Fire in Moscow Library Destroy One mln Books
, one of Russia’s largest academic libraries, which contains millions of unique historic documents
On January 31st, 2015, one of Russia’s largest academic libraries, which contains millions of unique historic documents, has been severely damaged by the flames. A part of the building’s roof collapsed before many of fire fighters teams managed to contain the fire.
The fire has destroyed some 2,000 m2 of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (Inion) in Moscow, created in 1918 and holding 10 mln documents, some of which date back to the 16th century.
The library has been founded in 1918, has the Russia’s most complete collection of documents of the League of Nations, the UN, and UNESCO, as well as parliamentarian reports of the United States (since 1789), the UK (since 1803), Italy (since 1897), and many others.
Various printing presses have reported very severe damage to the Moscow State University (MGU) Scientific Library in the 2015 fire, but the exact number of books destroyed has been disputed. Some sources have claimed about one million books, but this figure has not been officially confirmed.
The fire mainly affected the upper floors of the library, where numerous books and paper materials were stored, some of which were rare or historically significant. However, not all collections were equally damaged: some of the books were preserved, thanks to the timely intervention of staff and firefighters. In addition, many of the most valuable collections were stored in protected areas, but the fire still caused extensive damage, especially to archives and administrative documents.
The final figure of one million destroyed books may refer to a partial estimate of the damage, as some sources also speak of damage to entire shelves and spaces, but it is difficult to verify the exact figure. In any case, the fire had a significant impact on Russia’s cultural and bibliographic heritage.
The fact that this estimate was reported in several articles, but without official confirmation of the numbers, leaves some uncertainty. However, there is consensus that the damage was very serious and that the fire endangered a significant part of the library’s collection.
According to Russian media, investigators looking into the cause of the blaze suspect an electrical short-circuit was to blame. Some sources suggested that the cause could have been an accidental cause related to electrical systems or technical failures. The Library suffered damage mainly to its archives and administrative offices, but the book collections were largely preserved, thanks to the efforts of the employees and safety measures.
