Formation of the Digital Collection “Books of the Imperial House of Romanovs” in the National Electronic Library

Abstract

The article is devoted to the creation of the collection “Books of the Imperial House of Romanovs” in the National Electronic Library (NEB) within the framework of the project “Book Monuments”. The general approach to the designation of imperial and grand ducal collections is based on the analysis of presence of the books in the collections of the Russian State Library (RSL). To justify the decision, the author considers the history of private book collections that belonged to the Romanovs before 1917 and their fate after the revolution. The book collections of representatives of the family in historical and scientific literature are divided into imperial and grand ducal collections. After the revolution, the significant part of the libraries located in the residences of St. Petersburg and its suburbs were moved to the Winter Palace. Some collections remained in the owners’ palaces and were distributed and moved to different organizations. After the decision was made to allocate the books to different organizations, the significant part of them was sent first to the Rumyantsev Museum, and then to the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR (now the Russian State Library). After registration, the books were distributed between different parts of the holdings without taking into account the ownership of the previous owners; and at present, it is not possible to restore them as a single complex. Based on the study and analysis of the archival documents of the Russian State Library, which had covered the receipt and allocation of the books in quite a detail, it was decided to combine all the books into a single electronic collection, since only this decision will allow getting together the copies of imperial and grand ducal books on a single resource and making them available for general access and study. The NEB’s capabilities allow providing information to specialists in the humanities and a wide range of users.