Officers' libraries at the provincial reserve infantry battalions of the Russian empire in the second half of the XIXth century: plans and reality

1 The article was prepared according to the plan of research work of the State Public Scientific and Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences as part of the scientific project No. 122041100088-9 “Transformation of book culture in social communications of the XIXth-XXth centuries”. On the basis of a wide range of pre-revolutionary sources, for the first time, the initiative role of the editorial board of the Military Collection journal in organizing a discussion of various options for the construction of officers' libraries, including under the provincial reserve infantry battalions, has been shown. Financial estimates of this edition on the creation of officers' libraries at 58 provincial battalions in the provincial cities of European Russia are presented. The total number of provincial battalions in which officers' libraries could presumably be located has been established. The role of the state in their financing is revealed. Specific examples of the creation of officers' libraries of the Tobolsk and Irkutsk reserve infantry battalions in Siberia based on printed catalogs and their supplements are given.