Russian National Library

The Russian State Library, the largest library in Europe and the second largest in the world after the United States Library of Congress, was founded in the 1860s as the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library, the national library of the former Soviet Union. -The library was founded in the 1860s as the Saltykov State Public Library, the national library of the former Soviet Republic of the Russian Federation, and was renamed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in March 1992, and is now part of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The library is responsible for collecting, preserving and making available to society a comprehensive collection reflecting human knowledge, preserving all Russian printed materials, manuscripts and other documents such as scientific proceedings.