Military Libraries

in the USSR, cultural and instructional institutions providing armed forces personnel with literature and information about literature. Military libraries began to be organized with the formation of the Soviet armed forces.

Military libraries give servicemen a communist education, acquainting them with the wealth of socialistic and world culture. They also contribute to the military and political preparation of troops. Military libraries propagandize the classical works of Marxism-Leninism and sociopolitical, military, scientific and technological, and creative literature. The military library chain includes popular libraries at the soldiers’, sailors’, and officers’ clubs and Houses of Officers; libraries of military science at military academies and schools; and scientific and technical libraries at research institutes. There were three military library centers in the USSR in 1970: the Military Department of the Lenin State Library of the USSR (Moscow), functioning as the military and scientific center of the library of the Soviet Army and Soviet Navy; the library of the M. V. Frunze Central House of the Soviet Army (Moscow), serving as the methodology center of the popular military libraries; and the Central Naval Library (Leningrad), the basic military and scientific library and bibliographic center of the navy. The library centers have large stocks of books and an extensive information and bibliographic system. The libraries of the military academies and Houses of Officers of fleets and military districts also have large collections of books. The total stock of the Soviet armed forces military libraries was more than 90 million items in the beginning of 1969.