Today, on the 4th of February, the international conference “Role of the Society for Archeology, History and Ethnography in study and preservation of cultural heritage of Volga and Ural region”, devoted to 135th anniversary of the Society for Archeology, History and Ethnography (SAHE) under Kazan Imperial University, was opened in the assembly hall of the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies.

The conference was organised by Kazan Federal University, Academy of Science of the Republic of Tatarstan and Kazan University of Culture and Arts.

The remarkable fact is that an issue of Bulletin of the Society for Archeology, History and Ethnography under Kazan Federal University, the first in contemporary history of this magazine, was timed to the conference opening. It is a reprint of the unpublished News magazine of 1963.

Reference information. Bulletin of the Society for Archeology, History and Ethnography was published from 1878 through 1929. In 2014 its edition was renewed. This scientific journal was well-known among specialists in Humanities and held a special place in study of both national and world history. A series of the journal issues numbering over 30 volumes within its lifetime received recognition of the leading research and training centres of Russia and largest foreign universities. Starting from 2014 the journal will be published four times a year.

Guests of the conference were welcomed by the Vice-Rector of KFU for Research, Mr. Danis Nurgaliev, the Director of the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies, Mr. Ramil Khayrutdinov, the Vice-Rector of Kazan State University of Culture and Arts in Charge of Research, Mr. Rafael Valeev, and the Director of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, Mr. Ayrat Sitdikov.

Mr. Ramil Khayrutdinov was the first to deliver an opening speech. He indicated the main task of Humanities in our University, calling upon it “to be not simply “near”, but “at the head of” the process of the Program for Competitive Growth implementation, particularly, to help scholars-humanists and their researches to get to the international level.” This idea was developed by Mr. Danis Nurgaliev. He offered the scientific community of the Institute to “unite and present their view of the way the University should use to go ahead, and organise the so-called brainstorm”.

Special attention was devoted to the interdisciplinary nature of History. Each of the speakers pointed out an important role of history in various spheres of life. “We cannot make headway without understanding of our past. Breadth of topics presented by the Society for Archeology permits us to approach solutions for many social problems,” noted Mr. Rafael Valeev.

The chief editor of the revived journal, Mr. Ayrat Sitdikov, made special mention of a unique role played by Kazan University in Archeological Science forming. The aforesaid is confirmed by the fact that Kazan will host the All-Russian archeological congress in October, 2014. “The conference is preparation for this global event,” resumed Mr. Sitdikov.

It is worthy of note that modern approaches to cultural heritage study and preservation and pressing problems of modern science development will be discussed by several sections. The problem list will include, in particular: scientific societies’ activity on study of history of Russia and Eastern Europe; history of material culture of the Volga region and Cisurals (archeology, ethnography and history); problems of study and preservation of cultural heritage of Bulgar-Tatar culture and peoples of the Ural-Volga region and Siberia; study of SAHE heritage, modern science succession and development.

The organisers noted that great services rendered by the Society for Archeology, History and Ethnography to modern national science made the conference not only a tribute of respect to founders of modern Humanities in the region, but also an important factor of succession preservation and scientific tradition development.