Friday, October 29, 2010

2010 10 29 - On Tour: Russian State Library



It is my first Friday in Moscow. I have Fridays off for the duration of my stay in Russia. Typically Billie Jo will work on Fridays but she has this one off.

We take the day to go out on our first serious sightseeing jaunt.

In the late morning it starts to snow. This does not alter our plans - we have decided to check out the Red Square area and it may be interesting to experience it in the snow.

Almost immediately out of the train station next to Red Square we stumble into the Russian State Library. This is the largest library in Russia and third largest in the world. The Library was formerly known as the Lenin State Library of the CCCP (USSR).



Russian State Library Name Plate (click to enlarge)

I am not sure what the top line says - I will check with Billie Jo. The second line opens with Biblioteca - which I remember from my high school Spanish days as "Library" - bless you Senor Flood y Senora Conley. The CCCP is of course USSR. The Last Line is "LENIN" - I will get into more of this later but the backwards N is not either of the N's in "Lenin" - actually the two H's are the N's. The third Line in smaller font is "ILYICH" which I think is actually Lenin's middle name.


Fyodor Dostoyevsky (click to enlarge)

A statue of the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky stands guard outside of the Russian State Library. Dostoyevsky is one of Russia's most well known writers. He authored dozens of Novels and novellas - Among the most notable are "Crime and Punishment", "The Brothers Karamazov", and "the Idiot".

1 comment:

Jo said...

The top line is "State".