Officer Libraries in the Artillery Directorate (the second half of the 19th — beginning of the 20th century): Quantitative Assessment and its Characteristic Features

For the first time in the domestic library science there is accomplished the counting of the Officer Libraries in the Artillery Directorate in the second half of the 19th — the beginning of the 20th century; there are identified the sources on the basis of which the counting was done. Quantification of the libraries in artillery, unlike the establishment of their number in the Corps of military engineers, army officer libraries and military schools, has its own characteristic features. They were caused by the organizational and staff structure (which included not only artillery units and military schools, but also arms, gunpowder, cartridge, capsular plants, artillery warehouses, and training bases with officer book collections at them), as well as specifics of service in the artillery (artillery batteries were located in dozens of kilometres from the brigade headquarters, where an officer library was located, and from remaining batteries of the brigade). The main sources in the calculation of the number of libraries were: “Reference book for the Russian officers…” (St. Petersburg., 1869, 1875); the articles about officer brigade and battery artillery libraries in the “Artillery Journal”, “The Military Collection”; the lists of artillery units and institutions which had to have subscription to “Artillery Journal”; the regulations on military educational institutions that were included in the Main Artillery Directorate and subordinate to the General Feldzeugmeister; the orders on military and artillery Directorates; instructions, provisions, rules of military meetings; catalogues of books and annexes to them; instructions for use of books, journals and newspapers from officer artillery libraries; the history of military units, institutions and military schools of the artillery Directorate, etc. The analysis of numerous different sources allows to assume that by the early 20th century the Artillery Directorate could have 150—200 officer libraries. The revealed data provide the opportunity to trace the dynamics of creation and development of library network in Artillery Directorate, to complement and refine the overall picture of the history of military librarianship in the Russian Empire.