Moscow's Libraries Are Having A Revival

Moscow's Fyodor Dostoevsky Library was renovated in 2013 and now sees some 500 visitors a day, up from just a dozen or so per day in earlier years. The library hosts language clubs, readings, lectures and concerts. Lucian Kim/NPR

NPR: Once Centers Of Soviet Propaganda, Moscow's Libraries Are Having A 'Loud' Revival

The Chistye Prudy neighborhood is one of Moscow's liveliest, with restaurants and cafes clustered along a boulevard with a tram line and grand old apartment buildings.

Before the bars fill up in the evenings, the neighborhood's most popular hangout is the Fyodor Dostoevsky Library, named for the 19th century Russian writer. While young people huddle over laptops as city traffic growls past the large windows in the main reading hall, a theater group is rehearsing a play in another room. A constant stream of visitors comes through the entrance, with the front door banging behind them.

"It's one of the best libraries here in Moscow just because it has changed so much," says Alsu Gorbatyuk, 40, an English teacher who popped in after a visit to a skating rink. "I suppose that right now, Moscow is one of the centers of library culture."

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WNU Editor: It is always good to see a library flourishing.