New building of the ‘Russian Abroad’ library-foundation is opened

On 2 September 2005, the new building of the ‘Russian Abroad’ library-foundation was opened. On the eve Archpriest Nicholas Balashov consecrated it.

The work on preserving the heritage of Russian emigration is closely connected with the name of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He asked Russian emigrants to send him documents connected with the work of Russians abroad in hope to transfer these materials to the people of free Russia.

The ‘Russian Abroad’ library-foundation was established in 1995 and A. Solzhenitsyn gave it about 1500 unique scripts. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad noted the importance of heritage left by the Russian emigration. ‘Its way was not rosy, it was hard life in exile. But they lived in free countries and had a chance to appreciate the events in their much-suffering Motherland’.

Works and letters of famous writers, philosophers, church and public figures of the Russian emigration are kept in the library-foundation. Among them are works by I. Bunin, I. Shemelev, D. Merezhkovsky, P. Struve, M. Tsvetaeva, A. Benya, F. Shaliapin, I. Sikorsky and many others.

The Moscow government decided to reconstruct the building in 2000, and foundation for a new building was soon laid. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin and Archpriest Nicholai Balashov consecrated the foundation stone.

On 2 September 2005, the building was officially opened. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his greetings to the staff-members of the library. The head of administration D. Medvedev read out the presidential message.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia sent a congratulatory message to N. Solzhenitsyna, president of A. Solzhenytsin Foundation, and V. Moskvin, director of the ‘Russian Abroad’ library-foundation. Bishop Mark of Yegorievsk read the Patriarch’s message at the ceremony. His Holiness the Patriarch emphasized that the aim of the foundation and library was not only ‘to preserve the heritage of the Russian emigration, but also to make it the common property of our contemporaries and descendants’. The participants watched video appeal of A. Solzhenitsyn who congratulated staff-members and readers of the library-foundation on this important event.

Among the speakers also were: Moscow mayor Y. Luzhkov, N. Solzhenitsina, head of the ‘YMCA-Press’ Publishing house N. Struve, and other prominent figures of the Russian emigration. The first-wave emigrant A. Shmeman called upon Russian people divided in the 20^th century to unite under the omofor of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. A. Trubetskoy, Chairman of the Guards Association of France, expressed his satisfaction with healing church schisms amid Russian emigration.

The Academic Choir of A. Yurlov’s played at the ceremony.