Monuments of the Book Culture: The lost Imperial books to be returned to Russia

The German family von Schulenburg intends to return to Russia the imperial books. Dozens of valuable books from the library at Pavlovsk were removed by the “Staff of Rosenberg” and donated to Count Friedrich Werner-von Schulenburg - last ambassador of Nazi Germany in Moscow.

Among the taken out books are the “General works of Lessing” in thirty volumes of 1771, “Letters of Mirabeau” published in Paris in 1792, Marie Antoinette’s memoirs, published in 1823 in Paris and many other valuable copies.

The Palace Library was founded by Paul’s wife - Empress Maria Feodorovna. The library was one of the largest collections of Saint-Petersburg. The basis of the book collection of 33 books was the “Road Library” by Catherine II, donated to Empress by his son Paul. In 1822, a library was given a special room, where Carlo Rossi worked. The book collection of the Empress had about 22 thousand volumes.