Penza, 23 April 2018. PenzaNews. The presentation of the first volume of the edition "The Penza Region at the Turn of 20th-21st Centuries" under the title "The Dashing Nineties" was held in the gubernatorial house on Monday, April 23.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

Governor Ivan Belozertsev, who took part in the event, thanked the team of authors headed by vice-chancellor of the Institute of Regional Development Alexander Kislov for their work.

According to him, some representatives of public and authorities already managed to get acquainted with the book and it did not cause their protest.

"I guess it is ambiguous. Someone says the style could have been tougher, sharper, others say the book could have been more interesting. Each point of view has a right to exist but in general I think the authors speak about their colleagues and even opponents in a very respectful and tolerant way," the head of the region said.

He also expressed hope that in the next volume there will be more people's opinions on the same issue.

In turn, Alexander Kislov noted that the project is charitable and the book will not be available on sale: 300 copies were already presented to the regional M.Y. Lermontov library, 150 copies – to universities and others – to schools, cultural institutions and businesses.

In the course of a discussion meeting participants including officials, deputies, heads of organizations and journalists shared their impressions from reading the book.

According to the chancellor of Penza State University Alexander Gulyakov, the book turned out to be restrained, neutral and objective.

"I liked the format of presenting ideas, when a general overview of historical development in the period of several years is given. In addition, there are interviews of outstanding participants, and the interviews are very candid," he said.

Local historian Igor Shishkin drew attention to the fact that not a single full-fledged edition about the history of the Penza region had been published over the last 50 years.

He also suggested that because of the abundance of information the second volume should be divided into two: from 2001 to 2010 and from 2011 onward.

Ivan Belozertsev called the proposal to systematize the material by decades reasonable.