The Russian State Library (RSL) is the largest library in Russia, the second largest library in the world. It was founded in 1862 and was a part of the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums. From the moment of foundation the Library has been receiving the legal deposit copies of all publications released in Russia. On January 24, 1924, it was renamed as the v. I. Lenin Russian Library. On February 6, 1925, it was transformed into the v. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, and since January 22, 1992, it is the Russian State Library.
Now the Russian State Library stores in its holdings more than 47 million books, documents and artefacts. More than 800 thousand people visit the library annually and about 100 thousand new library tickets are issued. There are 36 reading rooms in the RSL, where more than one and a half thousand people can work at the same time. Any citizen of Russia or other state above 14 years old can become a user of the Library.
