The history of Russian football presented at the Presidential Library’s virtual exhibition

The European Football Championship, which was canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, will start on June 11, 2021 and will last a full month. The best sports teams will delight spectators with high-class football in 11 European cities. Among them is St. Petersburg, the only Russian city that will host the matches of the 2020 UEFA  European Football Championship (UEFA EURO 2020).

The Presidential Library invites football fans and all sports fans to learn about a virtual tour of the exhibition More Than Just a Game: Marking FIFA World Cup in Russia, which was underway in the historic building of the Synod on Senate Square.

Most of the interactive exhibition is dedicated to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which took place in 11 Russian cities, including St. Petersburg. At the virtual tour one has opportunity to find out details about each of them: this is information about the city, interesting facts about the stadium that hosted the championship matches, the results of these meetings and much more.

Separate section tells of the stadium "St. Petersburg". The presented materials tell about the design, construction, presentation of a grandiose sports facility. In addition, it is now possible to learn about historical photographs of the S. M. Kirov stadium, which was earlier at this place.

The More Than Just a Game: Marking FIFA World Cup in Russia also tells about the people who shaped and developed Russian football. Among them are one of the first coaches, first referee Georgy Duperron, participant of blockade matches Viktor Nabutov and others. The rich illustrative material from the Presidential Library’s collections features the statutes of sports societies and various documents, literature about sports, the press, posters and others. It gives a clear idea of ​​how football has gradually transformed: the rules, playing technique, sportsmen's equipment have changed.

The exhibition More Than Just a Game: Marking FIFA World Cup in Russia has become another exposition that has moved from real space to digital.

Virtual projects are an actively developing area of the Presidential Library's activity, thanks to which the electronic repository, along with paper, photo, audio and video materials, is added with the exhibits from the exhibitions and items from museum collections.

Today there are more than twenty-five virtual tours and excursions available for remote visits. They are now available on the Presidential Library’s portal in the Exhibitions section at the link https://www.prlib.ru/about_exhibition.