A Treasure Trove of Russian Books

When you visit the third floor of the Russian Center, you’ll find the vibrant displays in the Museum of Russian Culture and the quiet reading room of the Slavic Heritage Library. If you haven’t stepped inside either of these two places, they are well worth a visit. Full of historical books and artifacts, you can easily lose yourself in the stories and collections of early Russian immigrants to San Francisco and 20th century Russian life.

But what many haven’t seen is the abundance of donated books that are carefully stored behind the scenes for future use and cataloguing. Over the years, hundreds of Russian books have been bequeathed to our libraries. Staff members carefully curate incoming books and determine whether they should be held in the library, museum, archive, or shared with other education institutions.

For the Love of Books

As the stock of books grew, museum and library staff continued to lovingly organize and preserve a wonderful variety of books. Historically valuable and rare books are archived, while fiction and non-fiction is either sold or given away to Russian Center visitors. Most recently, over one hundred books were quickly snapped up by attendees of the Slavic Festival in May. Because the demand for Russian books was so high, staff decided to organize a unique book event for the Bay Area community.

Discover our Bounty of Books 

Over these past summer months, museum and library staff have pored over the collection, sorting and categorizing books for the August 23 Russian Book Giveaway. Books are organized so that visitors to the event will find it easy to browse and select books. 

For the curious, below is a list of genres and a sampling of books that will be available during the Russian Book Giveaway: 

• Russian Classic Novels: Anna Karenina and Brothers Karamazov

• Translated Classic Novels: Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past and The Guermantes Way

• History: Under Wrangel’s Banner and The Tragedy of Russia

• Immigrant stories: Our People Abroad and Blackboards

• Poetry: Evening Bells and On the Hills of Manchuria

• Children’s books: Jack Frost, Fedor’s Grief and Zoo Pets

• Plus, Art, Ethnic Studies, History of Russian Literature, Language, Memorable Places of the USSR, Music, Music Notes, Mystery, Science and Theater

Book Giveaway Event

Join us for the one-day event! All books are free, but a suggested library donation of $1 per book will be gratefully appreciated. See full details on our event page.