[2][3] The library was founded for Russian-speaking emigrants by German Alexandrovich Lopatin,[4] a notable follower of Narodnik movement.
Lopatin had no means to fund the library, so it was primarily sponsored by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, who lived in Paris at that time.
On February 15, 1875 Turgenev organised a matinee that brought together prominent cultural workers from Paris; including Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov, Mark Antokolski, as well as Russian Ambassador Nikolay Alexeyevich Orlov.
In 1937, the library gained splendid premises in a fifteenth-century mansion, the so-called Hôtel Colbert in Rue de la Bûcherie.
The library held valuable rarities including first printings of Voltaire, François de La Rochefoucauld, Nikolay Karamzin, Sudebnik of Tsar Ivan IV (with the comments of Vasily Tatishchev).