Gorky Research Library

of the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, one of the oldest scholarly libraries and the largest library of an institution of higher learning in the USSR. The library was founded in 1755. Since 1920 the library has been receiving a mandatory deposit copy of domestic publications. As of Jan. 1, 1970, the library’s collection amounted to over 6.1 million items. The library possesses more than 40 personal book collections of outstanding Russian scholars and public figures (M. O. Kovalevskii, T. N. Granovskii, the Decembrist N. M. Murav’ev, D. P. Syreishchikov, N. K. Gudzii, and others), an extremely valuable collection of Slavic manuscripts and first printings of books, incunabula, and palaeotypes.

The library as a whole consists of a fundamental library, subject libraries for the various departments, libraries of textbooks, and special reading rooms. Each year the library is used by 44,000 readers. The library carries on a great deal of scholarly work and publishes major bibliographical works on the natural sciences and the humanities. At the library is the central Methodological Office, which carries on the methodological direction of libraries of institutions of higher learning throughout the country.