The State Social-Political Library (the GOPB) is the largest library in the field of international social and labour history. It was founded in July 1992 by the decision of the Russian Government on the basis of the library of the former Institute for the Theory and History of Socialism of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (previously the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CC of the CPSU).
The Library inherited the buildings, collections, catalogues and bibliographic apparatus of the former institute. The Library holds more than 2 million books and serials dating from the 16th century to the present days.
Among them there are more than 300 000 rare items. The collections of economic, political and cultural history of Europe and America, history of philosophy, social ideas and law are of great scientific and cultural value. The GOPB has the most complete collection of world history and Russian social, political and labour movements in Russia.
Particularly rich are the collections of books, serials and pamphlets of the Great French Revolution, the English Revolution and the Revolution of the 1848th in Western Europe. The collections of posters, leaflets and newspapers of the Paris Commune, the documents and periodicals of the First International, the holdings of history of social ideas are very interesting.
There is a valuable collection of the 19th century foreign serials as well as the vast collection of social and political movements and parties in Russia before 1917. The social-democratic part of the collection is extremely rich too. It has a complete collection of K. Marx’s, F.Engels’s and V.Lenin’s works in different languages, the publication of the history of the CPSU, the international labour movement and the Comintern.
The variety of the library’s collections is represented in its card catalogues. Recently the Library has started to make an electronic catalogue for its new acquisitions. The card catalogues consist of alphabetic catalogues of Russian and foreign books, serials, a subject catalogue and an additional geographic catalogue of serials.
The alphabetic and systematic catalogues of the collections of the former Marx-Engels Institute take a particular place in the Library. These collections have been catalogued according to a special classification created in the 1920s. This classification doesn’t accept standard used in the Library. It is based on the principles of geography (e.g. the history of Great Britain, Germany, France and etc.) and science (philosophy, political economy, sociology, history of law, history of social ideas, history of international relations and foreign policy). Although this system was no longer maintained after the merger in 1931, (the Marx-Engels and Lenin Institutes into the Institute Marx, Engels and Lenin) it continues to be very useful to researches.
Elaborate bibliographic files are a part of the information system of the Library. They comprise not just the Library’s materials, but identify other books and articles found in bibliographic sources, both Russian and foreign. The card indexes of Marx, Engels and Lenin are very complete too, the indexes include their works and other papers, literature about their life and activity, theoretical and scholarly heritage. The vast card catalogues of the First International, the Paris Commune, the documents and literature of the History of the CPSU and the Comintern, the communist world movement and the activity of socialist and social-democratic parties are also of immense value. After 1986 another card index about “the perestrojka in the USSR” was added.
Since the beginning of the 1990s the Library has been maintaining card indexes of the contemporary political and economic situation in Russia and the Commonwealth of the Independent States, of the Russian society, national and international relations and conflicts, the activity of legislative and executive authorities and the interrelation of the society and religion. Another card index of documents and literature of new parties, public and political organizations and movements in Russia and the CIS is popular among readers. It contains books published after 1991. Since 1995 the computer catalogue has been standing next to the card index.
The GOPB publishes bibliographies and also participates in joint projects with other libraries for the preparation of the bibliographies of periodicals and memoirs of the Russian emigration.
