The Council of People’s Commissars adopted a decree on academic libraries

September 5, 1919, V. I. Lenin signed a Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on academic libraries.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the libraries, as the most accessible centers of dissemination of knowledge and of political education of the population, were paid a considerable attention. Since the institutions of tsarist Russia were abolished, and many owners of private libraries emigrated, there was held a mass confiscation and nationalization of public, rural and private libraries, except for the collections of intellectuals.

July 17, 1918 was adopted one of the first decrees on libraries of the Soviet rule - "On protection of libraries and book depositories of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic", and on September 5, 1919 Lenin signed the Decree of SNK on academic libraries.

The Resolution stated:

1. Take stock and supervise all the libraries, which remained in disposal of their former owners in order to meet their professional needs.

2. Requisition and submit to the disposal of relevant educational institutions all the libraries for which their former owners had been given charters of immunity, since they did not really need these collections for their professional activities. For this purpose, review the list of charters of immunity.

3. Immediately confiscate all the collections belonging to persons who had fled to the Crimea and other areas in the territory occupied by the Whites, or whose whereabouts are unknown.

4. As a general rule, remove the former owners from superintendence of their libraries which were placed at the disposal of the People’s Commissariat for Education and available in the public domain.

5. Deliver all the books from all former private collections available in the public domain or left temporarily at the disposal of their former owners that represent great historical, scientific and literary interest to special public repositories (the Rumyantsev Museum, the Historical Museum, etc.) upon a resolution of the People’s Commissariat for Education.

6. Revise the instructions on the order of requisition of libraries in the part relating to the definition of the number of volumes that could be left at the disposal of individuals, with the decrease of the number to a minimum, sufficient to meet the professional needs of the books of their respective owners.

7. Instruct the People's Commissariat of Education to take steps to increase the number of staff and librarians of public libraries.

In November 1920, Lenin signed a decree "On centralization of library science in the USSR", which provided for creation of a single library network, of public libraries, the planned supply of new books. The country has begun A full-scale fight against illiteracy began. Permanent and mobile libraries started to open everywhere.

Lit.: Декреты Советской власти. Т. VI. 1 август — 9 декабря 1919 г. М., 1973.