National Library of Russia

The article examines a handwritten autobiographical work titled “The Notes, or a Journal Kept by State Councilor Ivan Tsebrikov from 1768 Regarding the Beginning of the Russo-Turkish War between Russia and the Ottoman Porte, about the Crimea and the Four Nogai Hordes, and Other Things”. The author, Ivan Maksimovich Tsebrikov, served as a collegiate registrar and worked in the regimental chancellery of Count P. A. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky. As an eyewitness and participant in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 and the events surrounding the Russian Empire’s annexation of Crimea, I. M. Tsebrikov provides a detailed account of his experiences. This study presents a previously unknown version of the work, preserved in the State Historical Museum (SHM), alongside a corresponding copy in the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AFPRE). The objective of the research is to clarify the nature of the relationship between the two texts: whether they are copies of a single work, two editions, or entirely independ ent literary pieces. A codicological and textual comparison of the two manuscripts indicates that they are simultaneous authorial editions intended for different audiences. The manuscript from the AFPRE is regarded as the official version created for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the “Notes...” from the SHM were directed toward descendants and include portraits of the Tsebrikov brothers set against the backdrop of significant national events. The “Notes…” of I. M. Tsebrikov represent a remarkable instance in Russian memoir literature from the late 18th to the early 19th century, showcasing two simultaneous authorial editions of the exact text.

For the first time in Russia, a clearly expressed functional effect of supercritical fluid of carbon dioxide in the presence of alcohol as a cosolvent is demonstrated on 12 species of paper-degrading micromycetes. To estimate the possibility of further use of this method for disinfection treatment of library and museum collections by pure supercritical carbon dioxide and with the addition of ethanol as a cosolvent in concentrations of 2 and 4%, the efficiency of various modes is analyzed using paper samples with foci of biodamage caused by the micromycete Aspergillus niger. It is shown that pure supercritical carbon dioxide leads to a minimal decrease in the content of microorganisms on the surface of samples. Treatment in supercritical carbon dioxide with the addition of 4% ethanol in the stirring mode allows for a high degree of reduction in sample contamination and can be considered as a promising method for processing paper documents.

Storefront churches have historically served as vital centers for spiritual, social, and cultural life in marginalized urban communities, especially among African Americans during and after the Great Migration. Yet, their visibility and voice are increasingly threatened by the rise of mega churches and the accompanying shifts in urban land-use enforcement and zoning policies. This paper synthesizes Alicea Peyton’s research on the evolution of land-use enforcement and its impact on storefront churches with T.D. Wilson’s Evolution in Information Behavior Modeling to explore how the erasure of storefront churches’ histories affects not only physical spaces but also the collaborative and individual information behaviors critical to community cohesion and identity. We argue that the sidelining of storefront churches disrupts localized knowledge sharing, leadership development, and cultural memory, thereby diminishing the community’s capacity for self-representation and resilience.

In the light of the tasks of revealing the historical truth about the Great Patriotic War (1941—1945), the work of the bibliographers of the National Library of Russia (the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library) during the war, especially during the Siege of Leningrad, is reviewed, and their multifaceted bibliographic activities (including scientific ones) are presented. The article analyzes the reference and bibliographic services provided by representatives of the rear services and the front, the preparation of literature lists based on requests from organizations and individual readers, and the special importance of bibliographic information on military topics during that period, as well as in order to overcome the consequences of wounds and starvation. The names of the authors of the most significant bibliographic manuals are indicated. The steadfastness of the bibliographers who worked in the library and made, as far as possible, an invaluable contribution to ensuring the Great Victory was emphasized.

The structure of micromycete communities in the library aerial environment was investigated in 57 Russian cities located in seven federal districts (Northwestern, Central, Southern, Volga, Ural, Siberian, and Far Eastern). A total of 107 micromycete species belonging to 41 genera were isolated and identified. Due to mostly similar conditions, the aerial ecosystem of internal spaces of the library storage facilities was relatively stable, with moderate diversity and high evenness, as was confirmed by the relevant indices: the Shannon index varied from 2.7 to 3.4, the McIntosh diversity index, from 22.7 to 140.8, and the Menhinick index, from 2.1 to 3.0. The Simpson’s dominance index and the Berger–Parker index did not exceed 0.11 and 0.24, respectively. The McIntosh and Pielou’s evenness indices were 0.71–0.78 and 0.79–0.85, respectively. High similarity of the taxonomic structures, independent of climatic conditions of the studied regions, was revealed, as was confirmed by the values of the Stugren–Radulescu and Morisita–Horn coefficients: 0.08‒0.77 and 0.04‒0.47, respectively. The typical members of the studied mycobiota were Aspergillus versicolor (7.5‒14.3), Cladosporium cladosporioides (17.5‒40.5), C. herbarum (0.8‒53.6), and Penicillium aurantiogriseum (6.5‒32.4). Most other species were scarce, with frequencies of occurrence not exceeding 7.1%.

The review of the All-Russian scientifi c conference “23rd Pavlenkov Readings. Book business in Russia in the 19th — early 20th century”, held in the Russian National Library on 17—19 October 2023, presents the reports delivered at the plenary session and four sections: “Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov (1823—1886) — publisher, publicist, poet: to the 200th anniversary of his birth”, “History of publishing”, “History of book collections” and “History of censorship”. The participants of the readings were researchers from St Petersburg, Moscow, Moscow region, Nizhny Novgorod, Orel, Samara, Khabarovsk. The speakers represented various scientifi c institutions: libraries, universities, museums. Among them there were both experienced book historians and novice researchers who touched upon various aspects of the history of the book in their reports.

The article deals with the riots in the Svisloch gymnasium that occurred after the closure of the trial of the Philarets and Philomaths (1824), which was initiated by N. N. Novosiltsev, as well as about possible interpretive models that make it possible to supplement the knowledge existing in Polish and European historiography about the reasons that prompted the tsarist government to carry out such a brutal reprisal against Polish youth. A valuable source on the history of secret societies in the Svisloch Gymnasium, which was not taken into account when publishing documents of the investigative case, correspondence of participants in student unrest and other ego-documents is introduced into scientific circulation. This source, extracted from the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA = RSHA, Fund 1409, Inventory 1, storage unit 1300, papers of His Imperial Highness Tsesarevich Konstantin Pavlovich), which makes it possible to judge the unrest in Svisloch and draw a conclusion about the punishment that the students suffered, was ignored by researchers, since chronologically fell into the scope of the Filaret and Philomat case, and the rioters were not brought to trial and were not among those exiled deep into the empire.

This article reviews the materials of a multi-author monograph dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the literary association “Serapion brothers”. This project has united researchers from Saratov, Moscow, St Petersburg, considered to be renowned experts in the history of Russian literature of the 1920–1930s. The research is based on the unique documents from the Serapion brothers’ legacy being introduced into the scientific circulation (K. Fedin, Vs. Ivanov, N. Tikhonov, V. Kaverin, I. Gruzdev). The documents are kept in the funds of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), Literary Museum of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (The Pushkin House), National Library of Russia (Saint Petersburg), State Museum of K. A. Fedin (Saratov). Their interpretation allows to fill the factual gaps in the history of the association and in the biographies of its members, to define the system of creative and interpersonal relationships between them more precisely. The monograph’s intention is unified by the material itself, by the general methodological principles of working with archive materials, by the presence of several recurrent plots, appearing in different articles. Among them there is a plot, rather appropriate for the anniversary edition, about different anniversaries of Serapion brothers, discussions of Eurasianism, of the nature of genre, of the “red Pinkerton”. The issues of censorship and self-censorship, questions of text studies and principles of ego-documents’ publication hold a prominent place on the pages of the monograph. These questions are not only theoretical, they have a rather practical significance in preparing the full texts of K. A. Fedin’s diaries for publication, on which the creative team is working. The monograph itself manifests the implementation of the proclaimed principles, as it is supplemented by wide-ranging reference materials, which offer great opportunities of further research of the literary phenomenon of Serapion brothers.