsky), Interior Minister L. A. Perovsky, Orenburg military governor V. A. Perovsky, chief of staff of the corps of communications B. A. Perovsky are new materials for the digitization. In one of the mentioned papers, L. A. Perovsky writes to the emperor about finding the tomb with the ashes of Prince D. M. Pozharsky. Correspondence of B. A. Perovsky gives an idea of ​​what kind of tutor he was for the great princes Alexander and Vladimir Alexandrovich, as well as about the assassination attempt of the terrorist D. V. Karakozov on their father Alexander II.

Materials on the history of the Filosofov family provide an insight into the life of A. I. Filosofov (1799–1874) - the tutor of the great princes Nikolai and Mikhail Nikolaevich. He also engaged in the elimination of the fire and the restoration of Apraksin yard in St. Petersburg.

The materials about the comrade of the Minister of Public Education, V. T. Shevyakov, give an idea of ​​student unrest in Russia in 1899–1900.

The new collections dedicated to the Minister of Justice D. N. Zamyatnin (1805–1881) contain a unique document - his accusatory speech at the trial of the murder of Emperor Alexander II.

The papers from the collections of the Minister of National Education, the director of the Public Library and the official of a number of other institutions and services I. D. Delyanov reveal the details of the preparation for the abolition of serfdom in 1861.

The censorship of spiritual writings at the turn of the XVIII – XIX centuries are available in personal documents of the Minister of Public Education, President of the Academy of Sciences, A. S. Shishkov (1754–1841).

Documents from the archive of the chief of staff of the corps of gendarmes A. Y. Timashev (1818–1893) will tell about the suppression of the Hungarian revolution of 1848–49, military operations during the Crimean War, about changing the administrative division of Siberia and Central Asia.

In addition, the Presidential Library’s specialists in 2019 will continue to enrich the collections dedicated to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia S. S. Lansky (1787–1862) or the Muravyov family, whose range of interests was unusually wide - from Russian relations with China to student unrest in 1899.

The work on the digitization of maps of state and private lands and forests of the St. Petersburg province, plans for forest dachas and specific estates in various provinces, over the replenishment of the collection “The Cabinet of O. Montferrand”, including rare evidence of the construction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Alexander Column and the erection of a monument Nikolai I will be continued.

The already digitized from the collections of the RGIA, one can single out documents dedicated to N. M. Karamzin and the diplomatic relations of Russia with Japan and China. Among the new acquisitions are materials about the organization of assistance to victims of the war of 1812, archival files related to the provinces that are now regions of Ukraine, rare documents about the history of managing trademarks of Russia, etc.

Thanks to modern information technologies of the Presidential Library, unique materials are made available to the maximum number of people, the cultural and historical heritage of the country is preserved for future generations. Today, the Presidential Library numbers more than 650,000 units of storage in its collection.