Speaking at the forum, Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky noted that systematic approaches to study and teach history were necessary and invited the community to discuss and popularise historical knowledge.
He also noted that it was important to study the past “via one’s own answers to questions: how and why this happened and why our ancestors acted in this way.”
Taking part in the event was also Chair of the Russian Historical Society, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin. In his report, he stressed the special value of the applied historical experience in a situation when historical facts were falsified and tendentiously interpreted in several neighbouring countries and noted the important role of “the ability of historically educated person to tell facts from opinions.”
Sergei Naryshkin also noted similarities between historians and intelligence officers, because “their professional duty is to take a look at the full picture and obtain unbiased and truthful information by analysing sources and gathering facts.”
Invited to the forum were prominent scholars, politicians, teachers and public activists as well as school pupils and university students. The participants were interested in studying history, the quality of teaching and promotion of such values as civil culture and patriotism in the society as well as the role of historical education in mass media and art.