In 1747 Warsaw, in order to compensate the weakness of the royal collections, pillaged during the previous century, the Załuski brothers, two Polish prelates, created one of the most remarkable European libraries of its time. Passed under the control of the Jesuits, then of the Ministry of Public Education, the Russians pillaged it after the failure of the Kościuszko uprising in 1794 : they brought part of the collection back to St. Petersburg. Partially reconstructed during the interwar period, it was again destroyed by a fire started by the Germans in 1944.