Paul Otlet and Nikolas Rubakin: Creative commonwealth
On the occasion of 150-th anniversary of Paul Otlet, a prominent documentologist and foreteller of the Internet (1868-1944, Belgium), the author tracks his contacts with another prominent figure, Nikolas Rubakin (1862-1946), Russian founder of bibliopsychology, library scientist, bibliographer, publisher, the author of a dozen of popular books. Paul Otlet took part in creating the Institute of Bibliopsychology headed by N. Rubakin, and Rubakin, in his turn, contributed to the preservation of multimillion collection of bibliographic cards and books that made the major document resource of the International Bibliographic Institute established and headed by P. Otlet. The author demonstrates their shared understanding of the key concepts related to the document and the book, bibliopsychology, propagandology, ideas of the fair world order. For the first time, Rubakin’s response to the last Otlet’s monograph («Monde: essai d’universalisme: connaissance du monde, sentiment du monde, action organisée et plan du monde») (1935) is discussed. The article is based mainly on archival materials; some fact data are published for the first time ever.