The Presidential Library presented Moscow projects dedicated to Africa and football

The new electronic collection of the Presidential Library Russia - Africa: the History of Relations was available at the Presidential Library’s information stand as part of the International Inclusive Duathlon Tournament in Interactive and Classical Football Russia - Africa for children, adolescents and youth with disabilities. The event was held in Moscow on March 16, 2023.

At the library stand, the tournament participants and spectators saw an electronic exhibition based on the collection, dedicated to the relations between Russia and the countries of the African continent. It included research, archival documents, visual and cartographic materials of the 19th-20th centuries.

The Presidential Library’s specialists showed everyone individual materials and revealed little-known interesting facts, including Russian scientists and travelers who visited a distant continent. The most famous of them is Wilhelm Junker, one of the first Russian explorers of Africa, the author of outstanding geographical, cartographic, hydrographic and meteorological works. Studying the watershed of the Nile and the Congo, he made a number of geographical discoveries, the first to create a map of most of Central Africa. The exposition features numerous illustrations from the rare edition of Wilhelm Juncker's Travels in Africa (St. Petersburg, 1893). Another famous scientist, geneticist, botanist, breeder, chemist and geographer Nikolai Vavilov, in 1926–1927 organized a trip to the Mediterranean countries of North Africa, collected the largest (more than 6,000 samples) collection of seeds of cultivated plants. The multimedia exhibition will showcase photos from his travels in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The Presidential Library’s stand presented participants and spectators of the tournament another electronic collection dedicated to the history of the development of sports in Russia. The section about football was particularly highlighted. It was created to mark 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and widely covered the main milestones in the history of Russian football, which could be considered the birthplace of St. Petersburg. It was here that on October 12, 1897, the first football match took place and the first football league in the country appeared.

The Presidential Library’s stand provided a virtual tour of the exhibition More Than Just a Game: Marking FIFA World Cup in Russia, which was opened in the institution in 2018. Materials from the library’s collections: documents, charters of sports societies, literature on sports, the press and others - show how football developed and transformed: the rules, the playing technique, the equipment of athletes changed.

Reference: the International Inclusive Duathlon Tournament in Interactive and Classical Football Russia – Africa for Children, Adolescents and Youth with Disabilities brought together representatives of state and public structures, as well as the business community, who are not indifferent to the problems of children, adolescents and youth with disabilities.

The tournament is held in a format that combines real and interactive football. Amateur national teams from African countries, the Moscow government, the Russian Computer Sports Federation and ANO Unique World, as well as the Russian Football Union, which is represented by famous Russian athletes, will take to the field to compete for cups and medals.

The main event of the event was matches between the teams of the Moscow football clubs CSKA, Spartak, and Spartanets (Moscow Region), consisting of children and adolescents with disabilities. In addition, matches are held with the participation of children from socially vulnerable groups of the population.

After the competition on the field, young athletes took part in FIFA 23 interactive football competitions on game consoles.

In order to assist in the career guidance and socialization of persons with disabilities, a specialized exposition was open for the participants of the tournament, presenting achievements and technical innovations in the field of robotics, VR-technologies, 3D-scanning, etc.