Russian-related materials are present in all of the special subject and format collections in the Library of Congress. There is no one place to find them all or even to start your research. We hope the sections of this guide devoted to the various special collections will give an overview of the kinds of materials present in the collections.

We also hope to convince the prospective researcher to contact not only the Russian subject librarians in the European Reading Room, but also the many curators in the special collections reading rooms. For example, the Geography and Maps Reading Room has thousands of maps related to Russia and the former Soviet Union and their staff are experts in locating the cartographic materials in their custody, regardless of geographic locale or language of publication. Likewise, no one knows more about the Russian and Soviet films and documentaries in the Library of Congress and the equipment needed to view them than the staff in the Moving Image Research Center.

Some of the special collections at the Library of Congress have outstanding rare Russian holdings such as the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room and the Law Library, both with items from the Russian imperial palaces and countless rare books from the Yudin Collection. Contact information for each of the special collections reading rooms is provided at the bottom of every page in the special collections sections of the guide.