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Contact information • History • Access & Facilities • Bibliography
ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: G-9Last update of repository: 16 March 2020Tsentral'naia nauchnaia biblioteka Soiuza teatral'nykh deiatelei RF (TsNB STD RF)Previous names
The library was founded in 1896, at the same time as the establishment of the Moscow Theater-Statistical Office of the Russian Theater Society (RTO). When the presidium of the RTO was moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1916, the library was reorganized as the Theater Library of the Russian Theater Society (RTO). In 1932, the RTO was transformed into the All-Russian Theater Society (VTO—Vserossiiskoe teatral'noe obshchestvo) and became the major professional union for actors, directors, theater designers, and other specialists in the realm of theater. The library was renamed accordingly. When in 1947 a network of theater libraries was organized with the Moscow library at its center, the name accordingly was changed to “Central.” When in 1987, the VTO was renamed the Union of Theater Workers of the RSFSR (Soiuz teatral'nykh deiatelei RSFSR), the name of the library changed again. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the library remains the center of the library network of the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation (Soiuz teatral'nykh deiatelei RF). From the outset the library collected materials relating to the theatrical repertory. The personal libraries of many personalities of the theater world were acquired by the library, although in many cases their archival materials were transferred to TsGALI (now RGALI—B–7). Among more recent receipts, for example, TsNB STD received the library and collected reference materials of the theater critic, translator, literary historian, Professor A.A. Anikst, who had served on the library’s governing board, as well as the library collections of the theater critics and historians E.V. Azernikova, A.K. Dzhivelegov, N.I. El'iash, and A.Ia. Shneer. The library’s Manuscript Division has developed an important collection of archival materials relating to the theater. The VTO established a theatrical memoirs collection in the 1930s, some of which were edited for publication. Starting in 1967, the memoir collection was transferred to the library, and at the same time the library started actively collecting autobiographies of luminaries in the theater world. More recently, the library has started to acquire and/or purchase personal papers and documentary collections of theater personalities. The library also has a special Reference-Bibliographic Division, with extensive card catalogues, handling over 12,000 inquiries a year. The relatively recently organized Iconographic Division specializes in illustrative materials. The Apartment of People’s Artists B.M. Tenin and L.P. Sukharevskaia (Kvartira narodnykh artistov SSSR B.M. Tenina i L.P. Sukharevskoi), with its family collections, is administered as a branch (see below). N.B. Major records of the RTO and VTO itself, including some documentation about the library, were transferred to the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of the USSR (TsGALI SSSR), now RGALI (B–7, fond 641, 1889–1918; fond 970, 1917–). |
