Nikolai Rubakin’s ex-libris is an open book placed against the backdrop of a library that very much resembles a temple. This proprietary label of Nikolai Rubakin is pasted on many books from his collection, which according to the will of the owner, was gifted to the Lenin Library (now the Russian State Library) in 1948. 

Encyclopaedically selected and systematically organised, this collection is based on the Auguste Comte’s classification of sciences; one third of it consists of unique editions submitted to the library for the first time. The collection includes A.I. Herzen’s illegal publications forbidden until 1917, brochures of the First Russian Revolution, non-commercial editions of State Council reports from 1870 to 1900, and others. There are books of almost all the major pre-revolutionary Russian publishing houses, complete or almost complete sets of Russian journals and other periodicals from 1860 to 1917 (including ‘Sovremennik’, ‘Russkoe slovo’, ‘Otechestvennye zapiski’, ‘Russkaya mysl’, ‘Vestnik Evropy’, ‘Russkoe bogatstvo’, and others).

There are numerous children’s books with illustrations by outstanding artists, popular science and educational materials.

You can find books from N. A. Rubakin’s collection in all sections of the exhibition. Please note them and evaluate the quality of the selection.