Academic V. L. Yanin and the Gorky Institute for World Literature, both of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and the Informregistr Center for Scientific Research and Development (of the Ministry for Information Technologies and Communications of the Russian Federation) announce the formation of the Fundamental Digital Library Foundation (FEB Foundation) to further the effective development of the Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature and Folklore and to preserve and disseminate our cultural and scholarly heritage.

The Foundation includes a board of trustees, a board of directors, and a general director.

The famous Russian historian and archaeologist Valentin Larventyevich Yanin, member of the RAS, has been elected chair of the Board of Trustees and president of the Foundation.

Members of the Board of Trustees:

• GORBACHEV Mikhail Sergeyevich — president of the USSR and president of the International Non-governmental Foundation for Socio-economic and Political Studies (Gorbachev Foundation)
• KOZLOV Valery Vasilyevich — member of the RAS, vice-president of the RAS, and director of the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the RAS
• ZALIZNYAK Andrei Anatolyevich — member of the RAS
• VOLOZH Arkady Yuryevich — one of the creators of the major Russian search engine Yandex and general director of the same company
• KUDELIN Alexander Borisovich — member of the RAS, assistant to the academic secretary of the Division of Historical Linguistic Studies of the RAS, and director of the Gorky Institute for World Litereture of the RAS
• KOZLOVA Elena Igorevna — acting director of the Informregistr Center for Scientific Research and Development of the Ministry for Communications and Informatization of the Russian Federation

Aleksey Leonidovich Nalepin, Ph.D., editor-in-chief of Russian Archive and vice-president of the Russian Cultural Foundation, has been elected chair of the board of directors.

Members of the Board of Directors:

• KOZYREV Anatoly Nikolayevich, Ph.D. — director of the Center for Innovation at the Institute for Humanities Education (IGUMO) and assistant chair of the council on economic problems of intellectual property of the RAS
• PALAZHCHENKO Pavel Ruslanovich — philologist, translator, and director of international public relations of the Gorbachev Foundation
• PILSHCHIKOV Igor Alekseyevich, Ph.D. — editor-in-chief of the Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature and Folklore
• CHAGIN Aleksey Ivanovich, Ph.D. — assistant director of the Gorky Institute for World Literature of the RAS
• CHETVERUSHKIN Boris Nikolayevich — corresponding member of the RAS and director of the Institute for Mathematical Modelling of the RAS
• SHTOLBERG Alexander Alekseyevich, Ph.D. — director of technology of the Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature and Folklore

Konstantin Vladimirovich Vigursky, Ph.D., director of FEB-web, was named general director of the Foundation.

As specified in the Bylaws, the goals of the Foundation are the following:

• To preserve and disseminate the cultural legacy of the world, in particular artifacts of Russian literature and scholarship on Russian philology and folklore studies.
• To carry out research and development of digital libraries and digital publishing.
• To provide the worldwide scholarly community and all interested with free access to artifacts of Russian literature and the Russian scholarly heritage.
• To foster humanities education at all levels.
• To raise the effectiveness of scholarly research by means of contemporary information technology.
• To promote Russian literature and widen international cultural contacts.

The initial goals of the FEB Foundation are:

• To enhance the technology base of the Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature and Folklore.
• To create versions of FEB-web designed for education.
• To develop international cooperation and create foreign-language versions of FEB-web.
• To develop means for preparing information for digital publication and digital libraries.
• To create new scholarly digital libraries.

To realize these goals, the FEB Foundation plans to invite organizations, foundations, companies, and private individuals to cooperate and provide assistance in the development of FEB-web.