TOP STORIES

President Attends Opening of New Boris Yeltsin Library

By Irina Titova

The St. Petersburg Times

Alexander Demianchuk / Reuters A religious procession leaves St. Isaac's Cathedral to attend the opening of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in the Synod building on Wednesday.

President Dmitry Medvedev opened the new Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.

“This library will become not only a unique repository, but also the connecting hub for the country’s whole library system,” Medvedev said at the official opening ceremony in the city’s historical Senate and Synod building.

“Anyone with an Internet connection will now be able to access the library’s electronic resources,” Medvedev said.

“The importance of our history and our values is one of our key priorities,” Medvedev said.

Medvedev became the library’s first registered reader after he was issued with reader’s pass number one. The pass looks like a plastic identification card.

The idea of a library unifying the country’s information and archival resources was first suggested in 2007. The then-president Vladimir Putin signed a decree to found such a library. He also proposed naming it after the first Russian president, Boris Yeltsin.

The library is set to act as a central connecting point for all of the country’s libraries. Its electronic archives will receive materials from the Russian State Historical Archive and from Russia’s leading national libraries. It will mainly contain materials on the history of the Russian state. Texts, audio files and pictures are included in the database.

Readers will have access to the library’s materials not only in its main building in St. Petersburg, but also in the library’s branches all around the country. Ordinary Internet users will also have access to the information from the library, although with some limitations, said Vladimir Kozhin, head of the Presidential Property Management Department.

“We have an understanding about what will be freely accessible and what should be limited. There are some rare materials that we can’t allow to be copied,” Kozhin said.

Medvedev also presented the new library with a copy of the inaugural edition of the Russian Constitution, previously kept in the Kremlin in Moscow.

At the same time, VTB bank prepared another valuable gift for the library. The bank bought a unique collection of books and magazines connected to Russia. The collection, consisting of more than 2,000 books, belonged to a Swiss family who amassed it over three generations, with the oldest book in the collection dating back to 1551. The collection was set to be auctioned off, but was then offered for full sale to Russia.

Boris Yeltsin’s widow Naina Yeltsina, who was also present at the ceremony, said “Russia has always prided itself on being a nation of readers.”

“Although life is changing now, and today every family has a TV set, we need to keep books in our life because they are one of mankind’s most priceless inventions,” Yeltsina said, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.

Yeltsina said that her husband loved reading, especially in his student years. Later in life, his political activities did not leave him much time for reading but when a new book appeared in the house Yeltsin used to always say that he would read it when he retired, she said.

“And it really happened that way,” Yeltsina said.

“In his last years reading was his main occupation. Our daughters barely managed to read new books because he got through them so quickly! The opening of the library is a priceless gift for all book-lovers and a fitting tribute to Boris,” she said.

More stories by this section:

Soldiers' Mothers Suspect 'Roundups' | Kremlin Takes Small Step to Ease NGO Law | Siberian Police Rescue Girl, 5, Raised by Dogs

Or take part in the discussion below.