Libraries of Russia: Exhibition "Legends of the National Library of Russia: Rossica. Marking the 170th Anniversary of the Collection Establishment" opened in Saint-Petersburg

On September 10, 2020, the exhibition "Legends of the National Library of Russia: Rossica. Marking the 170th Anniversary of the Collection Establishment" was opened in the National Library of Russia (the Korf Hall of the Main Building).

The department "Rossica", which enters the great library collections, has no equivalents in the world. The collection includes essays about Russia in foreign languages, as well as books by Russian authors translated into foreign languages. The collection features about 150 thousand publications on various topics, issued in the period from the XVI century until 1930.

The exhibition presents books of the XVIII-XX centuries. The central exhibits are the works of foreigners about Russia covering history, way of life, customs, culture and economy. The purposes of the foreign visits to Russia were very different, however, everyone, without exception, noticed the numerous disagreements between Russia and Western civilization.

The exhibition spotlights the details that surprised, delighted, and sometimes even frightened foreign guests in Russia. The exposition provides the memoirs of the Austrian diplomat S. von Herberstein, the German statesman I. G. Corb, the French travel writer A. de Custine, and others.

One of the sections is devoted to the last wills of Peter the Great and Catherine II - the well-known political falsifications created abroad.

The exhibition engaged materials from the collections of the National Library of Russia: the "Rossica" collection, the Foreign Book Collection, the Collection of Literature in Library Science, the Russian Book Collection, the Prints Department, and the Central Reference Library.

The exhibition will run until October 3.