On May 27, 1995, the National Library of Russia (formerly
the Imperial Public Library) has celebrated its 200th anniversary. The idea of organising a state book storehouse
for common people belonged to Catherine the Great. It was
Catherine who approved the project after which architect
E. Sokolov built the library in St. Petersburg at the junction
of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street. Even the formation
of the library’s stocks was connected with Catherine
the Great. As early as 1795 she ordered Generalissimo
A. V. Suvorov to bring from Warsaw the collection of
Zalusski brothers. (Later, in 1923, all the books from this
collection were returned to Poland. Most of them perished
during the Second World War, among them 17 manuscripts
in various Oriental languages)...
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