The Russian Library Zurich (RBC): History and Stories
From 1927 to 1983, there was an association in Zurich dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of Slavic literature. The Russian Library Zurich (Russische Bibliothek Zürich, RBC), which was run on a voluntary basis, offered its members – including citizens of various Slavic nations, Swiss-Russians and Soviet dissidents – a large selection of Russian-language titles. The unique collection of books and the association’s archive have belonged to the Zentralbibliothek Zürich since 2002.
‘It’s great that they are here!’
(Как приятно, что она здесь существует!)
Aleksandr Solženicyn* on the RBC, Zurich, 16 April 1975. Copy of a dedication from the RBC archives. (ZB Zürich, Hs AR 10, M1)
* For this article, the Russian-Cyrillic alphabet has been transliterated according to DIN 1460-1.
The founding years
‘For more than forty years, there has been an institution in our city that not many people know about but which has been quietly carrying out valuable cultural work.’ This is how Ella Studer, a long-standing employee of the association, described the work of the Russian Library Zurich in the ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ newspaper of 15 January 1970. In fact, the association, which managed to operate without any public funding, performed an important function within Slavic and Slavophile circles in Zurich – and far beyond.
The idea of founding a Russian library in Zurich was suggested by the numerous Swiss-Russians who had returned to Switzerland, often involuntarily, after the October Revolution of 1917. The Russkaja Biblioteka v Cjuriche (RBC) opened its doors in 1927 with a collection of only around 400 books. The first premises was in the basement of a house at Weinbergstrasse 74 in Zurich.
The opening of the library was preceded by the founding of the association of the same name, which only had limited funds. Out of consideration for the financial situation of its members, the monthly subscription fee was initially only 1.50 francs. This revenue was used to pay for facility rental and for new acquisitions. At that time, Russian-language literature was not readily available in bookshops in Zurich. Nevertheless, the RBC managed to expand the collection of books to around 2,000 titles in just two years.
‘There were no Russian books in the bookshops of Zurich. Catalogues had to be sent from Berlin, Paris and Prague in order to select and order the books.’
‘The History of the Foundation of the “Russian Library”’, anonymous, 18 April 1975. Typescript from the RBC archive. (ZB Zürich, Hs AR 10, M5)
Grand Bal Russe
Little is known about what else the association did, beyond running the library. In the 1930s, however, it did host a charity ball in Zurich, the Grand Bal Russe.
‘Saturday, 10 November, at 9 pm, the Grand Bal Russe will take place in the Hotel Baur au Lac. Performing will be Carl Goldner and Paul Morgan, soloists of the Stadttheater Ballett [...], as well as the Swiss masters of ballroom dance [...]. In the [...] decorated rooms, guests can expect all sorts of surprises. The net proceeds will be donated to the relief fund of the Cercle Suisso-Russe and to the Russian library.’
Announcement in the ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ newspaper, 7 November 1934.
The president of the Association of Russian Emigrants invited the Russian library association’s board of directors to host the annual ball at the Baur au Lac hotel or the Dolder Grand hotel. Despite some reservations – after all, the RBC had no experience in hosting such an exclusive event – the board accepted the offer.
The lavishly designed dance events, which included cabaret performances and tombolas, developed a very good reputation within Zurich high society. At the Grand Bal Russe of 1934, the famous Zurich photographer Jakob Tuggener photographed the illustrious goings-on of the guests at the ball with his Leica camera for the first time. He followed the event for years and immortalised it in his series entitled Ballnächte.
Worries and glimmers of hope
The profits from the Grand Bal Russe brought temporary financial relief, but after a few years, the RBC stopped organising the ball. In early 1938, in a letter to the association’s members, the board of directors openly admitted that the first ten years of library operation had been ‘tough’. They requested that the 5 francs members had paid as a deposit be converted into a donation.
The association also contacted the then Mayor of Zurich Emil Klöti and asked the city for a free or at least inexpensive property to use. The board feared that, without this help, there was a danger that ‘the library, which has a valuable collection of books that is probably unique in Switzerland, [...] will have to close down’. The RBC also asked the cantonal education department for support, but both requests were turned down.
In addition to all of the difficulties, there were positive developments, primarily in relation to the recognition of the library. The City of Zurich Directory listed the RBC in the ‘Libraries’ section from 1943, alongside the Swiss Social Archives, the Pestalozzi Society and the Zentralbibliothek. In 1977, it was also included in the ‘Libraries in Zurich’ guide. In the same year, the Swiss press celebrated the association’s 50th anniversary, and the library even received attention in the Soviet Union.
Library operation
At the end of the 1950s, the RBC moved into an apartment at Freiestrasse 101 in Hottingen, Zurich. The previous monthly fee of 1.50 francs was increased to 2 francs. The library now comprised more than 4,000 titles and was open one evening a week. Volunteer staff – most of them women – attended to the visitors.
Library operations were simple but effective: members were given a sequentially numbered index card on which it was noted whether the monthly fee had been paid. Books could be borrowed for up to three weeks. The loan note was often simply placed on the endpapers in the books themselves. A regularly updated catalogue listing the titles in alphabetical order provided orientation.
‘Every Wednesday evening, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 pm, there is life in this narrow, book-filled space.’
This is how Ella Studer (1902–1992) described the busy evenings in the RBC. It was mainly thanks to her that the library collections were organised in such a practical way, since she was the only trained librarian among the volunteers. Studer, whose family originally came from Saint Petersburg, was the Pestalozzi Society’s first chief librarian for more than thirty years.
As an extra service, the RBC staff sent packages of books to members throughout Switzerland – an offer that many took advantage of. On average, 80 to 100 volumes were checked out each evening, and more than half of these were requested by telephone and sent by post. The book shipments were dispatched not only to private households but also to sanatoriums, psychiatric hospitals and even a prison and an internment camp.
Members
When it was first founded, the RBC received an interest-free loan of 3,000 francs from a private source, with the condition that 25 members would be recruited – a requirement that the association more than fulfilled in the first year. When it disbanded in 1983, its membership list contained 883 entries. That being said, the numbers of members who left or who died were often reassigned; moreover, it was not uncommon for several people, such as married couples, to be listed under one number.
The founding members of the association were Swiss-Russian. But membership soon began to include Russians who had emigrated to Switzerland and citizens of other Slavic nations, as well as Swiss nationals who spoke Russian or wanted to learn it. Most of the members came from Zurich, and some lived in Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Locarno and Solothurn.
The association was politically independent and included members from different camps. Their positions ranged from pro-Soviet and democratic to anti-Bolshevik and monarchist. Among them were clergymen and professors, engineers and doctors, clerks and electricians, an opera singer and a ballet dancer. For many, attending the RBC was an opportunity to connect with a lost homeland.
Many of the members had eventful biographies shaped by the upheavals of the 20th century. Some left their mark on the history of the city of Zurich, and others also had an impact far beyond it. Five members of the RBC are presented below as examples.
Collections
At the end of its existence, the RBC had around 6,000 titles – all of them neatly enclosed in brown wrapping paper. In addition to a diverse selection of light fiction there was historical and cultural-historical literature, as well as regional studies, memoirs and biographies, and some 300 children’s books.
Many of the books dated back to the Russian Empire. The collection is clearly dominated by the Russian classics of the 19th century: the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) and Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) filled entire shelves.
Despite operating on a consistently tight budget, the librarians endeavoured to acquire contemporary works and new publications. Here, too, the claim of political neutrality applied. Thus, in addition to works by emigrants, they acquired works by modern writers from the Soviet Union.
This set the RBC apart from the other historical Russian libraries in Switzerland that had been established in the 19th century. Consequently, the collection included not just Russian-language emigrant literature and works by Soviet dissidents but also texts by 20th-century literary figures who endorsed the State.
The books were acquired for the RBC partly new, partly from antiquarian sources, and many were also donated to the library. Dedications and notes by the previous owners are evidence of this. Artistically designed bookplates and stamps indicate the long journey of some volumes. For example, several books in the RBC’s collection come from the city of Harbin, a former Russian settlement that now belongs to the People’s Republic of China.
Russian-speakers can still borrow books from the Russian Library Zurich. The following reading recommendations exemplify different aspects of the collection.
The first and only Russian library?
The name ‘The Russian Library Zurich’ makes sense, since it describes the only declared purpose of the association. It is unclear, however, whether the founders were aware that their association was in the tradition of an earlier Russian library in Zurich.
Since the middle of the 19th century, Switzerland had been an important place of refuge for numerous political opposition figures from the Russian Empire. Others came to study here or to seek treatment in the sanatoriums. The diverse circle of Slav exiles became involved in extensive journalistic work, founding their own printing presses, reading societies and libraries. In Davos, for example, a library for Russian spa guests had existed since 1899. And in Lausanne, the Russian pedagogue and supporter of the Social Revolutionary Party Nikolai Rubakin (1862–1946) had been building a library of no fewer than 75,000 titles since 1907.
The Russian colony in Zurich also had a library of Russian-language works – albeit only briefly – as early as the 19th century. The first Russkaja Biblioteka v Cjuriche was founded in 1870. It focused on publications on the national workers’, liberation and revolutionary movements. In 1873, a declaration by the Tsar severely restricting opportunities for female Russian students in Zurich led to the decline of the city’s Russian colony. The library also closed down and the collection was dispersed; the whereabouts of the books can only be traced in individual cases.
One title held by this first Russian library in Zurich was donated to the Zentralbibliothek and is now in the Rare Books Collection.
The fate of the RBC – from the Slavic Studies Department of the UZH to the Zentralbibliothek
In the last years of the RBC’s existence, the volunteer librarians expressed concern about the fate of the library, since the readership was only small and featured few young people. While more and more students of Slavic studies joined after the Slavic Studies Department was established at the University of Zurich in 1961, this did not compensate for the lack of active young members.
From 1980 onwards, the question of the library’s fate became increasingly urgent. The board considered various options, such as selling the collection to private individuals or handing it over to the Zentralbibliothek. In 1983, the Association of the Russian Library Zurich finally donated the collection of around 6,000 volumes, valued at 45,000 Swiss francs, to the Slavic Studies Department of the University of Zurich.
In the early 2000s, as the department library continued to grow, the question of where the RBC collection should be located arose again. At the end of 2002, it was decided that it should be given to the Zentralbibliothek and, on 11 January 2003, the first of about seven deliveries was made from the Slavic Studies Department, on Plattenstrasse, to Zähringerplatz. At last, the RBC and the archives of the association had reached their final destination.
The RBC in the ZB Zürich – research tips
- The collection of books with the shelfmark RBC can be searched and ordered online via Swisscovery. Volumes published within the last 100 years can usually be borrowed; older volumes can be accessed in the reading room. Please note the spelling when searching for individual titles or authors: the Russian-Cyrillic alphabet has been transliterated into German according to DIN 1460-1.
Željka Vulović, liaison librarian of Slavic Philology, will be happy to answer questions about the book collection. - The archive of the association is listed in the archive portal zbcollections.ch and can be viewed in the reading room of ZB Zürich’s Manuscript Department. To visit, please contact the Manuscript Department in advance via e-mail.
- A collection of 263 historical postcards is also part of the RBC holdings. It can be viewed in the reading room of the ZB’s Department of Prints and Drawings. To visit, please contact the Department of Prints and Drawings in advance via e-mail.
Miriam Leimer, art historian, Willy-Bretscher-Fellow 2022/23
February 2023
Header image: RBC books in the ZB Zürich (Stefanie Ehrler)
Special thanks
The author is deeply indebted to Stefanie Ehrler, Turicensia Department at the ZB; Marija Simasek, liaison librarian of Slavic Philology at the ZB; Anita Michalak, librarian of the Slavic Studies Department at the UZH; Dr Eva Maurer, head of the Swiss Library of Eastern Europe (SOB) in Bern; and, especially, Monika Bankowski, subject specialist in Slavic Philology at the ZB until 2011.
The research was made possible by the 2022/2023 Willy-Bretscher-Fellowship.