Ekaterina Genieva

She studied English literature at Moscow State University and defended her dissertation in 1972 on James Joyce.

She went on to write criticism and bibliographies of many authors, including Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and the Brontës.

The library held works in 140 languages and was a place where people could research subjects and authors that were otherwise banned or forbidden in Soviet Russia.

[2][3][4][5] Genieva also spearheaded efforts to identify and return over 40,000 books looted from European libraries by Soviet troops during World War II.

[3][4] She was president of the Russian Open Society Foundation from 1995 to 2004, which helped establish Internet access, provide textbooks, and fund libraries throughout the country.