Working Constitution considered at the Presidential Library’s conference

On December 10, 2018, on the eve of the Constitution Day of the Russian Federation and on the day of the 70th anniversary of the World Human Rights Declaration, the second annual conference "The Constitution of Russia: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" was held at the Presidential Library.

The discussion was attended by participants of the first plenary session “The Constitution and Society of Russia. Who is ahead?”, in particular, its moderator and one of the organizers of the conference, Dean of the Law Faculty of the North-West Institute of Management of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA) Sergey Tsyplyaev. “Now we need to master what is already included in the Constitution. And I always say that the Constitution lives and works if it lives in our thoughts and hearts, - he noted. - And in order for people to know, understand and respect their Constitution, we have gathered today students, university professors related to jurisprudence, political science or state administration. They get the opportunity to meet with specialists, those who worked in the Constitutional Court, participated in the adoption of the Constitution. This dialogue needs to be continued every year”.

The main sense of questions asked to experts during the plenary session concerned the current Constitution – if it is proper today, or it is necessary to be changed. According to most experts, there is no need to change the basic law of the country, you need to learn to appreciate the norms that are in this document. There was a thesis that a number of points in it were adopted “for growth”, that is, our society has yet to adapt to them. Moreover, it was noted that many people who did not even read the Constitution still enjoyed its benefits.

A guest from France, associate professor of public law at the University of Paris Descartes Alain Lackiez shared his country's experience in this matter. According to him, in five years the current Constitution of the Fifth Republic, adopted in 1958, will be the most lasting in the history of France. At the same time, a recent survey showed that some French citizens no longer share the ideals of the Fifth Republic, and, quite possibly, the country will have reforms.

The Yeltsin memorial lecture, which has already become traditional at the conference, was given this year by the State Secretary of the RSFSR in 1991-1992, one of the closest associates of the first President of Russia, Gennady Burbulis.

“Speaking about the Constitution, it is necessary to understand that this is not only a text, the Constitution is a spirit”, - noted Burbulis. “This is the spiritual choice of each of us in those minutes, hours, days, months, and years when we rediscover for ourselves the basic, fundamental values, formulate long-term, strategic goals of life and begin to realize its meaning”.  

Gennady Burbulis solemnly donated two books to the Presidential Library - the complete collection of the minutes of the Constitutional Commission entitled “The Constitutional Conference” and the gift edition of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Later the second plenary session was held “Power and Society. Sources of Trust”. It was attended by President of the Indem Foundation for Applied Political Studies Georgy Satarov, Counselor of the Constitutional Court Tamara Morshchakova, and Dean of the M. Speransky Faculty of Law, Head of the Department of History of State and Law of the Institute of Law and National Security of the RANEPA Lyudmila Lapteva, Commissioner for Human Rights in St. Petersburg Alexander Shishlov and other prominent experts.

The history of constitutionalism is widely represented on the Presidential Library’s portal – in the Electronic Museum of the Constitutional History of Russia. It includes video and audio recordings, photographs and scan images of archival documents, studies, and 3D images of authentic artifacts from the 18th century to the present day.

The Presidential Library regularly gives multimedia lessons, guided tours with a demonstration of a single inaugural copy of the Constitution presented by the President of Russia on the day of the opening of the library on May 27, 2009. It is stored in a special exhibition hall of the Presidential Library and is available to everyone through a 3D tour.

In addition, the Presidential Library's portal contains comprehensive collections Constitution - The Basic Law and the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which contain materials from the Archive of the President, the Library of the Presidential Administration and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, as well as private collections.