Background

Saint-Petersburg is a unique city by its cultural, intellectual and historical treasures. Located at the crossroad of several cultures it has marked human history in an indelible way and has bequeathed invaluable treasures in all the areas of human activity: from religion to science, from architecture to theatre and from politics to philosophy. The history of the city, celebrating its 300th anniversary, is the history of people, who lived and worked here, who have generated a special spirit - the spirit of Saint-Petersburg.

Objectives

The project's focus is to collect, store and organise information about St-Petersburg celebrities in digital forms and to make it available for searching, retrieval and processing via communication networks to a large number of people with diverse informational needs. Highlighting the cultural and intellectual efforts of the contemporaries, the project co-ordinators hope to unite people able to contribute to the scientific and cultural development of the region, to safeguard and magnify its heritage.

Structure

The project "Personalities of Saint-Petersburg" is a virtual informational site, incorporating biographical, introductory and other textual and graphical information about Saint-Petersburg people, their business and artistic achievements. It has both historical and modern sections. These items, as well as the collection of external links, will continue to grow. The news-column is updated weekly.

Co-ordinators

The project was initiated by the Government of Saint-Petersburg and is co-ordinated by the "Informational Resources" Agency and the Baltic Cultural and Educational Foundation.

Participants

Any person, living and working in Saint-Petersburg, or being the citizen of Saint-Petersburg by spirit, may participate in the project. The participant's status is approved by the Public Observational Council, considering acknowledged citizens and experts in various professional spheres. The main selection criterion is achievement in any field of human activity - business, culture, science, and, of course, contribution to the revival of Saint-Petersburg traditions. Personal information is published on a free basis; commercial information (about the company, firm, etc.) is published on a commercial basis. All data is disposed of only upon the participant's personal approval. Information is updated regularly and can be corrected at a person's request.

Cooperation

The co-ordinators of the project invite everyone interested in the life of Saint-Petersburg and its citizens to participate in the project. Your ideas and advice will be deeply appreciated.

Variants of the information representation on the server:

• Personality (a biographical reference). As an example, one may see the pages about the philologist, historian E. S. Yusupov; the poet Alexander Kushner; the management chief of navigation and oceanography of the Defense Ministry, A. A. Komaritsyn.
• Personality and organization (information about the personality and organization is represented on the same page). For example - information about the chief of the "Folklore crafts of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region" association, V. P. Savchenko; General Director of "Pigment" company, G. I. Agafonov; the artistic director of the State Theatre of Satire on the Basil Island, V. D. Slovokhotov.
• Organization (a separate page is provided for housing the information about an organization). See the pages devoted to B. I. Poletaev and the "Arsenal" plant General Director and General Constructor of which is Yu. N. Voropaev; General Director of the "MKD" auditing firm, A. I. Nikitin and the Baltic Institute of human reproductology of which he is the Director.
• Photo Album (a set of photos). See the photo albums of the State Duma deputy, leader of the "Democratic Russia" party G. V. Starovoitova; the painter Z. N. Arshakuni; the "ASS-TOMP TsKBM" scientific technical center and its director V. V. Khizhnyakov; the sculptor R. Lotosh.
• Personal site in the ceo.spb.ru domain. "Libretto in dreams and reality" site of Yuri Dimitrin is opened.

The project organizers invite the cooperation of creative groups, parties and unions. You may recommend your respectable colleagues. Your proposals will be considered with attention.

The project's director: Ivanov Sergei Yuryevich
Tel/fax: (812) 303-9022, 303-8561
e-mail: chief@air.spb.ru