The Russian State Library is the largest library in Europe and the second largest in the world after the Russian State Library, which was founded in the 1860s as the State Library of the former Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. -In March 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the library was renamed to its present name and is now part of the Ministry of Culture of Russia. The library is primarily responsible for collecting, preserving and making available to the community comprehensive, reflecting human knowledge, preserving all Russian printed materials, manuscripts and other documents such as scientific proceedings.