Library Activity within the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR: at the Origins of the State Scientific Library (1918—1927)

One of the first large libraries, created in Russia after the 1917 revolution, was the State Scientific-Technical and Economic Library (SSTEL) of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the RSFSR (from 1923 — of the USSR). The library was organized June 17, 1918. N.P. Gorbunov, the Chairman of the Collegium of the Scientific and Technical Department, took the most important part in its formation. By 1924, the library holdings consisted of 80 000 books, among which were the country’s only full sets of Russian and foreign journals, books on technology, engineering, exact and natural sciences. The richest acquisition of the State Scientific-Technical and Economic Library became the large library of the former Society for the Advancement of Experienced Sciences and their Practical Applications named after Kh.S. Ledentsov, housed in a specially equipped library building. The “Ledentsovskaya” library became the Central Department of SSTEL, and its location near five Moscow Universities made it the center of attraction for students-readers. The SSTEL success in 1922—1926 was associated with the active work of its Head, M.V. Panov, as well as the support of Academician V.N. Ipatyev, the Chairman of the Collegium of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Supreme Council of the National Economy.

In 1923—1926 in the Supreme Council of the National Economy appeared and began to dominate another library center, the Central Library of the Supreme Council of National Economy, headed by the intellectual revolutionary L.A. Schlossberg. Having received its status of the main one in the system of the entire Supreme Economic Council, the Central Library, like SSTEL, absorbed many of the book collections, inherited from the abolished institutions of the tsarist time. September 13, 1927, on the basis of these two libraries, there was established the unified State Scientific Library of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Supreme Council of National Economy, which existed then, under the leadership of various People’s Commissariats and Ministries, until October 1958.

1. Gosudarstvennaya nauchnaya biblioteka. K sorokaletiyu so dnya osnovaniya (1918—1958): sb. statei [State Scientific Library. To the Fortieth Anniversary of its Foundation (1918—1958): collected articles]. Moscow, 1959, 280 p.

2. Protokoly Prezidiuma Vysshego soveta narodnogo khozyaistva. Dekabr’ 1917 g. — 1918 g.: sb. dokumentov [The Reports of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of National Economy. December 1917 — 1918: collected documents]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1991, 350 p.

3. Smeta Vysshego soveta narodnogo khozyaistva na 1920 g. [The Estimates of the Supreme Council of National Economy for 1920]. Moscow, 1920, 227 p.

4. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE) [Russian State Archive of Economy], coll. 3429, aids 7, fol. 1280.

5. Spravochnik po tsentral’nym i glavnym upravleniyam Vysshego soveta narodnogo khozyaistva. Noyabr’ 1921 [The Guidebook on Central and Main Offices of the Supreme Council of National Economy. November 1921]. Moscow, 1921, 112 p.

6. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE) [Russian State Archive of Economy], coll. 3429, aids 7, fol. 1497.

7. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE) [Russian State Archive of Economy], coll. 3429, aids 7, fol. 1496.

8. O natsionalizatsii Obshchestva sodeistviya uspekham opytnykh nauk i ikh prakticheskikh primenenii im. Kh.S. Ledentsova: Postanovlenie Vysshego soveta narodnogo khozyaistva [On the Nationalization of the Ch.S. Ledentsov Society for the Promotion of the Successes of Experimental Sciences and their Practical Applications: The Resolution of the Supreme Council of National Economy], Ekonomicheskaya zhizn’ [Economic Life], 1918, November 12.

9. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE) [Russian State Archive of Economy], coll. 3429, aids 7, fol. 1701.

10. Alfavitno-predmetnyi ukazatel’ k deistvuyushchim prikazam i tsirkulyaram po VSNKh SSSR za vremya s 1 yanvarya po 1 iyulya 1923 g. [The Alphabetical and Subject Index to Current Orders and Circulars of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR for the Period from January 1 to July 1, 1923]. Moscow, 1923, 20 p.

11. Ipatiev V.N. O nauchnykh dostizheniyakh v promyshlennosti: (Doklad o deyatel’nosti NTO Plenumu Gospromyshlennosti ot 10 dekabrya 1924 g.) [On Scientific Achievements in Industry: (The Report on the Activities of the Scientific and Technical Department to the Plenum of the State Industry of December 10, 1924)], Nauchnye dostizheniya v promyshlennosti i rabota Nauchno-tekhnicheskogo otdela VSNKh SSSR: Stat’i, rechi i doklady F.E. Dzerzhinskogo, P.A. Bogdanova, V.N. Ipat’eva, A.N. Dolgova [Scientific Achievements in Industry and the Work of the Scientific and Technical Department of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR: The Articles, Speeches and Reports by F.E. Dzerzhinsky, A.P. Bogdanov, V.N. Ipatiev, A.N. Dolgov]. Moscow, 1925, pp. 3—33.

12. Protokoly Prezidiuma Vysshego soveta narodnogo khozyaistva. 1919 g.: sb. dokumentov [The Reports of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of National Economy. 1919: collected documents]. Moscow, 1993, 432 p.

13. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE) [Russian State Archive of Economy], coll. 3429, aids 7, fol. 1702.

14. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE) [Russian State Archive of Economy], coll. 3429, aids 7, fol. 1703.

15. Alfavitno-predmetnyi ukazatel’ k deistvuyushchim prikazam i tsirkulyaram po VSNKh SSSR za vremya s 1 iyulya po 31 dekabrya 1922 g. [The Alphabetical and Subject Index to Current Orders and Circulars of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR for the Period from July 1 to December 31, 1922]. Moscow, 1922, 32 p.

16. Alfavitno-predmetnyi ukazatel’ k deistvuyushchim prikazam i tsirkulyaram po VSNKh SSSR za vremya s 1 iyulya po 31 dekabrya 1923 g. [The Alphabetical and Subject Index to Current Orders and Circulars of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR for the Period from July 1 to December 31, 1923]. Moscow, 1923, 34 p.

17. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE) [Russian State Archive of Economy], coll. 3429, aids 7, fol. 1999.

18. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv ekonomiki (RGAE) [Russian State Archive of Economy], coll. 3429, aids 7, fol. 1998.

19. Alfavitno-predmetnyi ukazatel’ k deistvuyushchim prikazam i tsirkulyaram po VSNKh SSSR za vremya s 1 iyulya 1921 po 1 maya 1925 g. [The Alphabetical and Subject Index to Current Orders and Circulars of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR for the Period from July 1, 1921 to May 1, 1925]. Moscow, 1925, 494 p.