The Presidential Library features a collection of unique materials on the history of Nizhny Novgorod Region

The Presidential Library’s portal features the collection Nizhny Novgorod Region: Pages of History on the eve of the opening of the All-Russian Library Congress: XXVI Annual Conference of the Russian Library Association which will be held from May 15 to 20, 2022 in Nizhny Novgorod.

Nizhny Novgorod in 2022 became the Library Capital of Russia. Having recently celebrated its 800th anniversary it has played a big role in the history of Russian statehood, economy and culture.

As part of the celebrations in connection with the 300th anniversary of the dynasty, Nicholas II with his august family made a tour of the cities historically associated with the accession of the Romanovs, and Nizhny Novgorod occupied a special place here: under the walls of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin in 1612, Zemstvo headman Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky organized a people's militia to fight the Polish-Lithuanian invaders. The turmoil was overcome, and Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, the first of the Romanovs, was elected to the throne. “Russia, recreated by the hands of the people...saved by the people's mind and people's will, the strength of the people's soul...- this is what is drawn with the word “Minin”. And the Tsar went to bow to these sacred memories of Nizhny Novgorod”, - says the text of a unique document.

The Presidential Library’s portal features the official Case of the Nizhny Novgorod city government on the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the House of Romanov. Everything is taken into account here, down to the smallest detail, down to the “list of brochures” for distribution in schools. By the way, the educational institutions of Nizhny Novgorod of those days are shown in a photograph of 1886 depicting a drawing class in the Vladimir real school.

This photograph is one of the new additions to the collection of the Presidential Library dedicated to Nizhny Novgorod. Others include The House of the Governor in Nizhny Novgorod in 1886, a photograph that was “the artistic property of the photo of M. Dmitriev”, awarded “the highest awards for photographs from nature”, Exterior view of the building of the city Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod, 1896, A chapel in the village of Lyskovo, Makaryevsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province (1850)” and two photographs of Nizhny Novgorod canteens (one of them was located on the market, and the second was organized at the Karataevsky shelter for impoverished nobles). Another photograph from the end of the 19th century depicts the process of tar smoking on the Vetluga River in the Nizhny Novgorod province.

A whole block of documents has entered the collection dedicated to the All-Russian Trade and Industrial Congress which was held simultaneously with the famous XVI All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in the summer of 1896.

A separate collection is also devoted to the history of Nizhny Novgorod exhibitions and fairs. One has opportunity to learn about such rare documents as The Complete History of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, formerly the Makariev Fair (1833), Notes on the Emperor's Visit to the Nizhny Novgorod Fair in 1836, the study About Trade at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair (1867). ). The documents that entered the collection of Proceedings of the All-Russian Trade and Industrial Congress show what happened in Russia at the end of the 19th century with domestic trade, handicraft industries, customs duties and trade with Asia.

A separate book is devoted to improving the life of workers. Among other proposals, the urgent recommendation to open public reading rooms and libraries is of interest. It was immediately emphasized that folk reading rooms and libraries are important for the growth of the level of moral and mental development.

Nizhny Novgorod is closely associated with the names of many prominent scientists, artists and writers. The latter - born, living in Nizhny Novgorod, or writing about it - at the beginning of the 20th century, they even tried to "systematize" in the first issue of the collection "People of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga Region" - A Concise Dictionary of Nizhny Novgorod Writers which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal . The names of some of them will say little to our contemporary, but the names of Maxim Gorky, Nikolai Karamzin, Vladimir Dal, Nikolai Dobrolyubov, Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky are probably known to readers. Thanks to the Presidential Library’s portal one has opportunity to visit the places associated with their stay in Nizhny Novgorod without leaving home. It is enough to open the book Literary and cultural excursions around Nizhny Novgorod (1926) and, together with its author, "walk" through the memorable places of the Nizhny Novgorod land. This wonderful publication is available thanks to the collection Nizhny Novgorod Region: Pages of History posted on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The listed editions are only a small part of the collection which includes more than 250 most interesting historical documents telling about the Nizhny Novgorod land.

The preparation of collections dedicated to the venues of the All-Russian Library Congress has already become a tradition for the Presidential Library. To date, electronic collections contain documents on all 85 subjects of our country. The total number of collections is 319. In total, the Presidential Library's collections include more than a million depository items.