Russian State Library

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Old building of the Russian State Library, overlooking the Kremlin.

The Russian State Library (Российская государственная библиотека in Russian) is the national library of Russia, located in Moscow. It is the largest in the country and one of the largest in the world. It shouldn't be confused with the Russian National Library, located in St Petersburg.

The library was founded on July 1, 1862, as Moscow's first free public library named The Library of the Moscow Public Museum and Rumiantsev Museum, or The Rumiantsev Library. In 1925 – 1991 it was called V.I.Lenin State Library of the USSR and in 1992 it was renamed to its present name. Between 1922 and 1991 at least one copy of every book published in the USSR was deposited with the library; and the same practice holds currently, with the library being designated by law as the place to hold a "mandatory" copy of every book published in Russia.

At the present behind the scenes of the Russian State Library is over 275KM of shelves, number of items reach 42 million, including over 17 million books and serial volumes, 13 million journals, 350 thousands music scores and sound records, 150 thousands maps and others. There are items in 247 languages of the world, the foreign part being about 29 percent of the entire collection.

In front of the main entrance of the library is a monument to Fyodor Dostoevsky.