the development of a national library in Russia

When looking at Russia, it is appropriate to look at two prominant libraries; the National Library of Russia in St. Petersberg and the Russian State Library in Moscow. Both fulfil the role of and have built collections worthy of a national library.

Reading Room at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersberg

The National Library of Russia in St. Petersberg was founded in 1795 by Catherine the Great and was to be "the first building in Russia specially intended to house a library".  Catherine's vision was for a national library to become a "symbol of the might of the Russian state". To this end, all Russian books and manuscripts were kept here and in contrast to other European national libraries, the National Library of Russia was intended to be generally accessible to all Russian subjects for "learning and enlightenment" and was thus a public library also.

In building the collection, private collections were transported from Poland and France as well as items from the Hermitage library in St Petersberg. The 1800s saw the purchase and donation of manuscripts from the former Russian official at the embassy in Paris who, during the French Revolution, saved papers from the archives in the Bastille and secured manuscripts from French monasteries dating back to the fifth century.

In 1805, a department was created just for special manuscripts and following this, many individual collectors donated their collection to the library. By 1810, regulations were in place for the administration of the Imperial Public Library and funds were allocated from the State treasury.  Principle aims were established, one being to keep an archive of all printed Russian matter and preserve the national manuscript heritage while receiving visitors and providing them with all necessary information. The library continued to grow and fulfil its role and only declined during the years of the second World War when many staff joined the forces or died during the winter of 1941-2, the water supply and heating was lost and the war in general took its toll.

The other great library in Russia is the Russian State Library in Moscow also known as V. I. Lenin State Library of USSR between 1925 and 1992 or now known as Leninka.


Reading Room at the Russian State Library, Moscow

Its origins date to 1862 when the city of  Moscow acquired the library collection of  the Rumyantsev museum donated to the people by count Rumyantsev and transferred from St Petersberg.  The museum with its library collection grew through donations, purchases and "deposits from confiscated libraries" according to Johnson (1970, p.172) and when the lack of space and funds became a problem it was decided to dissolve the Rumyantsev and the museum items were dispersed among other galleries and museums while the library collection and manuscripts were reorganised to form the Lenin Library and new buildings were constructed to house them.

The Leninka, as it is known today, is the largest library in the country and the third largest in the world in terms of its collection of books (17.5 million) according to the Leninka website.


References

The principal book repository in Russia (1795- 1813) c. 2011, The National Library of Russia, viewed 3 October 2011,
<http://www.nlr.ru/eng/nlr/history/1.htm>

'Reading room at the national library of Russia in St. Petersberg' [image] in Wisdom 2008, A taste of life, viewed 4 October 2011,
<http://whatagreatlife.blogspot.com/2008/10/national-library-of-russia-at-st.html.>

'Reading room at the Russian state library in Moscow' [image] in Davis M 2008, Russian studies, viewed 4 October 2011,
<http://www.macalester.edu/russian/credits.html>

Johnson, ED 1970,  History of libraries of the western world, 2nd edn, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ.

RSL now c. 2011, Leninka, viewed 3 October 2011,
<http://leninka.ru/index.php?doc=2661>

Research Process

Searching for books and periodicals dealing with the national library of Russia was a little more challenging as there was far less information available than for European national libraries and the US Library of Congress.
Fortunately, the official website of the National Library of Russia had very comprehensive information available on its history with no less than nine separate sections, each devoted to an era in the history of the library dating from 1795.  All contained very detailed information.

The RSL (Russian State Library) and Leninka also had relevant information (albeit not as comprehensive and detailed) and the automatic Google translation from the Russian website worked well to give comprehensible information.

Wikipedia also proved to be useful to give basic background information and clarify historical facts I was unsure of. Although not always reliable, the Wikipedia information was referenced and cited the official national library websites which provided a credible source to use.