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Natalia Koutovenko

Natalia Koutovenko, Ph.D., contributes research-led writing on books, collections and cultural history. Koutovenko’s account of the Russian imperial library draws on firsthand experience studying and working at the Library of Congress, connecting archival research with the human stories behind historic collections.

How Russian Czar’s Library Ended Up In America

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Open 1816 Imperial Russian Bible with worn endpaper and an illustrated title page.

Most people in the United States, Russia, and the World don’t know that more than 2,500 volumes from the personal library of the Russia’s Royal Family are in the possession of the Library of Congress of the United States.

This priceless collection was formed in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg’s, Imperial Russia. It survived WWI, the 1917 Revolution as well as the Civil War that followed, eventually ending up in America.

This is the fascinating story of how it happened, told exclusively to the World Art News by a researcher who worked with these rare books.