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The National Library of Russia

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One of the rooms of the Manuscript Department

The formation of the library's stocks began at the same time as the construction of a building to house them, in the very center of St.- Petersburg, at the junction of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street. As early as 1795 on the Empress's orders the collection of the Zaluski brothers was brought from Warsaw, and a little later, through the efforts of Count Alexander Stroganov, the remarkable manuscript collection assembled by Piotr Dubrovsky, a former official at the Russian embassy in Paris, was obtained. The latter acquisition led in 1805 to the establishment of a special section within the library - the "Depot of Manuscripts". While Stroganov was still director it was enriched with some of the most precious Russian manuscripts. Among them was the oldest of all known Russian manuscript books, the Ostromir Gospel ('1056-57), the Lavrenhevskaya Chronicle (1377) which contains the beginnings of Russian historiography, the beautiful Kiev Psalter and many other rarities.