Russian National Library (St. Petersburg): history, funds, address

The National Library (St. Petersburg) celebrated its 220th anniversary in May this year. Founded by the Decree of Catherine II in the last month of the spring of 1795, the library is still one of the largest in the world.

The pride of the Northern capital - "Publichka" (unofficial name) - by the decree of the President of Russia is included in the historical and cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation.

Different names

The National Library (St. Petersburg) from the time it was founded until 1917 was called the Imperial Public Library. For the period of the existence of Soviet power, the name changed several times - until 1925 the largest book depository was called the Russian Public Library, since 1932 the library was called Saltykov-Shchedrin, and then, for 70 years, until 1992, was called the State Public Library. Throughout its existence, the oldest library in Russia has sought to recruit funds and, most importantly, to provide free access to them.

For the benefit of education

The National Library (St. Petersburg) is now the second book depository of Russia for stocks of funds. As of early 2012, the National Library of Russia had a fund of 36.5 million copies, including 400,000 manuscripts, 7,000 books published before 1501, the so-called incunabula. From its foundation to the present day, this library is the research, information and cultural center of the Russian Federation.

Almost 30 years it took the enlightened empress (1766-1795) to approve the project submitted to her. For a year and a half before her death, this wonderful act brought the line under the "brilliant century" of her reign. Construction began immediately after the approval of the project and lasted for 15 years.

The first in many respects

The beautiful building grew at the intersection of Sadovaya Street and Nevsky Prospekt, that is, in the heart of the capital. In the building erected on the project of E. T. Sokolov (Musical Theater is in the mansion of his work) the first National Library is located. St. Petersburg was attached to the civilized capitals of Europe. The undeniable merits of the library include the fact that the first in our country manual on library classification was created to replenish and systemize its funds.

And the legislative act on compulsory delivery for the purpose of systematic replenishment of funds in the library of copies (in the amount of 2 units) of any printed matter published in Russia by its origin is also due to the first library.

Formation of unique funds

Its opening was planned for 1812, but for known reasons was held in 1814. The National Library (St. Petersburg), whose address is known not only to every inhabitant of the Northern capital, but also to many guests of the amazing city, is located on Ostrovsky Square, 1/3, was formed as a historical ensemble by 1900. It should be noted such an interesting fact: the Foreign Collections Foundation was founded by the Zaluski Brothers Library, which was located in Warsaw and was one of the first public libraries in the world.

It could only compare to the three royal libraries of Europe, located in London, Paris and Munich. In 1794, after the suppression of the insurrection Kosciusko Suvorov. 400 000 volumes were declared the property of the Russian Empire. The pearl of the funds is the Voltaire Library, which was bought by Catherine II in 1778 from Denis Voltaire, the niece and heiress of the great thinker. She was brought to Russia by a special ship and placed in the Hermitage, and by order of Alexander II it was transferred to the Imperial Public Library.

Center for Cultural Life and Innovation

Only in the first 30 years of the existence of the library, readers have received more than 100,000 copies of books. Naturally, its funds continuously increased, as well as the number of visitors, and in the years 1832-1835 a second building was commissioned, the facade of which went to the Ekaterininsky Garden. And in the second half of the XIX century the funds, thanks to numerous book gifts, began to increase in avalanche - in the 50 years, 30 times compared with the entire first half of the XIX century. By 1917, the library had the largest number of manuscripts in Russia. The National Public Library (St. Petersburg) became the first in Russia, where class privileges were abolished - it began to be visited by women. In the years 1860-1862 another building was built according to VI Sobolevshchikov's project, which closed the courtyard around the perimeter. All the innovations of the library business appeared here.

Time of adversity

From 1917 to 1930, the repository was actively replenished by nationalized private collections and assemblies of monasteries and government institutions, although due to printed products, the growth of funds almost completely ceased and was restored only after 1930.

Library employees were subjected to repression, which continued even during the Great Patriotic War, which inflicted huge losses on the funds. But even in the days of the blockade, the library worked and served the readers.

The urgent need for new premises

The State National Library (St. Petersburg) was renamed again in 1991 by the decree of Boris Yeltsin. Now it is called the Russian National Library.

Needless to say, buildings that are over 200 years old have become dilapidated and have become dangerous for the storage of many valuable specimens. Therefore, even in the twentieth century, the issue of building a new building that meets all modern requirements was acute. In 1970, the decision to build a new building was made, and within 10 years the project of a new building was being developed, and then for the same number of years it was being built. And only in 2003 the first stage of the new building was opened (it included all reading rooms and a book depository, which contained 10 million books at the time of its opening).

The new building did not solve all the problems

The National Library (St. Petersburg) moved to a new building (this building of the library was named). "Victory Park" is a metro station located in the immediate vicinity (as is Victory Park itself, located opposite) to the 9-storeyed building of the new book depository, capable of accommodating up to 12 million books. Reading rooms and other office space are located in smaller buildings. The repository is the dominant of the whole project. Under this building was allocated a plot of 4.6 hectares. In the old buildings of the library, located at 11 addresses, it was stored up to 22.7 million books.

Naturally, they were overloaded. But the introduction of a new modern library building did not solve all the problems - still some of the funds are located at 9 addresses, sometimes in rented buildings, in emergency condition. In 2009, an agreement was signed on the construction of a new 11-story book depository, which will be located next to the existing complex near Victory Park.

Innovation Center

In the new beautiful building, the Russian National Library (St. Petersburg) is comfortably located. The address of this building is: Moscow Ave, 165, building. 2. The new building of the National Library is the center of innovative projects, which allowed to raise the service to a whole new level. The electronic library room, opened in 2006, electronic catalogs, connection to the Vivaldi digital library network in 2011 - all this brings the NLR to the highest international level. In this building is the headquarters of the Russian Association of Libraries.