The central focus of both these books is the two fires of February 1988, which grievously afflicted the Academy of Sciences' Library in Si Petersburg'. These events, usually called 'the fire', created crises in St Petersburg; they also attracted a great deal of foreign attention, and considerable material aid and expertise from large libraries in the West. They also propelled the Library's Director, Valerii Leonov, into a glaring limelight: he appeared often on television and in the media to explain happenings and answer various charges. This in ltsell was most unusual in the Soviet system, where secrecy rather than publicity was the norm. Most striking of all was the enormous public response to these library events. Masses ol citizens seem spontaneously to have converged on the scene of devastation and tried to assist in recovering water-logged and burnt books. Citizens look books home for treatment in microwave ovens and other household appliances. Quite a number of valuable books were saved in this way. No examples of theft occurred. The tradition of the book-loving Russian was effectively displayed in these hectic times. Stories like this are in contrast to the lacklustre official responses in the early stages of the February crisis. Rents in the veil of secrecy covering state mailers in this still communist world were large and not able to be quickly repaired. Nor should we forget the contemporaneous broader political and social turbulences surrounding the rise of Boris Yeltsin in 1991 as head of a new form of Russian state. The human aspects of the fire are, however, just as arresting as the fire's extent and its consequences. Those aspects are centred in the (ate ol Valerii Leonov.
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