About

A guided tour of the Russian National Library — founded on the decree of Empress Catherine the Great in 1795 as the first public library in Russia. The collection now numbers around 40 million items and includes rare literary monuments: the 11th-century Ostromir Gospel, the earliest surviving dated Slavic manuscript book, and one of the largest collections of Western European medieval and early-modern incunabula in Russia. The Neoclassical building on Ostrovsky Square is itself an important monument. The tour covers the library's history, the physical collection, and the specific role of the institution across three centuries of Russian intellectual life. In Russian; the material is genuinely substantial for visitors with any interest in book history.