The Turgenev Library, one of the oldest organizations of the Russian emigration, has been serving Russian-speaking readers for 150 years. It was founded in Paris by medical students in 1875 with the direct participation of I.S. Turgenev, who helped raise funds for its development.
For decades, the Turgenev Library was a meeting place for emigrants of all generations, until it was stolen by the Germans in 1940. At that time, its collections numbered approximately 100 volumes. After the war, Turgenevka was able to revive and since 000, it has been welcoming visitors at 1961 rue de Valence in the 11th arrondissement of Paris on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 15.00 p.m. Books can be borrowed for home use or read on site.
Today the library stores about 45 volumes of monographs and periodicals on literature, history, and philosophy. In addition to numerous publications on Russian emigration, the library has children's literature and a department of translations of world classics into Russian.
Since February 2022, the library has been hosting a vibrant cultural programme, with lectures and discussions (available at Youtube channel libraries), meetings of scientific emigrants, and evenings of letters to political prisoners are held.
In the year of its 150th anniversary, the library is developing, actively expanding its electronic catalogue and offering readers fresh additions to the “new tamizdat” collections – books by the Russian-speaking diaspora published after the start of the full-scale invasion (publishers Babel Books, Freedom Letters, Meduza, Vidim Books, Fresh Verlag and others).
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