Scientists set up online resource to collect and study materials about Russian North culture
© RIA Novosti. Alexander Liskin

Scientists set up online resource to collect and study materials about Russian North culture

As part of the Day of the Artic, a new open online information resource has been presented at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in St. Petersburg. Its aim is to collect and study examples of written, oral and art materials on peoples of the North's culture. Set up by Murmansk Arctic State University together with the Center for Humanitarian Problems of the Barents Region of the Kola Science Center for the Russian Academy of Sciences, the website goes under the heading, Cultural Memory of Modern Russia: Euro-Arctic North.

One of the online resource founders, senior researcher of the Presidential Library and Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Pavel Fyodorov said that the website was designed as a virtual center that can be collectively used. He also pointed out that it can be used for keeping archival materials which reflect the cultural memory of the Russian people of the Euro-Arctic North.

"It was a pressing issue as there is no archive, museum or library that would record and register the modern memorial culture of Russian northerners," Professor  Fyodorov stressed.

The website has a wide-range target audience. Its users can study the published materials and also contribute their own stories, photographs or other documents.

"The authors of the project hope the new website will both store information and also become a platform for communications encouraging anyone who is interested to study the eventful history and rich culture of the Russian North," the Professor said.

The website has the following sections: Memoirs, Photographs, Folklore, Letters, Maps and also offers themed collections of sources related to the cultural memory of the Kola Peninsula, Teriberka, Murmansk, Pomor families and Russian Arctic seamen.

The Day of the Arctic is held annually at the Presidential Library. The project aims at promoting Russian science, culture and education in Arctic countries, developing Arctic research and promoting, supporting and consolidating the positions of the Russian language. It also provides information about Russia's Arctic development strategy.