Slavonic studies

We have some of the leading research collections in the world for the study of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the former USSR, giving strong support for research in arts and humanities, social sciences, Slavonic studies and Soviet and East and Central European studies.

Collection guides

Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Baltic collections
One of the leading research collections in the world for Slavonic and Baltic studies
Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak collections
One of the leading research collections in the world for the study of Central Europe
South-East European collections
We have an extensive collection of library and archival material for the study of South-East Europe
Russian avant-garde collections
An extensive collection of avant-garde books of the early 20th century
The Tyrkova-Williams Collection
A collection of letters and papers of Harold Whitmore Williams and Ariadna Vladimirovna, neé Tyrkova.
Russian statistical publications
A comprehensive collection of statistical publications from all over the world, including Russia

View all related guides

Help

St Pancras Reading Rooms

At St Pancras we have 11 Reading Rooms, each specialising in a different subject area or type of material and with different opening hours. In our Reading Rooms you can:

Consult books, journals and other items from our collections
Access a wide range of electronic resources and electronic journals
Consult subject guides, bibliographies and other research aids

If you need help, please ask our Reference Specialists at the enquiry desks or contact the Reference Service.

We offer a range of free Reader sessions and 1-2-1 consultations to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

You’ll need a Reader Pass

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

Blog posts

PhD Studentship opportunity – The Belarus Collection at the British Library

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Queen Mary University of London and the British Library are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative Doctoral Studentship from 1 October 2023 under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. This doctoral project seeks to advance postcolonial...

Siberian Ethnographic Museums: Indigenous Lives Exhibited

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

In his autobiographical novel The Chukchi Bible, Yuri Rytkheu tells the story of how his grandfather, Mletkin, a Chukchi shaman from the village of Uelen, in the Russian Far East, was put on display for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition...

The Colonisation of Novaya Zemlya through the Photographs and Short Stories of Konstantin Nosilov

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Content warning: This blog reproduces an image of a dead animal; the vocabulary drawn from the original texts is now considered racist. Thanks to the typo of British cartographers, Stephen and William Borough – who in the 16th century created...

Digital Shevchenkiana – a Joint English-Ukrainian Project

Friday, March 10, 2023

Do not forget, with good intent Speak quietly of me (Taras Shevchenko, ‘Testament’, translated by Vera Rich) Every year, on 9-10 March, ‘Shevchenko’s Days’ (Shevchenkivs’ki dni) are celebrated in Ukraine. The national poet, founder of modern Ukrainian literature and famous...

Library experts

Dr Katya Rogatchevskaia

Lead Curator East European Collections

Janet Zmroczek

Head of European and Americas Collections

Milan Grba

Lead Curator of South East European Collections

Case studies

More Case studies

Photography of the PhD student Hannah Connell

…The wide range of ideas and inspirational projects in which I have been involved through working with British Library staff and collections has allowed me to explore my research from new and unexpected perspectives.…

Exploring migration and diasporic community identities through Russian-language émigré publishing