Presidential Library presented projects at XVII Forum of Creative and Scientific Intelligentsia of CIS member states in memory of 80th anniversary of Victory in Great Patriotic War

On September 18, 2024, as part of the XVII Forum of Creative and Scientific Intelligentsia of the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which will be held in Ufa from September 17 to 19, the Presidential Library will present educational projects at a round table dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Since its opening in 2009, the Presidential Library began to collect documents and materials related to the history of the Great Patriotic War. On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of Victory in 2010, the library presented its first digital collection, Memory of the Great Victory. This collection continues to grow and currently contains over twenty thousand documents, divided into thematic categories such as combat operations, militia and partisan movement, government-society relations during the war, anti-Hitler alliance, and perpetuation of war memory and its heroes. These resources testify to the contributions of all peoples of the Soviet Union in the victory over Nazi Germany.

Over time, there has been an increasing focus on filling the collection with resources to preserve the personal memories of the war and honor the memory of all its heroes. As the number of direct memory bearers of the war decreases, the importance of accessing family archives becomes more significant.

In the collection Memory of the Great Victory, a special section called Living Memory has been created, which includes front-line letters, memoirs, diaries, photos of war veterans, and other documents from family archives. These materials come not only from Russia but also from countries within the CIS.

Since 2020, in accordance with the instructions for implementing the President's address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Presidential Library has been working together with the Federal Archival Agency on the project World War II in Archival Documents. As of today, the collection contains over thirteen thousand documents dating from 1933 until the end of 1944, and it will be expanded to include 1945 in 2025. The original documents are stored in federal and departmental archives in the Russian Federation. The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, Belarusian State Archives of Film and Photographic Documents, and Belarusian State Literary and Art Museum Archives also participated in the project.

The collections Memory of the Great Victory and World War II in Archival Documents have become the basis for a variety of cultural, educational, and scientific events, such as conferences, exhibitions, and lectures, which are organized using materials from these collections.

In 2023 and 2024, the Presidential Library presented four exhibitions dedicated to the history of the Great Patriotic War. One of them was the historical and documentary exhibition Memory of Generations: the 80th Anniversary of the Relief of the Nazi Siege of Leningrad. It was opened on May 27, on the day of the 80th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi siege, the Founding Day of St. Petersburg, All-Russian Library Day, and the 15th anniversary of the Presidential Library. This project also used materials from family archives of people who survived the siege. These materials were collected since 2018.

The Presidential Library places a special emphasis on historical education and awareness. As part of its cooperation agreement with the Academy of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the library has transferred more than three hundred carefully selected materials on the history of World War I and II to the Library of Digital Educational Resources.

For the project Presidential Library for Teachers: Teaching Using Primary Sources, together with MGIMO Gorchakov Lyceum, Library has created video tutorials based on the World War II in Archival Documents collection. These tutorials were prepared by leading teachers from Russia and are dedicated to events from 1933 to 1945.

The Presidential Library offers multimedia lessons for students in middle and high schools. Some of these lessons are dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, such as The Hero City of Leningrad. This lesson is based on personal documents, including the memories of people who lived through the siege of Leningrad. Another popular lesson, Satire in Service of Victory: Caricature During the Great Patriotic War, shows students images of enemies of the Soviet Union - Nazi Germany and its allies. Students learn how to analyze caricatures and the artistic techniques used to convey certain messages during the war.

A number of projects aimed at preserving the memory of The Presidential Library are being implemented within the framework of the Library's membership in the Library Assembly of Eurasia (LAE) in order to commemorate the Victory.

In 2016, under the sponsorship of the LAE, the Presidential Library produced the film One Victory for Everyone. The film tells about the contributions of all Soviet republics to the victory in the Great Patriotic War and their unity in fighting against fascism. To illustrate this, the film uses newsreels and photographs of monuments, war memorials, and obelisks dedicated to Victory, both in Russia and on the territories of former Soviet republics.

One of the significant joint projects between the Presidential Library and LAE was the documentary Library Front: 1941-1945. This documentary was created in 2019 and 2020, and it was dedicated to the role of Soviet libraries during World War II. The film was created by specialists from the Presidential Library, with support from colleagues from other libraries in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The main idea behind the documentary is to show the contribution that libraries and librarians made to the victory over Nazism. The film is based on the memories of eyewitnesses who worked in libraries during the war, official documents that regulated library activities during this time, photographs, news reels, and interviews with directors of national libraries in the CIS.

After the film's completion, it was shared with all libraries in the Commonwealth, and it is now freely available on the Presidential Library's website and online video platforms.

The year 2025 was declared in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as the Year of the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, also known as the Year of Peace and Unity in the Fight Against Nazism. As part of this special year, the Presidential Library has planned a series of projects.

In September 2023, a General Meeting of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences (BAS) members took place in Minsk, where the Presidential Library proposed the idea of creating a multimedia resource titled Poems by National Poets of the USSR About the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. This resource will feature videos featuring recordings of poems read by national poets in their native languages, with subtitles in Russian. Both library employees involved in the project as well as professional readers, such as actors, announcers, and journalists, can participate.

In the autumn of 2025, the Presidential Library will be holding its traditional annual integration forum, which will focus on the topic of war. The forum has been held annually since 2010 and brings together leading experts in the field of preserving cultural and historical heritage. Next year, the forum will be supported by the International Foundation for Humanitarian Cooperation and LAE, and it is planned to invite specialists from CIS countries to take part.

The Presidential Library welcomes mutually beneficial cooperation and responds positively to initiatives that contribute to preserving common historical memory in the Eurasian region.