Fundamental Library of the Social Sciences

(full name, V. P. Volgin Fundamental Library of the Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR), located in Moscow, the largest scientific library of the social sciences in the USSR. It was created in 1918 as the library of the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences. Since 1936 it has been part of the system of libraries of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. As of Jan. 1, 1970, the library’s collection amounted to 6.8 million items. This library has collected research literature and primary sources in the fields of history, economics, philosophy, sociology, archaeology, ethnography, literary scholarship, linguistics, Oriental studies, Slavic studies, and other branches of social sciences in Russian, in the languages of the peoples of the USSR, and in foreign languages.

The library serves scholarly institutions, research workers, and graduate students of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, scholarly institutes, and institutions of higher learning. It publishes 24 series of informational bibliographical bulletins of recent Soviet and foreign literature on the social sciences and compiles retrospective and topical bibliographical indexes and lists. The library carries on scientific work in the field of library management and bibliography, as well as the publishing of topical collections and symposia. The library has an interlibrary and international loan service; it carries on book exchanges with 73 countries. The system of the V. P. Volgin Fundamental Library of the Social Sciences includes 23 libraries of institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR engaged in studying the humanities.

In 1969, with this library as a base, the Institute of Scientific Information on the Social Sciences was formed, and since June of that year it has borne the title Institute of Scientific Information and the Fundamental Library of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.