The present article is intended to serve as an overview of the current holdings, facilities, and activities of the Library of Congress in the Slavic and East European area. It is offered in the hope that it will be of assistance to scholars specializing in this region, particularly those who have not had the opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the offerings of the Library at first hand. The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented expansion of Slavic and East European activities at the Library of Congress, culminating in the broad and varied program described in the following lines.
A description of the holdings of the Library in the area considered here is difficult and can only be attempted in the most general terms. It may, however, be affirmed that the Slavic collection, with over 300,000 volumes, represents the largest single collection of the Library of Congress, followed by the Chinese with more than 240,000 volumes, and the Hispanic collection with over 100,000 volumes. It is at the same time believed to be the largest collection of Russian books anywhere in the world outside the Soviet Union itself.