Hystory
n 1998 the library marked its 60th anniversary. These 60 years were interesting and fruitful. In 1938 the newly-organized library occupied a small room in one of the premises of the Trinity Sergius Lavra and had a small book fund made up mainly of donations from private Moscow libraries. At that time the library was called P.O. box 31 because its development was connected and depended on the development of the optics producing factory (ZOMZ) which was the actual P.O. box 31.
In 1970 the library moved to another place since that time the library has been occupying the ground floor of a block of flats in one of the central street of the town. The early 70s were the years of rapid and successful development of the library . At that time it had more than 100 000 books available for 15 000 readers, more than 60 mobile libraries worked at the factory ZOMZ which had become the library's patron. The library gradually turned into the recreation center not only for the employees and workers of ZOMZ but for the whole town.
In early 90s ZOMZ being one of the numerous military enterprise in Russia had to face a severe crises. The industrial crisis took its toll on the social and cultural spheres of life. As a result, many trade-union libraries ( our library was the trade-union library of ZOMZ) were closed down. The same prospect was in store for the trade union library of ZOMZ. But the library's perfect reputation in town could not be ignored by the authorities of the town. And in 1996 the head of the local authorities Mr. Goncharov took a decision to include the library in the list of municipal cultural establishments of the town. In March 1996 the ex-ZOMZ trade-union library became an independent municipal library. In May 1996 the library was given the name of Alexandre Gorlovsky, a literary critic, writer and teacher who lived and worked in our town in 1951-1983.
