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The Slovanská knihovna in Prague and its RZIA Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Richard J. Kneeley  and
Edward Kasinec
Richard J. Kneeley
Affiliation:
The Department of History, Columbia University
Edward Kasinec
Affiliation:
The New York Public Library
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Slavic Review , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , Spring 1992 , pp. 122 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1992

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References

1. Andrej Klossowski and Zalewski, W., Dealers of Polish and Russian Books Active Abroad, 1918 to Present (Warsaw: National Library, 1990 Google Scholar.

2. Lewanski, Richard, Eastern Europe and Russia/Soviet Union: A Handbook of West European Archival and Library Resources (New York: K. G. Saur, 1980)Google Scholar; Brezhgo, B., Russkiemuzei i arkhivy vne Rossii (Riga: Zara, 1932.Google Scholar

3. See Josef Strnadel, Padesdt let Slovanske knihovny v Praze (Prague: Statni knihovna CSR, 1975), 101-2.

4. For examples of his work, see Tukalevskii, Vladimir, Iskaniia russkikh masonov (St. Petersburg: Senatskaia tipografiia, 1911)Google Scholar and V. Toukalevskij [Tukalevskii], La bibliologie en Russie Sovietique R.S.F.S.R (Prague: Statni tiskarna, 1931.Google Scholar

5. Strnadel, 96; for an example of Zlenko's work see Petro Zlenko, Bibliohrafichnyi pokazhchyk naukovykh prats’ ukrains'koi emihratsii, 1920-1931 (Edmonton: University of Alberta, 1990).

6. Marc Raeff, Russia Abroad: A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration, 1919-1938 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 64-68.

7. Regarding the fate of some of these collections see Mikhail Bakumenko, Sokrovishcha v ogne voiny (Minsk: Belarus', 1990).

8. Josef Bečka, “Slovanské poslání Národní a Universitni knihovny v Praze,” Slovanská knihovědaVI (1947): 58-63.

9. Státní knihovna Ceskoslovenské socialistické republiky, Ukrajinská literatura v Slovanské knihovně (Prague: Státní knihovna ČSR, 1964); Vladimír Cerný, Luzickosrbskd korespondence(Prague: Státní knihovna ČSR, 1974); Milena Klímova, Bulharská periodika ve Slovanské knihovné (Prague: Státní knihovna ČSR, 1977); Orest Zilynskij, Ukrajinské fondy Slovanské knihovny (Prague: Státní knihovna ČSR, 1964).

10. Lev Kiškin, Aleksander Filippovich Smirdin: k istorii Smirdinskogo fonda Slavianskoi biblioteki(Prague: Státní knihovna ČSR, 1987).

11. Strnadel, 101-2.

12. Some examples of this recent interest are: Marc Raeff, Russia Abroad; L. K. Shkarenkov, Agoniia beloi emigratsii (Moscow: Mysl', 1986); Robert H. Johnston, New Mecca, New Babylon: Paris and the Russian Exiles, 1920-1945 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1988); Thomas R. Beyer, Russische Autoren und Verlage in Berlin nach dem Ersten Weltkreiq (Berlin: Verlag A. Spitz, 1987).

13. Particularly on the revolution's and civil war's “losers” see Vladimir Brovkin, The Mensheviks After October: Socialist Opposition and the Rise of the Bolshevik Dictatorship (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987).

14. George Fischer, “The Russian Archive in Prague,” The American Slavic and East European Review VIII (1949): 289-95.

15. Moskovskie novosti, 15 April 1990.

16. Strnadel, 87.

17. The first survey by a westerner of the catalogs, books, periodicals and newspapers of the RZIA was completed in September 1990 by E. Kasinec, although individual books bearing the stamp of the RZIA collection were issued to Richard J. Kneeley as early as the spring of 1990. In the fall of 1990, Norman A. Ross, President of Norman Ross Publishing, New York, a microform and reference book publisher, accompanied the present authors to Prague with a view towards microfilming the catalogs of the RZIA and selected portions of the collection itself. The trip was supported by Charter ‘77 and was part of its effort to assist in the maintenance and preservation of some of the venerable research collections in Prague. As a result of the trip, an agreement was reached for the publication on microfiche not only of the catalogs of the RZIA, but also of the catalog of Slovanska knihovna, which contains more than 600, 000 cards. The agreement, among the first of its kind between a western publisher and a Czech library, also calls for the micro-republication of various newspapers, journals and books to be selected jointly by the library and the Ross advisory board.

18. Rudnev, V. V., Russkoe delo v Chekhoslovatshoi Respublike (Paris: Rossiiskii zemskogorodskoi komitet pomoshchi rossiiskim grazhdanam zagranitsei, 1924), 51–52 Google Scholar; Nikolaev, S., K desiatiletiiu prazhskogo zemgora: 1921-1931; obzor deiatel'nosti (Prague: n.p., 1931).Google Scholar

19. Raeff, Russia Abroad, 68-69.

20. S. P. Postnikov, Russkie v Prage: 1918-1928 gg. (Prague: Volia Rossii, 1929), 41-51; Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv: pri ministerstve inostrannykh del Chekhoslovatshoi Respubliki v 1931 godu (Prague: Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv, 1932), 16-24.

21. Also referred to in emigre publications as Russkaia aktsiia.

22. Czechoslovak Republic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Czechoslovak Help to the Russian and Ukrainian Emigration (Prague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1924), 9-24.

23. S. P. Postnikov, 41-50, 83-87, 89-90, passim; Rudnev, passim; Katalog khudozhestvennykh sobranii russkogo kul'turnoistoricheskogo muzeia (Prague: Muzei, 1938); Russkii luridicheskii Fakul'tet', Otchet sostoianiia i deiatel'nosti russkago iuridicheskago fakul'teta v Prage: za 1923-1924 uchebnyi god (Prague: Russkii luridicheskii Fakul'tet', 1925), 1-5; Brezhgo, 5, 7-13; Symon Narizhnyi, Ukrains'ka emihratsiia (Prague: n.p., 1942), 125-36.

24. L. Hamilton Rhinelander, “Exiled Russian Scholars in Prague: The Kondakov Seminar and Institute” Canadian Slavonic Papers XVI (1974): 331-51. The library and records of the Kondakov Seminar are at the Ūstav teorie a dějin umění ČSAV in Prague. In November 1990 Richard Kneeley found that the business records and correspondence are still intact, as well as a library of 7, 000 volumes. According to Eliška Fučiková, the Associate Director of the Institute, a collection of about 150 icons still exists, of which “about forty are of significant value. “

25. For an account of the activities of one RZIA representative see Ellen Scaruffi, “Valerii Petrovich Semenov-Tian'shanskii: A Russian Bookman in Finland,” presented at the Boston AAASS, November 1987.

26. Often cataloged as Na pomezí dvou století, see Scaruffi.

27. Most archival material was taken to Moscow in 1945, but in a few cases— where archival material was bound in book form—it is still located in the RZIA in Prague.

28. Postnikov, 54-58.

29. Arkadii Zhyvotko, Desiat’ rokhiv Ukrains'koho istorychnoho kabintetu (1930-1940) (Prague: Ministerstvo vnitra v Praze, 1940).

30. Obshchestvo sibiriakov, Deiatel'nost’ obshchestva sibiriakov za 1927-28g (Prague: Obshchestvo sibiriakov, 1929), 1-3 and passim; Postnikov, 64-66.

31. Russkii zagranicknyi istoricheskii arkhiv v 1928 godu (Prague: Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv, 1929), passim; Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv v Prage v 1934 godu(Prague: Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv, 1935), passim; Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii archivpri ministerstve inostrannykh del Chekhoslovatskoi Respubliki v 1936 godu(Prague: Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv, 1937), passim.

32. Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the USSR: Moscow and Leningrad (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972), 127.

33. Bulgakov lived in Prague from 1923-1946 where he was the director of the Russian Cultural-Historical Museum and where he wrote “Slovar’ russkikh zarubezhnykh pisatelei.” The work contains biographical information on nine hundred Russian writers published abroad and a list of over one hundred pseudonyms. The Manuscript Division of Pushkinskii domhas a copy while the original is held at TsGALI. See V. N. Baskakov, Spravochno-bibliograficheskie istochniki v sobraniiakh Pushkinskogo doma (Leningrad, Izdatel'stvo Nauka, 1987), 26-27 and Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva: Putevoditel’ (Moscow: Glavnoe arkhivnoe upravlenie pri Sovete Ministrov SSSR, 1975), vyp.4, 65.

34. Tat'iana F. Pavlova, “Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv v Prage,” unpublished manuscript, 32-34. Pavlova is the Deputy Director of TsGAOR. In a recent conversation with Pavlova, she indicated that among the archival and manuscript materials taken from Prague in 1945 were printed materials which are now together inTsGAOR's research library. These include not only major collections, such as that of the Don Cossack organization, but also books, journals, pamphlets and newspapers scattered throughout archival and manuscript collections.

35. In Agoniia Beloi Emigratsiia, Shkarenkov often just cites “Kollektsiia TsGAOR SSSR “; see for example 254-57.

36. In the 1950s the Slovanska knihovna bound the newspaper collection of the RZIA. This helped considerably to preserve the collection. During the 1920s and 1930s the staff of the RZIA set out to compile several bibliographies of the collection's holdings. Unfortunately only a few of these projects were completed by the start of World War II but an extensive bibliography was published in 1938. Jan Slavik, ed., Bibliografiia russkoi revoliutsii i grazhdanskoi voiny (1917-1921): iz kataloga biblioteka R.Z.I. Arkhiva (Prague: Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv, 1938); Zhurnaly za 1929 god; postupivshie v biblioteku russkogo zagrantchnogo istoricheskogo arkhiva v Prage (Prague: Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv, 1930); Gazety za 1930 god, postupivshie v gazetnyi fond russkogo zagranichnogo istoricheskogo arkhiva v Prage (Prague: Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv, 1931); and published under the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Lev Magerovskii, ed., Bibliografiia gazetnykh sobranii russkogo istoricheskogo arkhiva za gody 1917-1921 (Prague: Ministerstvo vnutrennykh del v Prage, 1939). This final publication was not widely circulated and, to the best of our knowledge, is only available at the Slovanska knihovna in Prague and the Library of Congress. One should note that on the title page to this publication the RZIA is referred to as the Russkii istoricheskii archiv and that it was published under the direction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also note that Jan Slavik had been replaced by Jaroslav Prokeš overseer of the archive. The’ authors thank Eugene L. Magerovsky, the author's son, for making his copy available.

37. Slavik, passim.

38. Gazety za 1930 god, postupivshie v gazetnyi fond russkogo zagranichnogo istoricheskogo arkhiva v Prage (Prague: Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii arkhiv, 1931), 6-16.

39. For example, from France, over 250 titles; from Czechoslovakia, 115 titles; and from Germany, over 200 titles.

40. It should also be noted that a high percentage of the publications catalogued in RZIA are from Kharbin or Shanghai. There are several possible explanations for this: 1) that emigre life in China was much more extensive than previously thought, 2) that Kharbin emigres were more conscientious than others in getting their material to the RZIA or 3) that Kharbin had a significant number of presses. Whatever the case may be, there are certainly archives and repositories which still exist with material from the Russian communities in China.

41. Magerovskii, 73-127.

42. A sampling of titles from RZIA newspaper collection against the Union List of Serials indicates that a very high proportion of the collection consists of titles not commonly held in American or Canadian libraries. Edna Brown Titus, ed., Union List of Serials in Libraries of the United States and Canada, 3rd ed. (New York, 1965). Some examples of the newspapers are, from German occupied Soviet territories: Bobrinets'kii Golos (Bobrinets’), 1942; Visti Ostershchini, 1942; Hazeta Donbassa (Horlovka), 1943; Haisins'ka Gazeta, 1943; Letishivs'ki Visti, 1943; Lokhovits'ke Slovo, 1942; Mariupol's'ka Hazeta, 1941-1942; Novyi Chas (Voznesens'k), 1943; Novyi Chas (Kun'ians'k), 1942; Novyi Chas (Petrikivtsi), 1942; Novyi Shliakh Ostershchini, 1941; Novoe Slovo (Taganrog), 1942-1943; Novyi Put1 (Baranovichi), 1944; Novyi Put’ (Borisov), 1943; Novyi Put1 (Klintsy), 1943; Novyi Put’ (Orsha), 1942; Niva (Pirianin), 1942-1943; Ukrains'ka Zemlia (Stalino-Markiivka), 1942; Ukrains'kyi Donbas (Horlivka), 1942. From emigre newspapers published in inter-war Czechoslovakia: Narodnaia Gazeta (Prešov), 1924-1935; Russkaia Narodnaia Gazeta (Prešov), 1935-1938; Russkaia Shkola (Prešov), 1926-1929. From the revolutionary and civil war period: ZaRossiiu (Sevastopol’), 1919-1920; Rodnoe slovo (Sochi), 1919, Organ bezpartiinyi i progressivnyi; Golos rabochago (Ufa), 1918; Organ Ufimskago gub.biuro R.S.D.R.P.; Sotsialist-Revoliutsioner (Ufa), 1918; Krest'ianskaia i rabochaia gazeta organ P.S.R.; Golos truda (Nikolaevsk), 1919; Organ Nikolaevskago komiteta partii S.-R.

43. Slavik, passim.

44. An initial examination of the pamphlet collection indicates that 60 to 65 percent of the collection is unique to the RZIA library. Some examples of the pamphlets are: A Amfiteatrov, leksandr, Vrednaia rasa: Publichnaia lektsiia 15 noiabria 1905 r. v. Parizhe (Geneva, 1905)Google Scholar; Amfiteatrov, Aleksandr, Krovavyi tsar’ (New York, 1919)Google Scholar; Alekseev, M. B., h dnevnika generala M. V. Alekseeva (Prague, 1929)Google Scholar; Ermolintsev, V., Pravda o tragedii ipatievskago doma (Kharbin, 1923)Google Scholar; Litovskaia, O. A., V te dni (Berlin, nd)Google Scholar; Osipov, I., Na prolome: Ocherki 1914-1920 gg. (New York, 1922)Google Scholar; S. P. Mel'gunov, Grazhdanskaia voina v osveshchenii P. N. Miliukova (Paris, 1929)Google Scholar; Rogozinikov, I., Trekhsotletie tsarstvovania doma Romanovykh i ego znachenie v russkoi islorii, 1613-1913 (Revel, 1913)Google Scholar; Antonii, Metropolit, Khristos spasitel’ i evreiskaia revoliutsiia (Berlin, 1922)Google Scholar.