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Foundation of the Russian State Library
The history of the Russian State Library begins with a collection of books, manuscripts, paintings and maps that belonged to the diplomat, chancellor, chairman of the State Council Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev (1754–1826). After the death of the count, the collection formed the basis of the Rumyantsev Museum in St. Petersburg, established by personal decree of Emperor Nicholas I on March 22 (April 3), 1828. By 1853, the Rumyantsev Museum involved 966 manuscripts, 598 maps and drawing books (atlases), 32,345 printed volumes. At the suggestion of the curator of the museum, Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky (1803–1869), on May 23 (June 4), 1861, the Committee of Ministers adopted a resolution to transfer the collection to Moscow. The collection was enriched with Russian, foreign and early printed books from the duplicates of the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg and placed in the Pashkov House on Vagankovsky Hill, where it was merged with the Moscow Public Museum.
On June 19 (July 1), 1862 Emperor Alexander II approved the "Regulations on the Moscow Public Museum and the Rumyantsev Museum". This day is the official date of foundation of the Russian State Library. The document determined the management, structure, admission to the library of museums of a legal deposit, the staffing of a public museum created for the first time in Moscow with a public library that was part of it. In addition to the library, the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums included departments of manuscripts, rare books, Christian and Russian antiquities, departments of fine arts, ethnographic, numismatic, archaeological and mineralogical departments. Nikolai Isakov (1821–1891) became the first director of the united museum.
The regulation of 1862 determined the receipt by the library of a mandatory copy of all literature published in the country, but at the same time gifts and donations became an important source of replenishment of the collections of museums and the library. Among the donors was Emperor Alexander II, who donated many books, engravings and paintings. The collection of books donated to the library by the Minister of Public Education Avraam Sergeevich Norov (1795–1869), which included publications by Greek and Roman writers, as well as a unique collection of lifetime editions of Giordano Bruno, totaled 16 thousand books. At the beginning of 1917, the library’s collections numbered 1 million 200 thousand depository items.
In 1921, the library of the State Rumyantsev Museum became a state book depository, and in 1925, by the decision of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on the liquidation of the Rumyantsev Museum, it acquired an independent status under the name of the Lenin State Library of the USSR. Since that time, the library has become one of the leading research institutions in the country. Since 1922, it included the Cabinet, and since 1924 the Institute of Library Science, which trained professional library personnel. In 1930, the first library university was established here. Since 1934 it has been separated into an independent institution.
From 1930 to 1960 the construction and development of a new building of the library, which includes several buildings, was carried out headed by architects V. G. Gelfreikh and V. A. Shchuko. By the beginning of 1941, the collections of the Lenin Library consisted of more than 9 million depository items. During the Great Patriotic War, the library did not stop the acquisition of the holdings and the service of readers. The library carried out intensive scientific work: scientific conferences, sessions, dissertation defenses were held, postgraduate studies were restored, the work begun in the pre-war years on the creation of a library and bibliographic classification continued. In the post-war years, the staff of the institution solved the problems of technical equipment of the new building, acquisition, processing, organization and storage of collections, formation of a reference and search apparatus. In the mid 1960s the library included 22 reading rooms for 2330 seats.
On January 29, 1992, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the State Order of Lenin Library of the USSR was transformed into the Russian State Library. As of January 1, 2022, the volume of all collections of the RSL exceeds 48.1 million depository items, of which about 3 million are especially valuable publications. About 1.7 million documents have been digitized and are part of the Digital Library of the RSL. The Pashkov House, from which the history of the library began, now contains departments such as manuscripts, musical publications, sound recordings and cartography.
Lit.: Абрикосова Ф. С. История Государственной ордена Ленина Библиотеки СССР им. В. И. Ленина за 100 лет: 1862-1962. М., 1962; История РГБ // Российская государственная библиотека. Режим доступа: https://www.rsl.ru/ru/about/history/; Клевенский Л. Н. История библиотеки Московского публичного Румянцевского музея. 1862—1917. М., 1953; Российская государственная библиотека (РГБ) // РИА Новости. Режим доступа: https://ria.ru/20120701/686301517.html.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Кестнер К. И. Материалы для исторического описания Румянцевского музеума. М., 1882 (Доступно в ЭЧЗ);
Викторов А. Е. Каталог славяно-русских рукописей, приобретенных Московским публичным и Румянцевским музеями в 1868 г., после Д.В. Пискарева. М., 1871 (Доступно в ЭЧЗ);
РГИА 733 Оп.143 Д.79 Дело о приобретении для Московского Публичного и Румянцевского музеев библиотеки и переписки профессора Тихонравова. 5–25 февраля 1898 г. (Доступно в ЭЧЗ);
ГА РФ. Ф. Р 3316 Оп. 17 Д. 702 О переименовании Румянцевской публичной библиотеки в Всесоюзную публичную библиотеку им. В. И. Ленина 01.08.1924–04.08.1925 (Доступно в ЭЧЗ);