Russia’s constitutional history to be available on the Internet

29 August 2013

Virtual museum of the constitutional history of Russia will be published on the Internet in December 2013, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Constitution.

This was announced by Sergei Shakhrai, head of the Accounting Chamber of Russia, one of the authors of the current Constitution, who visited the Presidential Library on Thursday, August 29. According to him, no country in the world has such a museum.

The project is implemented by the Presidential Library and Academic Educational and Scientific Center of the RAS - Lomonosov Moscow State University. It will be a modern project aimed to receive feedback from the community that will consider constitutional ideas and development of the legal system of the country during the centuries. The museum will be created bringing together the resources and capabilities of Russia’s major centers such as the Presidential Library as a national complex for preservation of documents on history, theory and practice of the Russian state in digital form, and the Academic Center of Russian Academy of Sciences - Moscow State University, which has unique technology in the field of virtual exhibitions. In addition, the exhibition will benefit from the materials of the Center of Constitutional legislation and public law. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation will also contribute to the implementation of the project.

During his visit to the Presidential Library, Sergei Shahrai was informed about the works carried out in order to create an interactive exposition, in particular, he visited the digital exhibition "Constitutional ideas in Russia", which will be an integral part of the exposition, visited the hall of the Constitution and the Electronic Reading Room, where he saw unique documents and material on the theory and practice of law.

According to Sergei Shahrai, it is in the interactive form, using the latest technology, on the basis of technological development of the Presidential Library, the museum will present the constitutional history and development of law from the Anna Ivanovna’s Conditions to the manifesto of Alexander I, the constitutional drafts of Decembrists and Mikhail Speransky’s ideas to the constitutional reform of 1905 - 1906, and the constitutions of the Soviet era. The Basic Law, adopted in 1993 at the nation-wide referendum, will be presented as widely as possible and at the same time in a popular way.

"Much of the content will be in a form of 3D-displays, various photos and videos", said Sergey Shakhrai. Rhe virtual museum will be featuring videos, photos and film footage on the preparation of the 1993 Constitution from the archives of lawyers and politicians. The collections of the display will also be enriched with documents from the Presidential Library, which also has unique materials, such as an electronic copy of the Constitution, used by the head of state for taking his oath. In addition, the Presidential Library disposes of a modern computer technology, has the experience of data storage and processing, as well as the necessary conditions for the support and development of the digital museum.

The exposition of the virtual museum will be accessible and interactive, targeted at different age groups. According to the authors, the project will also be a platform for exchange of views on the modern development of the legal community. A special directory of the virtual museum will be created for comments and suggestions.