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Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825
1453 Through the Reign of Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) The Time of Troubles to the First Romanovs (1598-1682) Peter the Great and His Legacy (1682-1762) The Age of Catherine the Great (1762-1801) The Reign of Emperor Alexander I (1801-1825)
 
Books the focus of Russia Engages the World
All of the printed books and manuscripts shown in the exhibition dated from the period 1453-1825, and were drawn from twelve curatorial units of the Library. Russia Engages the World was planned to coincide with an appropriate Russian anniversary – the tercentenary of Peter the Great's founding of the city of St. Petersburg in 1703. The exhibition was without precedent in the Russian field in that it juxtaposed the manuscripts and printed pages with a small selection of art objects from the Metropolitan Museum, the American Numismatic Society, the University of Missouri at Columbia, A La Vieille Russie, and several private collectors. In contrast to many shows that have used works on paper as "filler," books were to be the focus, not the objects.