Meeting with Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova

The Minister briefed the President on the modernisation of museums and libraries, the development of film studios in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to supply children’s art schools with domestically produced musical instruments, and joint efforts with the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ms Lyubimova, good afternoon.

Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova: Good afternoon, Mr President.

I would like to report on several key issues, particularly our support for the new regions and border areas. There has been significant progress in theatres and model libraries.

Vladimir Putin: Is the work going well?

Olga Lyubimova: Yes, it is. We are working in close collaboration with the professional community. Every museum and theatre has a federal patron overseeing its development. For example, the State Historical Museum is assisting in the creation of a Cossack Museum in Lugansk, while the Bakhrushin Theatre Museum is helping establish a theatre museum in Debaltsevo, including major children’s cultural centres. There are 77 museums in the new regions, and in each one, we are working with federal museums to create dedicated children’s centres.

We have discussed this with you before, and we are very grateful for your support of local history museums. It is particularly significant that this initiative is starting with the new regions.

We have also been thinking about how to make these museums a regular part of children’s lives. Right now, many children visit a local history museum only twice – in first grade and again in eleventh. But what if they could go twice a week instead? We were inspired by Irina Antonova’s Young Art Historian Club, something every parent in Moscow hoped their child could join, as mine did. It is essential that parents have this opportunity, and by the end of this year, such programmes will be available in all 77 museums in the new regions.

We are working with the border territories wherever possible as well to create and upgrade these unique spaces.

Importantly, among other things, this work is being done by the cultural institutions themselves, without us issuing any directives. When tragedy broke out at the local history museum in Sudzha, and we learned about the death of our colleague, our absolutely devoted employee, and about the enemy destroying this museum, you know, I had special feelings reading messages in a chat room that is used by all museums in our country. They said, colleagues, let us give all our receipts to Sudzha on this beautiful weekend, when thousands of visitors will come to federal museums. You could see messages like “Pavlovsk stands with you,” “Veliky Novgorod will support you,” “The Far East is here,” and “Colleagues, let us keep working.” Our colleagues collected 90 million over the weekend to pass these funds to our colleagues from…

Vladimir Putin: Sudzha.

Olga Lyubimova: Yes. This is, of course, a separate effort.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Olga Lyubimova: It is a great joy to see this work unfold across all areas.

Libraries are part of it. There are over 1,100 libraries in the new regions. As you may be aware, the Culture national project spawned a number of modern model libraries, and people in the new regions welcome them. By 2030, we will have 70 such new libraries catering to people of all ages from the very young with clubs and developmental activities to visitors of advanced age who enjoy book discussions.

Our library community has made a cultural revolution of sorts on its own: we have replaced the old-fashioned quiet studies and uncomfortable furniture with a large number of armchairs and bean bags, and made free broadband internet available. People of different ages come to do their homework, or to prepare a report. Of course, such a modern use of the library, using the library as a club, a meeting point, an opportunity to make friends for teenagers who have difficulty socialising, such as children who read and think, and can meet like-minded friends ma