Decree “On Protection of Libraries and Book Depositories of RSFSR” approved

17 July 1918

On July 17, 1918 in Moscow at the meeting of the Council of People’s Commissars under the chairmanship of Vladimir Lenin was adopted one of the first library decrees of the Soviet Government — “On Protection of Libraries and Book Depositories of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic”. Under the adopted document “all libraries of liquidated and evacuated government institutions, and also libraries of certain societies … are in all localities of RSFSR placed under protection and are registered by the People’s Commissariat for Education”.

After the October revolution of 1917 libraries, as ideological institutions, attracted close attention and the state assumed complete leadership of them. Since the institutions of Tsarist Russia had been abolished, while owners of private libraries had emigrated, there was a mass requisition and nationalization of public, zemstvo and private libraries, except for book collections of the intelligentsia. Often as a result of spontaneous requisitions valuable book collections were destroyed or stolen. The Decree on Protection of Libraries was called to prevent the looting of orphaned collections, set up the protection and distribution of requisitioned and nationalized libraries, draw attention of the Soviet authorities to importance of taking timely measures for preservation of the wealth of books. Until August 15, 1918 all institutions and organizations, which possessed any kind of libraries, were obliged to inform the library department of the People’s Commissariat for Education. This department defined further purpose of these libraries, their distribution, acquisition, their accessibility for the public. Non-compliance with this order was considered to be violation of revolutionary legal order and involved legal liability.

In November 1920 Lenin signed a decree “On Centralizing Library Work in RSFSR”. Under this decree all libraries in the country were declared public libraries and were united into a single library network countrywide. It stipulated that all the libraries should be regularly provided with new books. The country began a large-scale struggle against illiteracy, while permanent and traveling libraries were opening everywhere.

Despite the difficulties caused by the Civil War and foreign intervention, Soviet government was trying to protect existing libraries and set up a lot of new ones. In 1923 came out the journal “Red librarian” (from 1946 — “Librarian”). Next year were launched the 1st Library Congress and the 1st Conference of scientific libraries of RSFSR. From the late 1920s was developing the network of technical libraries, while state public and scientific libraries were extending too. On October 1, 1934 was held the All-Union Library Census.

Lit.: Об охране библиотек и книгохранилищ РСФСР: Декрет СНК. 17 июля 1918 г. // Декреты Советской власти. Т. 3. М., 1964. С. 41-42; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.opentextnn.ru/censorship/russia/sov/law/snk/1917/?id=653; История библиотечного дела в СССР: Документы и материалы, ноябрь 1920-1929. М., 1979; Клепиков Н. Н. Чистки библиотечных фондов на Европейском Севере РСФСР/СССР в 1920-1930-е гг. // Региональный вестник молодых учёных. История. 2004. № 3.