Great Library

The Great Library, Moscow State Library, formally known as the Lenin Library, is an important real-life location and a prominent feature in the Metro Universe.

Overview
The Russian State Library is the largest library in Russia, and is situated above the Mega-Station Polis. The library was not a prime target, but the effects to the building were fatal. The library is full of what appear to be mutated primates, most likely from the local zoo. The creatures are highly intelligent, even enough to set traps and imitate human speech. They are highly territorial. Also, plants around and inside the library were affected by the bombing and some have been mutated into hostile lifeforms.

Polis employs a number of stalkers to venture to the library to collect books, which are very sought-after. In-game they are also looking for pre-war tech, or even secret military documents from its archives.

In the Game
During the events of the video game, Artyom, Miller, and Danila venture to the library to find the D6 documents.

During the events of Metro: Last Light, one can hear through numerous NPC Dialogue that the Rangers assaulted and took over the library. It's unknown what the fate of the librarians is, though one can assume that they were all killed during the assault. With the assault on the library, one can also assume that the vast collection of books, which most likely numbers in the hundreds of thousands, was taken by the Rangers as well and spread throughout the Metro during the one-year absence between Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light.

The library is set to be used as a location for one of the three missions for The Faction Pack.

In the Novel
After arriving in Polis, Artyom, a young Brahmin by the name of Daniel, and a pair of stalkers (led by Miller) go to the surface in search of a very important book for the Brahmin caste. There are three such books, each named The Past, The Present, and The Future, the latter of which is the one the Brahmins are in search of. Artyom finds no such book, and Daniel is killed by a librarian, but not before giving Artyom information on D6.

The library is described as being a maze, impossible to maneuver without the help of a Brahmin as a guide, and infested with librarians.

Trivia

 * In the game Metro 2033 while sifting through some of the books in the library, Danila mentions "Roadside Picnic, hmm... something familiar...". Roadside Picnic is the book the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video games were loosely based on.
 * The overall layout of the library is the same between both games.
 * Notably, the window the demon breaks a bit before the first librarian encounter is boarded up and has a tree growing in front of it in the Kshatriya level. One of the branches snaking into the room is clearly cut, indicating that Rangers or Stalkers come through at least the entrance rooms regularly.
 * The same spot that Artyom is pulled by a librarian, through a hole in the wall, is also a scripted event during Kshatriya where the Ranger Trainee is pulled by possibly the same librarian that pulled Artyom in 2033.

Gallery
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