Over the past decade, interest in Russia's historical past has significantly increased. Many publications of ancient Russian monuments appeared-the primary sources of knowledge of material and spiritual life, culture of medieval Russia. Without a dictionary of the Old Russian language, it is difficult for a non-specialist reader to understand the texts. And there is such a dictionary. It has been published for a quarter of a century, but, unfortunately, not everyone is familiar with it, and its circulation is too "academic". For 25 years, we have been able to reveal the world of medieval Russia with the help of the Dictionary of the Russian Language of the XI-XVII Centuries, produced by the Department of Historical Lexicology and Lexicography of the V. V. Vinogradov Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This Department was founded in 1981 by G. A. Bogatova, who is currently the editor-in-chief of the Dictionary. On the eve of the Dictionary's anniversary and the publication of its 25th volume, G. A. Bogatova and her colleagues L. Y. Astakhina and E. I. Derzhavina tell our readers about the history of the Dictionary's creation, the direct participants in this work, as well as the materials on the basis of which the most valuable document of the history of the Russian language is made. * * * The last cycle declared by UNESCO in the XX century has ended: Decade of Culture. The Memory of the World program was created to save the world's cultural treasures, including handwritten collections. The programs "Memory of France" and "Memory of America"were created. In Moscow, the Russian State Library created the program "Memory of Russia". During these years, two significant events took place in the life of the Russian Language Institute of the Academy of Sciences. First, the Institute received the right to name Academician Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov in its title, which the Russkaya Rech magazine has already written about. Second, the Inst ... Read more