The Russian international news agency RIA Novosti is rounding off its 70th anniversary year with an exhibition of publications dedicated to the agency's history.

The exhibition, which opened on Tuesday in the agency's International Multimedia Press Center, contains more than 50 articles published between 1941 and 2011. These include not only analytical, artistic, reference, scientific and journalistic publications from the Russian State Library (RSL), but also newspapers and magazines which the agency published over the years in a variety of countries.

"They say that the ancestral tree means a great deal both for a people and for a family. In this sense RIA Novosti has an impeccable pedigree. The agency and the people who work in it have been witnesses to, participants in and chroniclers of the most important events that have occurred in our life and that of the country over the past 70 years," RIA Novosti deputy editor-in-chief Maxim Filimonov said at the exhibition opening.

Those who use their talent to create news pieces and photographs, which over time become works of art, are the agency’s main assets, he said.

More than 50 former RIA Novosti employees have visited the exhibition. Flicking through the now rare magazines and newspapers, they reminisced about how they chose the topics for each issue and talked about how the agency has changed over time.

Library President Viktor Fedorov noted that the library's involvement in the exhibition, which illuminates one page of Russia’s history, was a matter of great importance and responsibility.

"The page in question is multi-faceted, since the topics which Sovinformburo, Novosti Press Agency (APN) and now RIA Novosti have covered are in essence our country’s history. At the same time, the organization (the news agency) is itself part of that history," he said.