The Liden & Denz Russian Library in Riga
If you are studying at Liden & Denz, you have surely noticed the Russian Library in Riga, one floor below the school. Some students may even have been lucky enough to have class in the library. Today, we are going to meet Natalia and Elena, who make this library a lively and comfy place to dive into Russian literature.
Liden & Denz: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us more about your background?
Elena: I am from Riga and I have been working in the library for 15 years. Well, in fact 14 years. The library was headquartered in different buildings, and is now based here. To be honest, when Mikhail Zadornov opened the library, we did not imagine it would last that long. But here we are, it will be 15 years on the 5th of December.
Natalia: I also live in Riga. I worked almost 10 years with Mikhail Zadornov, who founded the library, but I have been working in the library for 5 or 6 years. So I was with Mikhail Zadornov when he decided to open the library. Let’s say we are all early supporters of the project, from the first day.
Liden & Denz: Can you tell us more about this place? How come this library ended up at the Liden & Denz Russian school in Riga?
Natalia: The Zadornov Library was opened by the writer Mikhail Zadornov to commemorate the 100th birthday anniversary of his father, Nikolai Zadornov, also a writer. You can actually find their books here, in the library. Mikhail Zadornov wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and save his heritage. His father lived and worked in Riga, he held literature in high esteem and wanted that everyone could have access to books in order to expand their horizons.
Elena: Then after the death of Mikhail Zadornov, the Art-Nouveau building in which the library was based was sold. We moved to the Moscow cultural center, which is now closed. Thanks to Walter Denz (founder and CEO of Liden & Denz), who collected the books and organized the relocation from scratch, the library re-opened here, within the school premises in Riga. All our readers are really happy about that. They wrote a guestbook to show their thankfulness. It was really important for them, especially for elderly people.
Natalia: For them the library is really important because that is all they have. Books are quite expensive, and some of them cannot afford to buy any. So for them it is the only place where they can continue to read and to have access to literature, which is important if that is a hobby you developed through your whole life. Some readers even cried when we were wondering whether we would be able to re-open.
Elena: Even young people were saddened when we first closed. I recall a young teenage girl crying when we told her we didn’t know if we would be able to reopen.
Impressions of library attendees in the library’s guestbook
Liden & Denz: How many books are in the Russian Library in Riga?
Elena: We have more than 40,000 books, maybe around 50,000. The majority of them are in Russian, but we also have some books in Latvian. But of course if we had more space, we would offer more books in Latvian, maybe in English too, in Ukrainian, in Belarussian. We hope for that, but for now the majority of our books are in Russian.
Liden & Denz: To conclude this short interview, we’d like to ask you a more personal question. What is your favorite book?
Elena: We really like Daniel Speck, a German contemporary writer. He writes about the situation in Palestine and Israel. It is really interesting. That’s what we have recently read. That’s if we do not talk about the classics.
Liden & Denz: And what about the classics?
Elena: Well, the classics are the classics. I personally really like Tchekov.
After the interview, we had the opportunity to take a look at the guestbook full of thankful messages from readers. Even descendants of the Russian writer Pushkin sent a letter to express their gratitude for the preservation of the book collection!
Photos were taken by the authors
