The Russian State Library (Russian: Российская государственная библиотека, romanized: Rossiyskaya gosudarstvennaya biblioteka) is the national library of Russia, located in Moscow. It is the largest in the country and the sixth largest in the world for its collection of books (17.8 million as of 28 April 2014[update]). It was named the V. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR from 1925 until it was renamed in 1992 as the Russian State Library.The library has over 275 km of shelves with more than 43 million items, including over 17 million books and serial volumes, 13 million journals, 350 thousand music scores and sound records, 150,000 maps and others. There are items in 247 languages of the world, the foreign part representing about 29 percent of the entire collection.Between 1922 and 1991 at least one copy of every book published in the USSR was deposited with the library, a practice which continues in a similar method today, with the library designated by law as a legal deposit library. I.
The comprehensive activities of the Russian State Library (RSL) in providing sociocultural support to participants in the special military operation (SVO) and members of their families are considered. Based on an analysis of the RSL’s practical experience, the key areas of work are presented: targeted support for employees who have participated in combat operations, charitable and humanitarian events, the organization of cultural and leisure events, the preservation of digital heritage, cultural and educational activities, and the development of the volunteer movement. Particular attention is paid to the systemic and multi-level nature of the initiatives being implemented and their organic integration into the system of all-Russian government programs. It is shown that the RSL acts not only as an executor but also as an initiator of the federal agenda, coordinating work with authorities and cultural institutions across the country. It is noted that the combination of traditional library forms of work with innovative practices makes it possible to record current events in the literary and fine arts, elevating them to the national level and ensuring the continuity of generations. In conclusion, it is determined that the RSL is capable of rapidly responding to current social challenges. The library successfully serves as a platform for instilling civic responsibility and social consolidation based on traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, and its accumulated experience can be recommended for implementation in other cultural and educational institutions.
The Annual Meeting of Heads of Federal and Central Regional Libraries of Russia was held at the Russian State Library (RSL) on November 18—19, 2025. It was organized by the Russian Ministry of Culture, the RSL, and the National Library of Russia. Leaders and specialists from 76 regions of the country, as well as international colleagues from the Republic of Serbia, Republika Srpska, and the Republic of Belarus, participated in the event. The main theme for 2025 was A Strong State Needs a Strong Library. The forum Libraries as an Integral Component of Public Policy and National Development attracted the attention of not only the library community, but also representatives of government agencies (the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Executive Office of the President of the Russian Federation, the Federation Council Committee of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Science, Education and Culture, the State Duma Committee on Culture), as well as socially oriented non-profit organizations, foundations, publishing houses, etc. Such attention to library activities emphasized the special significance of these social institutions for the country and their involvement in the dynamically developing general cultural space. The presentations repeatedly emphasized that the strategic areas of library activity are inextricably linked with the development directions of culture and the country as a whole. The ideological focus of library work is strengthening, and their responsibility is increasing. The meeting addressed issues of countering extremism and terrorism; new approaches in statistics, analytics, and evaluation of library activities; opportunities for productive dialogue and collaboration between libraries, government agencies, and businesses. Considerable attention was given to examining library activities within national, departmental, industry, and corporate projects. Parallel events included a meeting of the Cooperation Council of National Libraries of Russia, the Russian-Serbian Library Forum, and other events. The 2025 meeting was particularly large-scale, and its participants made it possible to advance the original goal of the event — to foster effective dialogue between government agencies and the country’s largest libraries to determine priorities for state library policy and future development directions for libraries.
Отчетная выставка Отделения графики РАХ «Графика-26» проходила с 4 февраля по 29 марта 2026 года в Галерее искусств Зураба Церетели (Москва, Пречистенка, 19). Отмечается высокий художественный уровень показанных работ, их стилистическое разнообразие, тяготение большинства экспонентов к проверенным временем графическим техникам, к традиционным жанрам пейзажа (именно пейзажные мотивы преобладают на выставке), натюрморта, портрета. Вместе с тем заметна и тенденция к размыванию четких жанровых границ. Экспозицию можно считать удачной и интересной, однако несколько разочаровывает ее предсказуемость, отсутствие ярких новаций, избыточная рациональность некоторых работ; слабо представлена графика прикладная.
Based on the analysis of the sales lists from the Archives of the State Book Printing Department (RGADA. F. 1182. Op. 1-3), this article examines the sales of the Gospels and Apostles at the Moscow Printing House Book Shop in the pivotal period of the mid-17th century, marked by the Patriarch Nikon’s church reform and a growing economic crisis. It is established that those factors caused a significant decline in the sales of printed materials. The main consumers of the above mentioned publications were the booksellers, who, despite the general decline in demand, increased their purchases and reinforced their presence by the late 1650s; there were also the members of the clergy (predominantly, the black clergy), whose purchases of the “newly corrected” Gospels and Apostles declined sharply, reflecting their attitude towards the ongoing reform. A comparative analysis revealed the differences in the consumer practices across the different social groups. The Gospels were often bought in bulk for resale or “construction”, while the Apostles were purchased individually, presumably for the personal use. The geographic distribution of those publications was generally similar, with the residents of Moscow and of the most developed urban centers north of the capital playing a particular role. The results of the research confirm the previous observations regarding the stability of the geographic distribution patterns of the Moscow-printed books, they also reveal the new aspects of the reaction of different social groups to the church reform.
The reviewer analizes the collection of essays by Valery P. Leonov under the title “Meditating on the library” [In Russian; “Vdumyvayas v biblioteku”]. The reviewer considers the publication to becomes a significant event for the library world which is determined by Leonov’s outstanding personality and the depth of his insight. This publication is a comprehensive panorama of the library phenomenon with its societal and cultural value. In the era of information chaos and digital overloading, Valery Leonov suggests the concept of the library as a consistent system introducing order into the boundless book universe and effectively resisting knowledge entropy. The book is a kind of intellectual challenge of reconsidering traditional ideas of the library in the modern society. V. Leonov examines fundamental problems of cultural heritage preservation, information access and building nation’s intellectual potential. Its insights, originality and relevance will make it an essential companion for the librarians, researchers, faculty and everyone who is connected with books and librarianship in the 21 st century.
