Activities of the Bibliographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences during the Great Patriotic War

On the eve of anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the authors turned to the previously unexplored subject, namely, the work of bibliographers of the USSR Academy of Sciences for the defence of the country. Before, the professional work of bibliographers during the War was not studied in this aspect that determines the relevance and scientific novelty of the topic under consideration. The purpose of the article is to show that during the War bibliography turned from ideological tool of the Party to form a new type of person into the only reliable information tool for solving the most important warfare and national economic problems in the wartime conditions.

The article describes the work of the Commission for compilation of bibliography by countries, which was formed under the Section of the special libraries network of the USSR Academy of Sciences in May 1942. Based on the unique archival documents, the authors show for the first time how bibliographers of the libraries of the USSR Academy of Sciences in cooperation with colleagues from the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR, the Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, the Central Polytechnic library and other major libraries of the country managed to provide the military leadership, scientists and specialists of the national economy with reliable timely information on problems that arose in wartime, up to making strategic decisions in the field of planning defence, offensives and radical reorganization of industry and agriculture. The authors conclude that the decent work of bibliographers in the war years, providing information for any level of decision-making, played its role in approaching the Victory. This is the basis for understanding the current role of library specialists, their professionalism and responsibility in the information support for the development of Russia.

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