Tropovskii, Lev Naumovich

Born Feb. 12 (24), 1885, in Kremenchug; died Oct. 26, 1944, in Moscow. Soviet bibliographer and specialist in library science. Member of the CPSU from 1920.

In 1923, Tropovskii became head of the department of bibliography of the Central Committee of the Republic for Political Education (Glavpolitprosvet). In 1930 he became director of the Bibliographic Institute of the Association of State Book and Magazine Publishing Houses (OGIZ), which became the Critical-Bibliographical Institute in 1931. Beginning in 1932 he worked at the Scientific Research Institute of Library Science and Recommended Bibliography and served as head of the sub-department of bibliography at the Moscow Library Institute.

In his theoretical works and in speeches at bibliographical congresses and conferences, Tropovskii put forward important propositions on the party spirit of bibliography, on its significance in building socialism, and on the role of recommended bibliography. He established the need to create a nationwide library and bibliographical system of classification, and in 1934 he proposed a plan for a radical revision of the Universal Decimal Classification for public libraries. The plan was approved, and five editions of Tropovskii’s Tables were published between 1938 and 1946.