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Museums of St. Petersburg University: Library of the Bestuzhev Courses
10-ya liniya V.O., 33/35
The St. Petersburg Higher Women's (Bestuzhev) Courses were founded in the fall of 1878, and in early 1919 they became part of the Petrograd University. They existed for only 40 years. During these years, 7.5 thousand girls received higher education, which was not inferior in level and depth of study to the university. Many of them later became scientists and writers, received academic titles and awards, and even more worked their entire lives in schools and colleges, in laboratories and observatories. And all together, two generations of wives, mothers and grandmothers, formed a new face of the educated Russian woman.
Nowadays, the Bestuzhev Courses are rarely remembered. But there is a place that has remained almost unchanged since the time of the courses — this is the library, currently the memorial "Bestuzhev Courses Library", which is part of the M. Gorky Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University.
Created by many years of work of employees, teachers and students of the courses, a unique monument to the library culture of the XIX-XX centuries, it has now simultaneously become a monument to the Bestuzhev Courses as such. The building in which the library is located is unique. It was built and equipped in 1899 according to the design of the academician of architecture A.F. Krasovsky, a remarkable master, first of all, of interior works. His project is based on the experience of equipping and decorating the library of Emperor Nicholas II in the Winter Palace, which he completed several years before the "Bestuzhev" order: the use of bog oak and polished walnut in the construction of cabinets that completely cover three walls of the room, a balustrade along the second floor, and Gothic motifs in the decor.
The entire history of the Bestuzhev Courses is reflected in the library as if in a mirror. Here you can see publications prepared by the courses themselves: annual reports and memorandum books of graduates, teaching programs and teaching aids. The library contains rare and valuable publications - and behind almost every book or internal collection are the destinies of the people through whose hands they passed, from the original owners to the librarians and students of the Bestuzhev Courses.
