Creating "spiritual food storage": from the history of collecting the book fund of Tomsk State University Research Library by V.M. Florinsky

The Research Library of Tomsk State University became an integral part of the first higher educational establishment in Siberia since its foundation in 1880. The key role in the formation of the original book fund of the library belonged to Vasiliy Markovich Florinsky (1834-1899), the scientist of varied attainments, curator of the West Siberian Educational District, whose name was inextricably connected with the history of creation and opening of the Siberian Imperial University in Tomsk. Details of how some private book collections appeared in the library often remain unknown. In this article, the author sets the goal to determine the role of V.M. Florinsky in the establishment of the library book fund of the University of Tomsk on the basis of material from his archive. Florinsky saw the cornerstone of success of the university storage fund formation in the possibility of purchasing private collections which would, in his opinion, contain books the university needed. Thus, the chosen strategy gave a quick result: the family library of the Stroganovs appeared in the University. In the search of books, which were necessary for the University, Florinsky used all his personal relations with colleagues and friends, asking them to inform him about private collections that could be gifted or sold to the university at a low price. After his appointment as a curator of the West Siberian Educational District, he decided that it was important to use his new official powers for the university library fund replenishment. Florinsky took an active part in the creation of the original book fund of the university library, personally participating in negotiations about the purchasing and handing over of highly valuable book collections the university needed. Under the personal control of Florinsky the Siberian University received collections of many famous Russian scholars and statesmen: А.О. Stroganov and S.G. Stroganov, Б.М. Golitsyn, VA. Zhukovsky, V.I. Karpov, NM. Yakubovich, D.I. Rostislavov, A.I. Artem'yev, A.V. Nikitenko, I.T. Glebov, I.D. Astashev, АЛ. Schumacher, Delyanov, Kornatovsky, S.N. Ornovsky, Р.А. Valuev, A.P. Orlov, А^. Vasil'yev, VA. Basov. Valuable books were gifted from the funds of the Imperial Public library, Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg Censorate and the Main Administration for Publishing Affairs. All these book collections made a firm foundation for the research-scientific activity of the Siberian University and made it stand out on the Russian and world maps of centers for science and education. Thus, V.M. Florinsky not only could solve the problem of the library fund formation, but also conceptually determined the significance of a research library existence at the university. It is possible to say that he set the library development on the very first stages, and determined its research character.

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