Perestroika in the Stacks: Independent Library Associations in Moscow and Leningrad

Abstract

ABSTRACT Libraries in the Soviet Union were enlisted in propaganda efforts from the time of the 1917 October Revolution. The introduction of perestroika and glasnost reforms in the mid-1980s shook the decades-long principles of Soviet librarianship. As the party loosened its controls on information and cut funding of libraries, a grassroots movement for reform developed among Soviet librarians. Through the formation of independent library associations (ILAs) librarians sought to reimagine the role of the library in a democratizing society. This article uses the establishment of ILAs in the two largest Soviet cities, Moscow and Leningrad, as a lens through which to examine Russian librarians' responses to changes under perestroika and the resulting growth of professional self-awareness that led to the adoption of new values that continue to influence Russian librarianship.