Library of the Academy of Sciences: where is it? Description, location map

The Library of the Academy of Sciences is the largest institution in Russia, collecting works of the press. It was founded in 1714 by the decree of Peter I. The main purpose of this library was the access to books for all residents of the state, aspiring to European education. Today in the walls of the institution there are about twenty million books.

Base

The Library of the Academy of Sciences is located in St. Petersburg, on the Vasilievsky Island. Its address: Stock Exchange, house 1 (the nearest metro station is Sportivnaya). But the history of this institution is long. The library has repeatedly changed its location. The building it occupies today was built at the beginning of the First World War.

In the year of foundation, the fund had no more than two thousand books. The library itself was originally located in the Summer Palace. But four years later the organizers moved her to the Kikiny Chamber. In this Baroque-style building, the library accepted its first visitors. The institution was moved to the Vasilievsky Island in the forties of the eighteenth century. But then it was located in the old building. The new building, in which today is the largest book fund of the country, began to build in the early twentieth century.

The first director of the library was Robert Karlovich Areskin, who hired Johann Schumacher as librarian. He was obliged to monitor the systematic replenishment of the fund. Subsequently, Schumacher became director. The Library of the Academy of Sciences is the official name of the institution. But when it appeared, it is for certain unknown.

First visitors

Priority right to use the books of the fund was assigned to academicians. But other educated people also visited the library. This mode of operation was in effect until the beginning of the seventies. The first readers were the most advanced people of the state, namely the Companions of the Emperor: Theophanes Prokopovich, Athanasius Kondoidi, Ya. V. Bruce, AI Osterman.

The fund of printed books under Peter I numbered about sixteen thousand publications. However, literature in Greek and Old Slavonic languages was not taken into account. Such books were stored in a separate room. Under Elizaveta Petrovna, access was also granted to these works.

The news of the opening of the Russian library spread throughout Europe. One of the first to mention it in his works was the great enlightener Denis Diderot.

The first fire

The world-famous library burned three times. The first fire occurred in 1747. Due to the prescription of the years, little is known about this event. The library was located in the building of the Kunstkamera. It is known that the fire destroyed the Gottorp globe and the tower of the building. There were not many books in those days. Therefore, the damage was small, compared with the subsequent fires.

Library in the XIX century

In the nineteenth century, a charter was drafted, according to which the Library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg was a research institution. She did not fulfill educational and educational functions from now on. The charter also clearly formulated the structure. Each of the funds had to be replenished regularly. In order to provide the library with new publications, each printing house was obliged to send books regularly. From each edition - one copy. In the event that this condition was not met, the employees of the printing house paid a fine.

New buildings

In the middle of the nineteenth century, within the institution, separate academic libraries began to be formed. Among them were book funds under museums. Leading scientists of that time became organizers and heads: L.L. Fleury, E.K. Berg, I.F. Brandt.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the archive of the Library of the Academy of Sciences began to lack space. There was nowhere to place new book funds. Soon they built a new building.

Library at the beginning of the 20th century

The beginning of the last century was marked by a significant increase in staff. Also, the amount to purchase new books, allocated from the treasury, has become more significant. However, repairs were not carried out. The heating system remained extremely dilapidated. And in 1901 there was a fire that destroyed more than a thousand valuable volumes. This is a sad event, however, accelerated the process of building a new building, the project of which belongs to the architect R. R. Marfeld. It is this building that today is known throughout the world and stores a myriad of valuable scientific books.

Building on Birzhevaya Street

The library of the Russian Academy of Sciences was to be placed in a new building in 1914. But historical events slowed down the fund's move to new premises. The war began. The building was used by decree of the Military Ministry as an evacuation hospital.

However, the Library of the Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg) enjoyed wide popularity and high scientific authority. So, despite the general chaos and devastation in the country, it still received a new building and again became a reliable storehouse of book funds and archives.

Historical events, of course, influenced the development of the library. The funds regularly received literature of a revolutionary nature. But most importantly, in the early twenties, the library received a lot of manuscripts, private collections and various old literature from monasteries, churches and other liquidated institutions. In 1924, the total fund amounted to more than three million volumes.

Library in the 1930s

In the early thirties, the Scientific Library of the Academy of Sciences was reorganized. The fund was replenished at the expense of branches located in other cities of the European part of the country. In the institution there was also a department dedicated to the restoration and preservation of old documents. In the mid-thirties the Library of the Academy of Sciences consisted of the following divisions:

• Department of Acquisition;
• Processing department;
• Department of systematization;
• Service department;
• Scientific bibliographic department;
• Moscow branch.

Library in the years of the blockade

The library of the Academy of Sciences, whose books are a scientific and cultural heritage, was prepared for the evacuation as early as July of 1941. But the front was approaching too quickly to Leningrad. The return to the rear was not possible. In August, most of the books were moved to the ground floor, laid with sand and earth.

As a result of the bombings, which lasted two years, the library's premises have suffered significantly. During the siege of Leningrad in the institution there were about one hundred and fifty employees. Most of them died. Reading rooms continued to function in wartime. But the townspeople visited them for obvious reasons infrequently. The whole activity of the institution was resumed a year before the Great Victory, when the regular readers and library staff finally returned from evacuation.

Fire of 1988

The most terrible tragedy in the history of the library was in February 1988. The fire destroyed hundreds of thousands of books and periodicals. In addition, many publications suffered as a result of fire extinguishing. To dry the books, various methods and methods were used. They were dried and warm air, and high frequency currents, and in vacuum chambers.

Scientists of the city came to the rescue. It was necessary to develop emergency methods to combat mold. Avoid contamination of the funds with fungal formations succeeded. However, not only residents of the country joined the rescue efforts, but also the world community. The library and the Academy of Sciences supported the finances, materials and equipment.

The circumstances of the fire

The fire, in which the most valuable cultural monuments were under threat, first of all covered the newspaper fund. It happened on the evening of the fourteenth of February. By morning the firemen managed to localize the fire. But soon a new one appeared, already at the other end of the building. And this time the fire was much more powerful. An hour later, when it became obvious that the fire would drag on for a long time, all the entrances to Birzhevaya Street were blocked. The upper floors of the building burned. The fire was visible even from the most remote areas of the city. The fire could not be extinguished for more than ten hours.

A criminal case was opened on the fact of the fire. The main version boiled down to the fact that one of the employees, Konstantin Butyrkin, allegedly did not put out the cigarette butt, throwing it into the urn. The suspect strongly denied the guilt. The prosecution did not have any evidence.

New versions appeared later. A few months later, a scandal broke out in the press. The library staff was accused not only of negligence, but also of the theft of books, and even of deliberate arson. None of the versions have been proven. However, in support of the assumption of willful arson, the fact that the fire flared up almost simultaneously in different parts of the building. The case was closed because there was no evidence. But even today the mystery of the fire worries many. Evidence for this is a number of television programs and documentaries dedicated to this problem.

History of the building

The house at: Birzhevaya Street, house 1, as mentioned above, was erected three years before the revolution. The military hospital was located in the building, which was originally intended for the library, for more than ten years. After moving to a new building, the book fund was divided into the following departments:

• The Asian Museum.
• Institute of Slavic Studies.
• Institute books, documents and letters.

Since 1960, for over twenty years, the construction of additional buildings has been carried out.

Nowadays the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences has over nineteen million copies. Among them - both domestic and foreign publications. The Fund is regularly replenished. The damage caused by the 1988 fire was partly compensated by the assistance of other library institutions in the country. In 2007, funds were allocated from the state budget for the reconstruction of the building.

Director of BAN

Famous leaders of the library were ID Schumacher, II Yakovkin, GA Chebotarev. At the moment the director of the Library of the Academy of Sciences is Leonov Valery Pavlovich. This man has been leading the BAN since 1988.

Leonov proposed a new concept of library science. Scientific director of the BAN combines not only with the leadership of the institution, but also with the training of scientific personnel. Since 2002, Leonov is an Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation. His administrative and scientific work has received a worthy assessment not only in Russia, but also abroad.