Libraries of Russia: The Russian State Library celebrates its 160th anniversary

July 1, 2022 marks the 160th anniversary of the Russian State Library (Moscow). The Library has prepared new excursions, exhibition displays of documents on the Library’s history, timed to coincide with the celebration, as well as a contest and gifts for its visitors.

This year’s events take place in Leninka under the slogan “For good enlightenment”. This is part of the phrase that was engraved on the pediment of the palace on the English Embankment in St. Petersburg under the order of Nicholas I: “From the State Chancellor Count Rumyantsev for the good enlightenment”. The palace served as the Rumyantsev Museum. Now, these words can be read above the entry to the Rumyantsev Reading Room of the Russian State Library.

The name of Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev takes a special place in the chronicles of the Russian State Library. The reading room of the Library’s manuscripts department was named after him. The fist public library of the Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow was based on Rumyantsev’s book collection and later grew into Leninka. Therefore, all of the anniversary year’s events are held under the slogan, reminding of the founder of one of the biggest libraries in the world.

In the XIX century, the collection of Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev featured over 28 thousand books, 710 manuscripts, over a thousand maps. In 2022, the collections of the Russian State Library have over 48.1 million depository items, including three million high-value publications and other documents.

Today, the Library not only provides a place to read books, but also hosts exhibitions displaying rare and valuable items from its collections, tells about people and books that became part of its history, conducts excursions in the evening hours. Solemn events will be held online and offline, marking the anniversary.

At the exhibition Main Library of the Country, visitors will have an opportunity to explore the history of Leninka through newspapers, theses from the Khimki branch of the Library and to look at the archival photographs of the Library from the collection of art materials, as well as the photographs by Maria Govtvan.

The exhibition Respecting the Truth. Herzen as a human, writer and politician is open in the Rumyantsev Reading Room of the manuscripts department, marking the 210th anniversary since the birth of the writer-encyclopedist, philosopher, public figure and publicist Alexander Ivanovich Herzen. The exposition displays unique materials from Leninka’s archives – the writer’s manuscripts, chapters from the novel My Past and Thoughts, notebooks, Herzen’s nobility charters, family tree of his father Ivan Alexeyevich Yakovlev, books from the library of Alexander Ivanovich with annotations and notes. For the first time ever, visitors will see portraits and photographs of Herzen’s family and his friend, poet Nikolay Platonovich Ogarev, and documents from the People’s Room of 1840s.

The exhibition History of the Russian State Library in Legislative Documents showcases official legal documents, reflecting milestones in the history of creation of the Rumyantsev Museum from 1828 until present day.

Three-hour video with the presence effect in the legendary Third Reading Room is available for those who can’t visit the library, but still wants to explore it visually.