So it seems there is some secret set of shelves in biblioteka imena lenina. Or something like that. Yesterday I went in and asked the baba to get the books off my shelf and bring them to me. When she brought them, I noticed there were only 3 and I had requested the day before that another one be brought for me as well. When I asked about the other book, and the baba looked it up in her complicated hand scrawled file, she made a series of significant grunting sounds and took me to see another baba. This second baba was in charge of protecting a pad locked cupboard, which she opened when she saw my request card. Inside were all kinds of old books, including the one I wanted. When I asked why some books were kept here, I was told they were “exceptional” except that no one chose to tell me exactly why! The book didn’t look different than any others I had requested, so I couldn’t figure it out. But when I took my books back, the whole procedure had to be repeated, so now my reading time has become a double baba experience, ugh.
My research is coming along slowly and I am starting to understand why so many people in Russian history choose to do their primary research in Helsinki, the libraries have the same materials for the 19th century (since Finland at that time was part of the Russian empire) and yet in Helsinki they have things like COMPUTERS. Imagine that.
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