Vladimir Gronsky became the general director of the Russian National Library located in St. Petersburg. The corresponding order on Thursday, January 21, was signed by the Chairman of the Government of Russia Mikhail Mishustin. Gronsky has been appointed CEO for a five-year term.
Vladimir Gronsky from May 2013 to January 20, 2021 was the director of the A.V. Suvorov. On the post of the General Director of the National Library of Russia, he replaced the Doctor of Laws Alexander Vershinin.
The National Library of Russia was founded by Catherine II in 1795 as the first public library in Russia. Now it is one of the five largest libraries in the world, in Russia it is the second largest library collection. The funds of the institution store more than 38.6 million copies of printed works and other information resources, including on electronic media. Every year the RNL is visited by about 850 thousand readers, who are given up to 5 million publications; over 10 million remote users turn to the library’s electronic resources a year.
Today the library occupies four buildings – the Main Building at the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Sadovaya Street, the Plekhanov House on 4th Krasnoarmeyskaya Street, the building of the former Catherine Institute for Noble Maidens on the Fontanka River embankment (transferred back in 1949) and a new building on Moskovsky Prospekt.