The Veliky Novgorod Archeological Research Center reported that scientists have decided not to celebrate the anniversary this year.
"We will mark this anniversary by rigorous archeological excavations," a spokesman for the center said.
According to the local state museum, in 1951 the first ancient Russian birch-bark letter was found in Veliky Novgorod at the Nerevsky archeological excavation site on the site of the ancient Kholopya Ulitsa in the layers of earth from the 14th-15th centuries.
Later, similar birch-bark letters were found in Moscow, Pskov, Smolensk, Staraya Russa (Novgorod region), Tver, Torzhok (Tver region), the Belarussian towns of Vitebsk and Mstislavl, and in the Ukrainian town of Zvenigorod.
More than 1,000 birch-bark letters have been found and about 30 of them date back to the first half of the 11th century, and one dates back to the 15th century. Over 450 birch-bark letters were written in the 11th-13th centuries, before Genghis Khan invaded Russia.
According to historians, the birch-bark letters give more information than chronicles. Unlike chronicles, they give details about the everyday life of ancient Slavs.
The majority of birch-bark letters were written in the language ancient Russians spoke and only a small minority of the letters were written in the Slavonic language of the Church.
In 2004, only one birch-bark letter was found. However, according to some estimates, about 20,000 such "messages from the past" are still buried in Veliky Novgorod.
