The Slavonic Library (Czech: Slovanská knihovna) in Prague is a publicly accessible specialised research library for the field of Slavic Studies. It is one of the largest and most important Slavic libraries in Europe. Since its foundation in 1924, it has been systematically complementing, processing and making accessible its collection of world research Slavic (mainly historical, philological and political-science) literature and selected original production of Slavic authors. Its depositories contain more than 850,000 volumes of library documents, a collection of maps, posters, visual and artistic materials, and numerous collections of special documents. The Slavonic Library provides library and information services concerning the political, economic and cultural life of the Slavic nations, their mutual relations and their relations to other nations in the past as well as the present. Documents can be studied in the library's public reading room, provided with free internet access, an extensive reference library and open-access shelving with a large number of volumes. The library processes and edits specialised bibliographies and publications in its field. It organizes cultural events, professional seminars, conferences and exhibitions. Following the decision of the International Committee of Slavists, it has fulfilled the function of the centre for recording and processing materials related to the international congresses of Slavists.
The Slavonic Library is a section of the National Library of the Czech Republic but acts autonomously in professional library issues. It consists of departments for collection acquisitions, cataloguing and for services.
The History of the Slavonic Library The library was founded in 1924 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czechoslovak Republic as its Russian Library. Its establishment was related to the so-called Russian Action of the Czechoslovak government, initiated by President T. G. Masaryk. The programme provided unprecedented aid to émigrés from the area of the emerging Soviet Union. The foundation of the library had been initiated by the Russian literary historian, bibliographer and journalist Vladimir Nikolaevich Tukalevskii (1881‒1936), who headed the library in the first years of its existence. Tukalevskii donated his entire private book collection imported from Russia to the library to form the basis of its future collections. In 1927, the library began to acquire literature of other Slavic nations and changed its name to the ‘Slavonic Library of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’. The financial generosity of the Czechoslovak government made it possible to accumulate a remarkable collection of books within a short time – by the end of the 1930s, its book collections already comprised more than 220,000 volumes. The Slavonic Library was originally housed in the Governor's Summer Palace in the Royal Game Reserve in Prague-Bubeneč. This space was no longer sufficient for the rapidly growing collection. The Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment thus offered the library a shelter in the Klementinum. The Slavonic Library moved there in 1929 and has been there ever since. At the end of December 1938, the library ceased to be controlled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In February 1942, the library was transferred under German administration and merged with the Land and University Library. The Second World War was a very difficult time for the operation of the library, but its actual library activities were not paralysed. After the war, especially in the first half of the 1950s, the character of the library was significantly compromised by acquisitions of unrelated Soviet literature. In 1956, the Slavonic Library gradually began to return to its original mission. It revived its original scheme of acquisition and international cooperation, in particular in the exchange of publications. Nevertheless, it was not possible to renew the scientific activities of the Slavonic Library and re-establish the severed ties with western institutions focused on Slavic Studies until the social and political changes in 1989. In 1958, the Slavonic Library was incorporated into the State (now National) Library as its autonomous section and has remained so to this day.
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