The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Russian State Library
(RSL), Russia’s national library, located in Moscow; the largest library in Europe and the second largest in the world (the Library of Congress is the largest). Moscow’s first public library, the RSL was founded in 1862 as the library portion of the Moscow Public Museum and Rumyantsev Museum. In 1924 it was renamed for V. I. Lenin, who, after the Russian Revolution, played an important role in its reorganization, supplementing its original collection with the contents of many confiscated private collections. The following year it became the country’s national library. Renamed the Russian State Library in 1992, it has its main headquarters in a grand collonaded building constructed from the 1930s through the 50s. Russia’s national book depository, the RSL now has a collection of more than 41 million items in Russian and 247 other languages. It includes some 16.5 million books and brochures, 13 million journals, 650,000 newspapers, and 1.2 million serials. Among its specialized collections are maps, printed music, manuscripts, rare and precious books, and art publications.
