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Presidential Library to Present New Electronic Exhibition at Russia–Africa Forum

Archival documents, letters and memoirs of travellers, as well as drawings and albums with little-known photographs will be presented by the Presidential Library as part of the Second Russia–Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum to be held in St. Petersburg on 27 and 28 July 2023.

The new electronic exhibition project of the Presidential Library entitled ‘Russian explorers and travellers in Africa’ will be available at the stand of St. Petersburg.

The exhibition is dedicated to the active exploration of Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries. Russian explorers made numerous scientific discoveries in geography, archaeology, ethnography, geology, botany, and medicine. Diplomats, doctors, engineers, and clergymen worked in Africa. The African continent also attracted poets and artists.

Sections of the electronic exhibition are dedicated to outstanding personalities. Among them are geologist and ethnographer Yegor Kovalevsky, the first European to reach the source of the White Nile; traveller Wilhelm Junker, the author of the first map of most of Central Africa; physician Alexander Eliseev, whose works contain valuable information on geography, ethnography, archaeology and medicine; and the famous geneticist Nikolai Vavilov, who during his expedition to Ethiopia collected the largest (more than 6,000 samples) collection of durum wheat seeds, which led to the development of the best domestic varieties of cereals.

Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Nicholas II, visited Africa during his great journey to the East. One of the sections of the exhibition is dedicated to this event.

The electronic exhibition is based on the materials of the Presidential Library’s collection ‘Russia–Africa: the History of Relations’, which is available on the Library’s website. The selection includes digital copies of studies, archival documents, visual and cartographic materials reflecting various stages of relations between Russia and African countries in the 19th–20th centuries.

During the Second Russia–Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum, a number of cooperation agreements will be signed with the Presidential Library’s partners. It is also planned to open a centre of remote access to the Presidential Library’s resources at the Russian House in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).

Brief information about the Presidential Library:

The Presidential Library is administered by the Executive Office of the President of the Russian Federation and is the first electronic national library in Russia.

The library is located in the centre of St. Petersburg, in the historic building of the Holy Synod, built in the second quarter of the 19th century by the outstanding architect Carlo Rossi. It is the largest multifunctional information, scientific, educational, cultural and outreach centre.

The Presidential Library’s digital collection presents books and periodicals, newsreels, photographs, scientific and educational films, dissertation abstracts, archival documents and materials on the history of Russian statehood, theory and practice of law, and Russian as the state language of the Russian Federation. The Library’s electronic collection has more than one million storage units.

 

The Roscongress Foundation is the organizer of the Second Russia–Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum.

 

Official website: summitafrica.ru

 

 

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“We highly value the results of our joint work at the summit. I am sure the achieved results are creating a good foundation for further deepening the Russia-Africa partnership in the interests of our nations’ prosperity and wellbeing.”

President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir Putin

The Russia–Africa Summit, which is taking place in Sochi on 23–24 October 2019, encapsulates the historically friendly relations between the African continent and the Russian Federation. This Summit carries great significance as it is the first of its kind to emerge during a period of major global and international transformations. In response to the aspirations of the people it is representing, the Summit intends to build a comprehensive framework for expanding Russian–African relations into broader horizons of joint cooperation across different fields.

The African nations and Russia share a common understanding of international relations, based on the principles of respect for the rule of international law, equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of states, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. Both sides affirm their commitment to support multilateral actions to oppose new international threats, be they terrorism and extremism in all their forms, or declining growth rates. The two sides share a firm conviction regarding the importance of developing trade flows and supporting mutual investment in such a way as to ensure security, peace and development for the African and Russian people.

African countries have huge potential and opportunities that will allow them, once efforts to streamline their economies have been achieved, to emerge as real global players. In recent years, the nations of this continent have achieved major successes spanning the political, economic, social and administrative spheres. Africa has flourished in terms of growth over the past decade, reaching a continent-wide growth rate of 3.55% in 2018.

The African Union Summit, which was held in Niger in July 2019, continued the efforts of the African countries and saw the African Continental Free Trade Agreement come into force, along with its operational instruments. The agreement is one of the key objectives of Agenda 2063, an African development strategy that has been created to address the African people’s desire for prosperity and decent living standards.

These successes are opening up wide-ranging prospects for cooperation between African countries and the Russian Federation, and confirm the determination of African governments and their people to cooperate with multiple partners in order to establish mutually beneficial relations.

With this in mind, we express our hopes that the Russia–Africa Summit will help in the establishment of constructive strategic relations, based on partnership between two sides across various fields, and in the service of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the African people and their friends in Russia.

President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdelfattah ALSISI