The Presidential Library – to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra

On January 29, 2013, at the "Svyatoduhovsky" Religious and Educational Center, the Presidential Library presented the Alexander Nevsky Monastery marking this year its 300th anniversary with electronic copies of rare books on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Digitized publications were presented at a joint press conference. They will be added to the renovated public library of the monastery which opens this year.

As underlined the Director for the Information Resources of the Presidential Library, Elena Zhabko, one of the main areas of development of the electronic collections of the Presidential Library is the history of the Russian state, which cannot be considered in isolation from the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. The collection of the same name was one the first ones in the Presidential Library’s holdings. Documents relating to the history of the church, are constantly added to the library's collections being part of various thematic sets of documents. The earliest edition, digitized by the library and given over to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, is dated to 1720. This is "Religious Board Regulations with appendixes" including handwritten marks of Peter I. The book is available on the website of the Presidential Library as part of "The RSHA exhibition."

The granting of digitized editions by the first national digital library, emphasized the vicar of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Bishop of Vyborg Nazarius, will mark the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship related to religious enlightenment, and the strengthening of the statehood. "The event that took place is important not only to the Diocese of St. Petersburg, but also to the entire Russian Orthodox Church. The Presidential library is the largest repository of documents that provide us the true knowledge about our country," said Bishop Nazarius. He noted not only religious, but also scientific value of the editions given to the monastery. In particular, the 1913 edition titled "The Alexander Nevsky Lavra" by Stepan Runkevich - the first major work prepared for the bicentennial of the monastery. According to Bishop Nazarius, owing to the high quality of digitization of illustrations, the electronic copy of the publication will be used in the restoration work on the monastery.

The co-operation continued already during the press conference – the Lavra’s library presented the Presidential Library with unique books - 50 volumes of the "Church lists" published by the Holy Synod from 1888 for 25 years, and a rare edition "Alexander Nevsky", issued in 1942. At the meeting it was stressed that after digitization electronic copies of these books will be added to the collections of both libraries.