The Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations (FANO) confirmed the information that academician Yuri Pivovarov, who previously held the position of director of the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences (INION) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, wrote a statement requesting his release on April 27 from performing these duties.

“Until the election of the new head of INION RAS, Dmitry Efremenko will temporarily act as director of the institute,” the agency’s press service told TASS.

On April 20, the Main Investigation Department (GID) of the Investigative Committee for Moscow opened a case of negligence against senior INION employees, whose shortcomings, as the investigation believes, made possible the fire that destroyed a significant part of the library collection on January 30. Now the material damage is estimated at 1.5 million rubles.

The INION library caught fire on the night of January 30, a fire covering an area of 2 thousand square meters. m they extinguished it for almost a day, and the building was watered for the same amount of time to prevent a re-ignition.

The library was created in 1969 on the basis of the funds of the Fundamental Library of Social Sciences, founded in 1918. For 100 years, the book depository has collected a unique collection of Russian and foreign books, magazines, newspapers and manuscripts, including captured ones taken from Germany after the Second World War. At the end of 2014, INION catalogs included 14.2 million items, making it the 4th largest library in the country and 23rd in the world.

Read more about the fate of the books that survived the fire in the Kommersant article “The Investigative Committee opened a case in connection with the fire in the INION library.”

Dmitry Efremenko was appointed acting director of INION