The Presidential Library joined Book Salon

The Presidential Library presented a number of events within the framework of the XVIII St. Petersburg International Book Fair which was held this year from May 18-21 timed to the city’s foundation anniversary.

The organizer of the Book Salon was the Government of St. Petersburg represented by the Committee for Press and Interaction with Mass Media with the support of the Russian Book Union.

“The Presidential Library annually joins the St. Petersburg International Book Fair”, - noted Yuri Nosov, Director General of the Presidential Library. “This year, in addition to the work of our library stand, we have prepared a number of events dedicated to the 320th anniversary of St. Petersburg”.

In pavilion A, at the library stand, one was able to see video materials about digital collections available on the institution's portal. They are Memory of the Great Victory, Constitution. Basic Law, Russian People, Territory of Russia, The House of Romanov, Outer Space, including the personal file of Yuri Gagarin, the Collection of digitized archive documents, film and photo materials World War II in Archival Documents which is formed jointly with the Federal Archival Agency. It was also possible to watch the video films Alexander Nevsky - Patron Saint of St. Petersburg and Teachers of Peter I based on unique materials from the library's collections. Visitors to the Book Salon were able to learn about the activities of the Presidential Library as a multifunctional research, educational, cultural center, learn about the structure of the institution's portal, including the library's round-the-clock TV channel.

The Presidential Library’s stand was organized in the format of a "live consultation" on any issues related to the activities of the institution: how to enroll in the library and find materials in the collections; how to get to exhibitions, video lectures and cinema screenings at Senate Square, 3; what is needed to participate in the Russia in the Electronic World Olympiad or students’ contests. The stand also featured publications of the Presidential Library in recent years, including the collection of research papers “The Holy Synod in the History of Russian Statehood” published in 2023.  

Visitors to the Book Salon were able to learn about the work of remote access centers of the Presidential Library. Today there are more than 1,400 of them on the territory of the Russian Federation. They are based on central libraries in the regions, in government bodies, museums, archives and educational institutions. In addition, 49 remote access centers are open in 33 foreign countries. The volume of the electronic collections of the Presidential Library exceeds one million depository items.

On May 19 the lecture hall of pavilion "B" included poetry readings of the Presidential Library "Dedication to St. Petersburg". The event was attended by well-known poets of St. Petersburg, representatives of various literary trends, from futurism to metamodern. Some of them were regular participants in poetry readings at the Presidential Library. Poets performed their works dedicated to St. Petersburg, in which the city, its history, myths and ideas about it were shown through the prism of the Russian poetry word.

On May 20 the Presidential Library invited to visit the pavilion "B" to attend the lecture "The Phenomenon of the Petersburg Poetic Text", prepared by Zhanna Sizova, methodologist of the Educational Programs Department of the Presidential Library. Based on the materials of the Presidential Library’s collections, it was shown what influenced the tradition of Russian versification of the 18th - early 20th centuries (Gavriil Derzhavin, Fyodor Tyutchev, Alexander Blok, Vladimir Mayakovsky) had on the modern poetry school of Leningrad and St. Petersburg. When compared with the Moscow poetry school, the features of the St. Petersburg poetry text were revealed: the fusion of the “Petersburg text” with the “Petersburg myth”, the emergence of a single image of culture as a poetic-mythological model of art, the formation of a special “spiritual” language. As examples, the work of such authors as Leonid Aronzon (the idea of beauty and earthly paradise), Oleg Okhapkin (resistance to fear and glory), Viktor Krivulin (poetry as a service to the Logos), Viktor Shirali (Odyssey of St. Petersburg) was presented. At the end of the event, during which unique video, photo and audio materials from the Presidential Library and the personal archive of the author were used, it was about the “Petersburg text” today.  

The main book festival of St. Petersburg was held for the third time on Palace Square: about 200 publishing houses presented their books in four pavilions. The small area included the main stage where the educational and musical program took place.

The main topics of the forum this year were the 320th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the Year of the Teacher and Mentor, St. Petersburg - the cultural capital of the CIS 2023. The guests of the XVIII St. Petersburg International Book Salon were Evgeny Vodolazkin, Tatyana Tolstaya, Daria Dontsova, Yuri Polyakov, Alexander Livergant and Dmitry Vodennikov.

Last year, the Book Salon on Palace Square was visited by more than half a million guests.

More information about the Book Salon is available on the website https://book-salon.online/.