Russia.-The Gosudarstvennaya Publichnaya Biblioteka at Leningrad, formerly the Imperial public library at St. Petersburg, the State library of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, is perhaps the largest library in the world. In 1910 it had about 1.800,00o printed vols. and 34,00o mss., as well as large collections of maps, autographs, photographs, etc. It is now said to contain 4,566,645 printed books and 240,000 mss., and autographs. It originated in the books seized by Peter the Great in Courland in 1714; the library, however, only attained to the first rank in by the acquisition of the famous Zaluski collection. The Zaluski library was formed by the Polish count, Joseph Zaluski, who col lected 200,000 vols., added to by his brother Andrew, bishop of Cracow. At his death it was left to the Jesuit college at Warsaw; on the suppression of the order it was taken by the Commission of Education; and in 1795 it was transferred by Suvarov to St. Petersburg as a trophy of war. It then had 260,000 printed vols. and ro,000 mss., but in consequence of the dispersal of many works among other institutions, hardly 238,00o vols. remained in 1810. After the World War the Zaluski collection was returned to Poland. By a law passed in 1810 two copies of every Russian publication must be deposited in the library. Very many valuable special collections have been added, such as the Tolstoy Slavonic collection (1830), Tischendorf's mss. (1858), the Dolgorousky oriental mss. (1859), and the Firkowitsch Hebrew (Karaite) col lection (1862-63), and the national mss. of Karamzin (1867). Some departments are thus exceedingly rich, while others are comparatively meagre.
The glory of the mss. is the Codex Sino.iticus of the Greek Bible, brought from the convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai by Tischendorf in 1859. Other important biblical and patristic codices are to be found among the Greek and Latin mss. ; the Hebrew mss. include some of the oldest extant, and the Samaritan collection is one of the largest; the oriental mss., and the French mss. (notably the historical) are of great value. The Biblioteka Vsemirnoj Literatury (1919) has about 90,00o and the University library (1925) 711,000 volumes.
The library at the Hermitage was founded by the empress Catherine II.'s purchase of Voltaire's and Diderot's books and mss. In 1861 it possessed 150,000 vols., of which nearly all but those on the history of art were then transferred to the Imperial library. There are many large and valuable libraries attached to the Government departments in Leningrad, and most of the academies and colleges and learned societies are provided with libraries. The national library published in 1928 material for a directory of the learned libraries of the city.
The second largest library in Russia is the Lenin Memorial Library in Moscow (formerly Rumyantzov Museum collection, renamed after Lenin's death in 1924). It has over three million volumes, is rich in early printed books, Russian history, and mss.
The latter number 5,000, including many ancient Slavonic codices, historical documents and the archives of the masonic lodges in Russia between 1816 and 1821; catalogues of the mss. and of some special collections are printed. The University at Moscow (1755) has a library of over 310,000 vols., and the Duchovnaja academy has 120,000 volumes. The (formerly Imperial) Russian Historical museum (1875-83) in Moscow contains nearly 200,000 volumes. Among Russian university libraries mention may be made of Kazan (1804), Kharkov (1805), Kiev (1832) and Odessa (1865). There are also communal or public libraries at Kharkov (1886), Odessa (1830) in the Ukraine, and many other towns. The Soviet Government has established many popular libraries. The Lenin Institute of Library Science at Moscow trains librarians and has published text-books.
Poland.-The Jagiellonska library at Cracow (1400) 524,00o vols. and 6,711 mss., at present serves as national library for Poland. As the headquarters of the Government is at Warsaw, however, it is now debated whether all publications concerning Poland should be housed in the National Library there (1917) 91,532 vols., or whether they should be divided between the two cities. It is suggested that the Jagiellonska library be made into a historical collection containing books to the year 1918, the date of the reconstitution of the Polish State, and that the Warsaw library be confined to accessions since that date, and organized on the lines of the Deutsche Biicherei at Leipzig. A bibliographical institute will be attached to the Warsaw collection and will dis seminate information through a special bureau, the functions of which are at present fulfilled by the Jagiellonska and by the Warsaw section of the libraries of the Ministry of Public In struction. The National Library at Warsaw has also been en riched by the famous Zaluski collection, described in the para graph on Russian libraries. The Warsaw university library (1817) has 730,000 volumes. Besides the Cracow and Warsaw libraries, that of Posen (formerly Kaiser Wilhelm Bibliothek) may be men tioned. Lemberg (Lwow) has three noteworthy collections housed in the University library, the Ossolinsky library and Museum and the Bavorovsky library. Chwalewik's Les Collections polonaises (2 vols.) gives a complete list of Polish libraries, and 427 libraries are listed in the Mianowski Foundations Year Book (1927), pp. 162-221. There is no general catalogue, but its place is taken at present by Charles Estreicher's Bibliografia Polska (187o- ). The Lett city of Vilna also has a public library (1856).
Elsewhere in Eastern Europe.-Latvia has the city and university libraries of Riga (with 375,000 and 60,000 vols.). Estonia has the university library of Tarfu (Dorpat 1806) with 270,000 vols., and the city library of Tallinn.