Nadezhda Abramovna Kanover — “Above all for Her Were Books”

Abstract

The article tells about the Far Eastern librarian Nadezhda Abramovna Kanover, a follower of the bibliographer Z.N. Matveev, who played a great role in the development of librarianship in Vladivostok. The publication is based on the documents from the Current Archive of the Presidium of the Far East Branch of Russian Academy of Science (FEB RAS), Central Scientific Library (CSL) of FEB RAS and Society for Study of Amur Region (SSAR) that for the first time reveal unknown facts from N.A. Kanover life and characterize the situation in library science in the Russian Far East in 1930s — 1950s. Heading several libraries including the future CSL FEB RAS and library of Primorskiy branch of State Geographical Society (SFGS), N.A. Kanover put much efforts in collecting collections and making conditions for book storage, as well as promoted book culture by publishing articles and organizing book exhibitions. Thanks to her, Vladivostok received a unique old-believers’ collection that belonged to bibliophile S.Ya. Ponosov. Printed editions of the collection are now kept in the SSAR library (former SFGS library), icons and religious artefacts are in the Primorsky Picture Gallery and the V.K. Arsenyev Museum of Far East History. These organisations presented a part of Ponosov’s collection at the joint exhibition “Legend of Belovodie” (Vladivostok, February 18 — July 30, 2023). The pages of Kanover’s biography connected with the last months of life of V.K. Arsenyev, the famous traveller and explorer of the Far East, are remarkable. While working in the library of SFGS, N.A. Kanover became its last secretary, dealing with the correspondent network of the branch. Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about the last years of her life, but N.A. Kanover’s work in the field of Far Eastern library science is not forgotten.