Pashkov Dom as a Leader in Professional Book Publishing: Following the 2025 Competitions

This review article analyzes the participation of the Russian State Library (RSL) publishing house Pashkov Dom in the most significant events of the Russian book community in 2025. Books published by Pashkov Dom are widely represented at major national and international book exhibitions and festivals, and they are constantly popular with readers and fairgoers. During the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland and the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, a publishing programme was successfully implemented aimed at preserving historical memory, presenting the library’s collections, publishing little-known wartime materials, documents, and memoirs of staff members of the State Library of the USSR named after V.I. Lenin (GBL, now the RSL), and more.

A large-scale publishing project, Pages of Victory: Leninka in 1941—1945: Chronicle. Documents. Memories, won the special category Best Library Publication Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of Victory at the 13th All-Russian Competition “Best Professional Book of the Year — 2025”. The book was also recognized at the National Competition “Book of the Year — 2025”. The RSL publishing house Pashkov Dom was awarded a special diploma in the HUMANITAS category for preparing and publishing a chronicle of the GBL’s multifaceted activities during the Great Patriotic War.

The two-volume The Great Librarian: Lyubov Borisovna Khavkina received several awards in 2025. The book won the Best Publication in the Field of Humanities category at the Best Books of the Year competition organized by the ASKI Book Publishers Association; it also won To Help the Professional category at the 13th All-Russian Competition “Best Professional Book of the Year — 2025”. Awarded a first-place diploma in the Best Library-Prepared Publication category at the Interregional Festival-Competition “Book of the Year in the Homeland of P.I. Tchaikovsky”; awarded a first-place diploma in the Best Library-Prepared Publication category at the Interregional Competition of Publishing Houses, Publishing Organizations, and Printing Enterprises “Book of the Year” at the 11th Interregional Festival of National Books “Reading World”.

In the 2025, the album The Masterpieces of the Russian State Library received a special diploma in “Book Art. Best Gift Edition” category at the Best Books of the Year competition organized by the ASKI Book Publishers Association. At the Interregional Festival-Competition “Book of the Year in the Homeland of P.I. Tchaikovsky”, the album was awarded a second-place diploma in the Best Artistic and Graphic Design of a Publication category. The RSL publishing house Pashkov Dom was awarded a finalist diploma in the 21st All-Russian Competition of Regional and Local History Literature “Small Homeland” for the publication of Saur-Mogila: From Legend to Feat. This book also took the second place in the History of the Region category of the 13th All-Russian Competition “Best Professional Book of the Year — 2025”.

For the RSL, one of its most important tasks is to support the integration of libraries in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Lugansk People’s Republic, and the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions into the cultural space of the Russian Federation. The RSL publishing house Pashkov Dom closely collaborates with libraries in new regions of our country. In addition to Saur-Mogila: From Legend to Feat (a joint project with the Donetsk Republican Universal Scientific Library named after N.K. Krupskaya), examples of this collaboration include the book My 1418 Days of War by G.B. Decalo (in collaboration with the Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library), “These Russian Boys...”: Literature of Fighting Lugansk (in collaboration with the Lugansk Republican Universal Scientific Library named after M. Gorky).

In 2025, the Ryazan Regional Universal Scientific Library named after M. Gorky awarded the Pashkov Dom a special diploma for its support of literary and historical projects and the formation of a unified cultural space in Russia.

1. Volkhonskaya E.N. Library in the Space of Books and Events of the 36th Moscow International Book Fair, Bibliotekovedenie [Russian Journal of Library Science], 2023, vol. 72, no. 5, pp. 465—477. DOI: 10.25281/0869-608X-2023-72-5-465-477 (in Russ.).

2. Volkhonskaya E.N. The Best Professional Publications: Results of the 12th All-Russian Contest of the Russian Library Association, Bibliotekovedenie [Russian Journal of Library Science], 2024, vol. 73, no. 5, pp. 469—479. DOI: 10.25281/0869-608X-2024-73-5-469-479 (in Russ.).

3. Stolyarov Yu.N., Khaitseva L.B. (eds.) Velikii bibliotekar’. Lyubov’ Borisovna Khavkina: v 2 t. [The Great Librarian. Lyubov Borisovna Khavkina: in 2 volumes]. Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2024, vol. 1, 437 p.

4. Stolyarov Yu.N., Khaitseva L.B. (eds.) Velikii bibliotekar’. Lyubov’ Borisovna Khavkina: v 2 t. [The Great Librarian. Lyubov Borisovna Khavkina: in 2 volumes]. Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2024, vol. 2, 437 p.

5. Duda V.V., Samarin A.Yu., Samoilenko N.Yu. (eds.) Shedevry Rossiiskoi gosudarstvennoi biblioteki [The Masterpieces of the Russian State Library], Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2024, 353 p.

6. Samarin A.Yu, Shibaeva E.A., Ryzhkova N.O. Projects of the Russian State Library for the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Bibliotekovedenie [Russian Journal of Library Science], 2025, vol. 74, no. 3, pp. 199—213. DOI: 10.25281/0869-608X-2025-74-3-199-213 (in Russ.).

7. Samarin A.Yu. Preservation of Historical Memory in the Publishing Projects of the Russian State Library 2023—2024, Materialy XI Mezhdunarodnogo kongressa “Biblioteka kak fenomen kul’tury”, posvyashchennogo 80-letiyu osvobozhdeniya Belarusi ot nemetsko-fashistskikh zakhvatchikov, Minsk, 24—25 oktyabrya 2024 g. [Proceedings of the 11th International Congress “Library as a Cultural Phenomenon”, Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belarus from Nazi Invaders, Minsk, October 24—25, 2024]. Minsk, 2024, pp. 22—27 (in Russ.).

8. Samarin A.Yu. (ed.) Stranitsy Pobedy: Leninka v 1941—1945 godakh: Khronika. Dokumenty. Vospominaniya [Pages of Victory: Leninka in 1941—1945: Chronicle. Documents. Memories]. Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2025, 244 p.

9. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On Awarding the Order of Lenin to the State Library of the USSR Named After V.I. Lenin”: March 29, 1945, Izvestiya. 1945, no. 75 (8685), March 30, p. 1. (in Russ.).

10. Alieva E.B., Govorova I.A., Yushkovets V.G. (eds.) Saur-Mogila: ot legendy k podvigu [Saur-Mogila: From Legend to Feat]. Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2025, 195 p.

11. Dvorkina M.Ya. Historian of the Russian State Library. In Memory of L.M. Koval (1933—2020), Bibliotekovedenie [Russian Journal of Library Science], 2020, vol. 69, no. 2, pp. 167—172. DOI: 10.25281/0869-608X-2020-69-2-167-172 (in Russ.).

12. On Preparations and Holding of Celebrations Marking the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the 1941—1945 Great Patriotic War: Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 31, 2023, no. 568, Sobranie zakonodatel’stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation], 2023, no. 32, part II, art. 6341 (in Russ.).

13. On the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland in the Russian Federation: Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of January 16, 2025, no. 28, Ofitsial’nyi internet-portal pravovoi informatsii [Official Internet Portal of Legal Information]. Available at: http:// publication.pravo.gov.ru/document/0001202501160039 (accessed 06.10.2025) (in Russ.).

14. Dekalo G.B. Moi 1418 dnei voiny [My 1418 Days of War]. Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2025, 77 p.

15. Bobrov G.L., Nekrasovsky M.V., Rastorgueva N.A. (eds.) “Ehti russkie mal’chiki...”: Literatura srazhayushchegosya Luganska [“These Russian Boys...”: Literature of Fighting Lugansk]. Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2024, 321 p.