The stolen library that became a Russian national treasure

Cultures · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 1794, the Russian Empire seized the famous Załuski Library in Warsaw. Today, its remnants form the foundation of the National Library of Russia, a massive collection that survived imperial transitions, revolutions, and the Siege of Leningrad.

The National Library of Russia (NLR) in Saint Petersburg traces its origins to a bold imperial decree. In May 1795, just eighteen months before her death, Catherine the Great approved the establishment of the Imperial Public Library. The institution's initial strength was significantly bolstered by the seizure of the Polish Załuski Library following the Partitions of Poland in 1794. While the collection brought 420,000 volumes to Russia, the transition was not without loss; many books were stolen or sold by Russian soldiers during transit. In a gesture of later diplomacy, the Russian SFSR returned 55,000 Polish-language titles to Poland in 1921.

The library's development was marked by both architectural ambition and legislative milestones. Architect Yegor Sokolov designed a Neoclassical building at the corner of Nevsky Avenue and Sadovaya Street, with construction spanning nearly fifteen years starting in 1796. In 1810, Emperor Alexander I passed Russia's first library law, which mandated that two legal copies of all Russian printed matter be deposited at the library. This ensured a continuous, comprehensive acquisition of the nation's intellectual output.

Throughout the 19th century, the library evolved from an imperial repository into a public resource. Under directors like Aleksey Olenin and Count Alexander Stroganov, the collection expanded to include rare treasures like the Ostromir Gospel and the Uthman Qur'an. By the 1850s, the reader community grew to include common people, and the rate of collection growth surged to five times the levels seen earlier in the century. Despite the upheaval of the Russian Revolution and the shift in national preeminence to Moscow, the NLR remains one of the world's major libraries and a vital center for research.

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