This abandoned library is a remarkably well-preserved remnant of the Soviet era. Although the name Stalin’s Library is an urbex name, the interior clearly shows that the building once housed a genuine library. Above one of the doors, the Russian word БИБЛИОТЕКА can still be seen, simply meaning ‘library’.

The large reading and library hall still contains dozens of wooden bookcases, many of them filled with Russian and Soviet books. The collection includes literature, history, politics, science and military works. Parts of the original classification system are still visible. Writers such as Tolstoy, Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev and Nekrasov, for example, had their own dedicated sections.

Another part of the collection is devoted to Soviet history and the Second World War. One bookcase still carries the inscription Военные мемуары, meaning ‘military memoirs’. Among the books are publications about the Red Army, the war of 1941–1945 and the Siege of Leningrad. Various other books and magazines can also clearly be identified as publications from the Soviet period.

It is not only the books that have been left behind. The wooden bookcases, doors, parquet floors and original lighting are still present. Particularly striking are the richly decorated ceilings, with elaborate ornaments and individual recessed sections surrounding the lights. In an adjoining room, the word ФОТОКОПИЯ, meaning ‘photocopy’, can still be seen on the glass, indicating that the library also had a room for copying or reproducing documents.

Exactly when the library opened and when it finally closed has not been reliably established. What remains is an almost complete library interior in which a large part of the original collection was simply left behind. As a result, the location still provides a remarkably tangible glimpse into a library from the Soviet era.