The National Library (St. Petersburg) in May of this year celebrated its 220th anniversary. Founded by the Decree of Catherine II in the last month of spring 1795, the library is now one of the largest in the world.
The pride of the Northern capital - "Public" (unofficial name) - by the decree of the President of Russia is listed in the historical and cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
Various names
The National Library (St. Petersburg) from its foundation until 1917 was called the Imperial Public Library. During the period of the existence of Soviet power, the name changed several times - until 1925 the largest book depository was called the Russian Public Library, from 1932 the library was named after Saltykov-Shchedrin, and then, for 70 years, until 1992, it was called the State Public Library. Throughout its existence, the oldest library in Russia has sought to collect funds and, most importantly, ensure free access to them.
For the benefit of enlightenment
The National Library (St. Petersburg) is now the second largest Russian book depository in terms of stock holdings. As of early 2012, the NLR had a fund of 36.5 million copies, including 400 thousand manuscripts, 7 thousand books published before 1501, the so-called incunabula. From the moment of its foundation to the present day, this library is a research, information and cultural center of the Russian Federation.
The enlightened empress (1766-1795) took almost 30 years to approve the draft presented to her. One and a half years before her death, she drew the line under the "brilliant century" of her reign with this wonderful act. Construction began immediately after the approval of the project and lasted for 15 years.
The first is in many ways
The beautiful building grew at the intersection of Sadovaya Street and Nevsky Prospekt, that is, in the heart of the capital. The first National Library was located in the building erected by the project of E. T. Sokolov (the Musical Theater is in the mansion of his work). St. Petersburg joined the civilized capitals of Europe. The indisputable advantages of the library include the fact that the first in our country manual on library classification was created to replenish and systematize its funds.
And the legislative act on compulsory delivery for the purpose of systematic replenishment of funds in the library of copies (in the amount of 2 units) of any printed matter published in Russia also owes its appearance to the first library.
The formation of unique funds
Its opening was planned for 1812, but for well-known reasons took place in 1814. The National Library (St. Petersburg), whose address is known not only to every inhabitant of the Northern capital, but also to many guests of the amazing city, is located on Ostrovsky Square, 1/3, took shape as a historical ensemble by 1900. It is worth noting such an interesting fact: the Zalussky Brothers Library, which was located in Warsaw and was one of the first public libraries in the world, formed the basis of the foreign fund of storage.
It could only be compared with the three royal libraries of Europe, located in London, Paris and Munich. In 1794, after the suppression of the uprising by Kostyushko Suvorov. 400, 000 volumes were declared the property of the Russian Empire. The pearl of the funds is the Voltaire library, which was bought by Catherine II in 1778 from Denis Voltaire, the niece and heiress of the great thinker. It was delivered to Russia by special ship and housed in the Hermitage, and by order of Alexander II it was transferred to the Imperial Public Library.
Center for Cultural Life and Innovation
In the first 30 years of the library’s existence alone, readers received more than 100, 000 books. Naturally, its funds were constantly increasing, as well as the number of visitors, and in 1832-1835 the second building was put into operation, the facade of which overlooked the Catherine Garden. And in the second half of the 19th century, funds, thanks to numerous book gifts, began to increase in an avalanche-like manner - over the 50s by 30 times compared with the entire first half of the 19th century. By 1917, the library had the largest number of manuscripts in Russia. The National Public Library (St. Petersburg) was the first in Russia where class privileges were abolished - women began to visit it. In 1860-1862 another building was built according to the project of V.I. Sobolevshchikov, which closed the inner courtyard around the perimeter. All the innovations in library science appeared here.
Time of adversity
From 1917 to 1930, vault funds were actively replenished through nationalized private collections and collections of monasteries and state institutions, although due to printed materials the growth of funds almost completely stopped and was restored only after 1930.
Library staff were subjected to repression, which continued even during the years of World War II, which caused huge damage to the funds. But even in the days of the blockade, the library worked and served readers.
The urgent need for new premises
The State National Library (St. Petersburg) was again renamed by decree of Boris Yeltsin in 1991. Now it is called the Russian National Library.
Needless to say, the buildings, whose age exceeded 200 years, dilapidated and became dangerous for the storage of many valuable specimens. Therefore, back in the 20th century, the question arose of building a new building that meets all the requirements of the present. In 1970, the decision to build a new building was made, and within 10 years a project for a new building was developed, and then it was built for the same number of years. And only in 2003 the first phase of the new building was opened (it included all the reading rooms and the book depository, which contained 10 million books at the time of opening).
The new building did not solve all the problems.
The National Library (St. Petersburg) moved to a new building (this library building became known as). Victory Park is a metro station located in close proximity (like Victory Park itself, located opposite) to the 9-story building of the new book depository, which can accommodate up to 12 million books. Reading rooms and other service rooms are located in buildings of lower storeys. The repository is the dominant feature of the entire project. A plot of 4.6 ha was allocated for this building. In the old library buildings located at 11 addresses, up to 22.7 million books were stored.
Naturally, they were overloaded. But the commissioning of a new modern library building did not solve all the problems - as before, parts of the funds are located at 9 addresses, sometimes in rented buildings, in disrepair. In 2009, an agreement was signed on the construction of a new 11-story book depository, which will be located next to the existing complex near Victory Park.
