Shaping the Country’s Cultural Sovereignty: Murmansk Hosted the All-Russian Library Congress

June 10—17 in Murmansk, the Library Capital of Russia 2023, the All-Russian Library Congress: XXVII Annual Conference of the Russian Library Association (RLA) took place. The event was supported by the Government of the Murmansk Region. The Congress was attended by 957 delegates from 68 regions of Russia. The professional programme included two plenary sessions and 57 sectional and special events with 634 presentations. The Congress was held under the sign of two significant dates — the 85th anniversary of the Murmansk Region and the 85th anniversary of the Murmansk State Regional Universal Scientific Library. The grand opening and the first plenary session took place on June 12 2023 on the Day of Russia. On June 13 and 14 2023 the work continued at the breakout sessions. The results of the congress were summed up at the final plenary session on June 15 2023. The relevance of the main theme of the Congress “Library — the cultural code of Russia” is connected with the state cultural policy and the tasks set for libraries. The definition of the cultural code of Russia is conditioned by the need to consolidate the citizens of the country on the basis of a common system of values, the formation of cultural sovereignty. The issues of implementation of one of the core documents of the library industry — “Strategy for the librarianship development in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030” were raised. The work of libraries in new social and geopolitical conditions was analyzed. The “Model Regulations on the Organisation of Research Activities of the Central Library of the Subject of the Russian Federation” was adopted.