The Russian State Children's Library, also called the RGDB, is the world's largest Children's library, located in the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n capital of Moscow. The library receives 45,000 visitors a year and 1.2 million online visitors annually. As of 2019, the Russian State Children's Library has over 560,000 books in its collection, in addition to other materials.

History

The building was established in December 1969, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019. Vladimir Putin congratulated the library's anniversary. The Library runs a

cultural exchange Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these ...

project called ''Hello, Neighbour!'' that seeks to introduce

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

to other cultures. In 2019, the Emirati Kalimat Foundation for Children's Empowerment donated large numbers of

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

children's books to the library as part of a

program with

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

, and in 2020, the library hosted an online "Fabulous

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

" initiative about

Azerbaijani culture Azerbaijani culture may refer to: Regions *Culture of Azerbaijan The culture of Azerbaijan () combines a diverse and heterogeneous set of elements which developed under the influence of Iranian peoples, Iranic, Turkic peoples, Turkic and Peo ...

and traditions. The RGDB held a "Draw Egypt" contest in October 2020 in which Russian children submitted drawings of what they thought

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

must be like.

Russian President The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

and

First Lady of the United States First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is a title typically held by the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office. Although the first lady's role has never been Code of law, codified or offici ...

Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush (née Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American educator who was the first lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009 as the wife of George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States. Bush was previously the fir ...

visited the library together in 2002.

References

1969 establishments in Russia Children's libraries Libraries established in 1969 Libraries in Moscow Russian children's literature {{Russia-struct-stub