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St. Petersburg State Theater Library – One of the oldest depositories in Russia. The date of its foundation is August 30, 1756 – day Decree of the Empress Elizabethestablishing the first professional Russian theater.

Originating as a repertory library at the Russian theater troupe, Theater Library in the future was transformed into the Central Library of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters. Since 1889 the library collections of plays supplemented other state-owned company (French, German and Italian), who worked in St. Petersburg in the XVIII-XIX centuries.

After 1917, the library opened its collection for anyone interested in theater. Every year the library has about seven thousand readers, the number of visits is 40-50 thousand people a year, books are – more than 150 thousand copies.

At present, its fund of around 600 thousand units of storage, one third of them – manuscripts, rare and valuable publications, personal archives of theatrical figures, designs sets and costumes for productions, a collection of theater programs and posters, a collection of unique photographs and a rare theatrical periodicals.

Two and a half centuries, always faithful to its purpose – to be together with the domestic theater – there is a Theater Library. Several generations of its readers and staff have put their minds work and love in creation and development of libraries in the preservation of its wonderful traditions, which we believe will last as long as he shall live in Russian theater.