Nizhny Novgorod State Regional Universal Scientific Library

The Nizhny Novgorod Regional Library is the successor to the city public library, the decision to create which was adopted in 1831 .

On April 23 (10), 1830, the President of the Imperial Free Economic Society, Count N. S. Mordvinov , on behalf of the Society, turned to the Minister of the Interior A. A. Zakrevsky with a proposal to establish public libraries in provincial and district cities. On July 5, 1830, the circular order of the Minister of the Interior No. 777, “On Establishing Public Libraries for Reading in the Provinces,” was sent to the provincial cities of Russia, in which the governors were asked to find funds on the ground for their creation.

In 1831, during the election , the Nizhny Novgorod nobility decided to establish a public library in the city and decided “to donate 10,000 rubles in the form of a allowance for this institution”. For six years, a total of 1,434 rubles and 48 kopecks were collected at the library institution in total.

In 1837, during the elections, the nobility again discussed the issue of the library and decided to postpone its opening until a convenient time. In 1846, the military governor, Prince Urusov , characterizing the state of the library, noted that "no increment has been made for the library for 8 years."

The merchant Nizhny did not really like the book: as the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Gazette wrote, in 1839 there were 685 shops in Nizhny, and none of them were specialized bookstores. There were two establishments on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya where books could be found. As D. N. Smirnov wrote: “Those who wanted to buy a book or magazine kept their way to the pharmacy-perfumery shop on Pokrovka, which belonged to Kazan Tatar Pendrin. In the back of the store, behind display cases with corsets, cologne, corn plaster and Persian powder, several shelves with printed works were modestly sheltered. Pendrin did not hide the subsidiary value of his bookstore. They used unwanted or stale editions to wrap up the famous Kazan soap. ”

Another place where readers from Nizhny Novgorod could go was the coffee shop of confectioner Kemarsky, opened in 1840. The back of the coffee shop was reserved for the storage of printed matter. Up to 2000 books were offered to visitors of the coffee shop: novels, short stories and monthly “thick” magazines. With “tea with lemon”, “Viennese coffee” or “chocolate with waffles”, reading was free, and taking a book or magazine to the house required a one-time payment.

In 1844, in Nizhny Novgorod, the "Public Library for Books" was opened. Its owner was Stepan Prokhorovich Meledin , whose library activity began in Semenov , but was not successful there, as subsequently in Nizhny. Describing Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, the local historian Khramtsovsky wrote about the Meledin library: “Between Lykov congress and Bolotov pereulok, in the house of Bazilevsky, there is a library for reading Meledin, the best of private Nizhny Novgorod libraries: you can find not only all magazines and all works of modern literature in it , but also a huge collection of books and magazines of the past century, between which there are a lot of rare editions. It contains all the books up to 1700 titles, in 2100 copies and 5000 volumes. ” P.D. Boborykin recalled the library’s owner, Balakhninsky bribe meledine: “This was a typical figure. From the illiterate bourgeoisie of the county town, he became a real enlightener of the Lower; had a shop in his homeland, then started a library and ended his life as the head of the city public library, which grew from his book depository ... He knew every book and read, of course, two-thirds of the volumes of his library, then exclusively Russian ... he knew how to arouse our interest like no one else ” .

In the early 60s of the XIX century, the question of opening a library was again raised. By subscription, 1,600 silver rubles were collected. With the establishment of the city public library, the idea arose to combine it with the reading room of Meledin, who barely made ends meet. Although he was already 75 years old, Stepan Prokhorovich took up the construction of the library: for 900 rubles a year he pledged to join his collection to the new library and rent a room for this in a public house with heating, lighting, and also hire four clerks and a watchman.

On February 28, 1861, the city ​​public library was inaugurated in a public house on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya. The opening was attended by the governor, vice-governor and all subscribers. About two hours later, a litigation was held, after which one of the members of the committee involved in the construction of the library, E. I. Ragozin, made a speech about the meaning of the book. After that, most of those present were invited to dinner, given on this occasion by the local merchants at the Commercial Club.

In 1924, the existing libraries were merged on the basis of the City Public Library. The library was transformed into the provincial central public scientific library named after V.I. Lenin and moved to the building of the Alexander noble institute on Varvarskaya street. In 1930, it was given the status of a state library, in 1936 - a regional one.

The library fund began to form in 1830, when 212 books were sent from the Ministry of Education to establish the library. By the time it was opened in 1861, the fund contained about 1000 volumes donated by Nizhny Novgorod. So, for example, in 1851, the famous writer P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky donated 429 books, and in 1897, the son of the writer presented the city with his father's library - 1349 books. The reading room of Meledin at the time of unification with the fund in 1861 totaled about 8,000 volumes. From 1861 to 1915, more than 300 people donated thirteen thousand books, among which there were many valuable and rare editions. The library did not forget to thank its donors by naming their names in the reports and in the Book of Donations to the Nizhny Novgorod Public Library, publishing information about the gifts in the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Gazette .

In the 20s of the 20th century, the period of nationalization of private libraries, many rare books were received from former landowners' estates: the Philosophers, Pashkovs, Sheremetevs, Zhomeni, the famous scientist-chemist V.F. Lugin, Count A. Uvarov , an archive of the princes and princes of Georgia (with a lot of manuscripts).

Libraries of closed scientific and educational institutions, including the Arakcheevsky cadet corps , which included books personally belonging to the count from his estate Gruzino , joined; the richest seminary library (which was still begun by Archbishop Pitirim ) with its ancient repository; and other unique collections.

Currently, the library fund is about 4 million documents, of which:

• books - about 2 million;
• periodicals - more than 1 million;
• normative and technical documentation - about 700 thousand;
• music publications - more than 40 thousand

The pride of the library are rare books. Chroniclers , chronographs , synodics , unique singing ( hook ) collections containing works of ancient Russian musical culture.

The library contains the only known list of the “ Power Book ” of the 17th century in a long edition, a monument of Russian historical literature, which has an exact indication of the place and time of writing, enclosed in an acrostic .

Among the rarities are the Venetian editions of the writings of Quintus Horace Flaccus ( 1492/1493 ) and the Natural History of Pliny ( 1487 ) - the only copies in the entire territory of the former USSR.

The most valuable fund consists of the lifetime editions of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon - prominent figures of the Reformation , Erasmus of Rotterdam .

The pride of the library is the " Encyclopedia, or Explanatory Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts " by D. Didro and J. D'Alembert ( 1751 - 1765 ).

The earliest books of the Cyril font are the publications of Ivan Fedorov printed in various printing houses. A copy of the rarest edition of the Epistle of the Patriarch of Jeremiah ( Ostrog , 1583 ) is the most complete of the four surviving.

Old- print editions of a civilian font are widely represented: in the 18th century alone there are more than 3,000 copies. These are the famous: “Arithmetic” by L. Magnitsky ( 1703 ), “ Russian Grammar ” by M. Lomonosov ( 1755 ).

The first and lifetime editions of prominent Russian writers and poets are kept: G.R. Derzhavin , A.S. Pushkin , N.A. Nekrasov , I.S. Turgenev , as well as books notable for their artistic design, printing performance, and mastery of bookbinding . Among the special bibliophile publications, N. Kondakov ’s book “Byzantine enamels from the collection of A. V. Zvenigorodsky” ( 1892 ) is in the first place.

Autographed books of famous figures of the past and present are being collected. Among them, G. Derzhavin , N. Nekrasov , V. Zhukovsky , P. Melnikov-Pechersky , V. Dahl , M. Gorky , V. Solovyov , A. Koni , R. Diesel , G. Eiffel and others.

• Barbarian street
• Culture of Nizhny Novgorod

• Business card of the Nizhny Novgorod State Regional Universal Scientific Library
• Library official website
• Yu. G. Galay . The author of the first publication about the City of Kitezh on Svetloyarsky Lake S.P. Meledin