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Soviet Archives and Manuscript Collections: A Bibliographical Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Patricia Kennedy Grimsted
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Type
Notes and Comment
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 105 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1965

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References

1 In the following discussion the word “guide” will be used to render the Russian term putevoditel'; in Soviet usage a guide for a given archive consists of a survey or outline of the contents. The number of the fond (i.e., individual set of papers or collection of documents) is usually given together with the total of individual items (i.e., folders, packets, or bound volumes) it contains. As a rule, these items are described only in a general way, without either item or folio numbers and without specific information such as the dates or exact number of letters between the named correspondents. An “inventory” (opis’), on the other hand, more closely corresponds to the British or American catalogue; it describes an individual fond in much greater detail, giving numerical and descriptive references for individual items, often including the exact number of folio pages.

2 (Leningrad, 1948); a publication of

3 (Moscow, 1956). A short introductory note by one of the editors was published recently in English: G. Belov, “History That Lives Again—Archives in the USSR,” American Archivist, XXVI (Oct. 1963), 439-42.

4 . Detailed descriptions of the most important prerevolutionary collections with bibliographical indications are available in , Vol. I, Parts 1 and 2 (Kiev, 1891-92).

5 (Moscow, 1959); a publication of .

6 (Moscow, 1961).

7 This journal was issued irregularly, and free of charge, from 1956 through 1958 under the name , Nos. 2-3 (1956); Nos. 4-6 (1957); Nos. 7-10 (1958). There is no mention of a No. 1 in recent Soviet sources. Since 1959 it has been published quarterly on a regular subscription basis under the name , was issued irregularly from 1923 to 1941, but apparently no journal devoted to archival affairs was published from 1941 to 1956. A number of volumes of Tpydu were published by the in the period 1939-48.

8 (2 vols.; Moscow, 1962-63). A joint publication of

9 Mediaeval Slavic Manuscripts: A Bibliography of Printed Catalogues (Cambridge, Mass., 1957).

10 (Leningrad, 1963).

11 . See the additional bibliographical indications given in an article reviewing this volume: , No. 2, 1964, pp. 122-24.

12 Maichel, , Guide to Russian Reference Books, ed. Simmons, J. S. G., II: History, Historical Sciences, Ethnography, Geography (Stanford, 1964; Hoover Institution Bibliographical Series Vol. XVIII), 153–57.Google Scholar

13 Guide to Materials for American History in Russian Archives, Vol. I (Washington, 1917); Vol. II (Washington, 1937); Publication No. 239 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Vol. I lists and describes materials in the Foreign Ministry (through 1853) and in other archives as well. Vol. II is a short supplement extending the list of documents in the Foreign Ministry archives to cover the years 1854-70.

14 (Moscow, 1961).

15 (Leningrad, 1960).

16 (Moscow, 1958); successive volumes through 1961 have appeared annually under the same editorship. The volume for 1962, honoring Tikhomirov, was edited by A. A. Zimin.

17 Morley, Charles, Guide to Research in Russian History (Syracuse, 1951)Google Scholar. A new edition is in the process of preparation.

18 The regulation of the Council of Ministers dated July 28, 1961, concerning the Main Archival Administration, lists the archives which come under its immediate jurisdiction. This list indicates some major reorganization, including the elimination of one archive, the addition of another, and several name changes. See No. 3, 1961, pp. 3-8. A commentary on the regulation follows, pp. 9-20, under the titleAn article regarding the earlier administration of archives together with some notes on the Soviet theoretical approach to archives was published in 1957 by Epstein, Fritz T.: “Archives Administration in the Soviet Union,” American Archivist, XX (April 1957), 131–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 , No. 4, 1964, pp. 218-21.

20 (Moscow, 1946).

21 The 1961 article on archival reorganization cited in note 18 above ( pp. 14-15) makes reference to these changes, but there is no specific information available regarding the exact groups or fonds transferred.

22 (Moscow, 1946).

23 Again it has not been possible to establish the exact details of the transfer. Reference to this transfer was made in 1961 (), and it has been confirmed to the author by the archival staff in Moscow. Most of the personal fonds listed in the TsGIAM guide are now listed in the guide to private archives, with the same fond numbers, as part of the TsGAOR collection. Since both TsGAOR and TsGADA are housed in the same complex of buildings and non-Soviet scholars use the same reading room for both archives, there is little difficulty in the use of the portion of the TsGIAM collection that is now considered part of TsGADA.

24 Many such listings are included in A very recent article, for example, describes some of the prerevolutionary memoirs in TsGAOR:

25 (Moscow, 1945). The name at that time was Central State Archives of the Red Army.

26 , pp. 29-37.

27 (Moscow, 1963). This is a revised and greatly augmented edition of an earlier guide to the literary collection which was published in 1951.

28 (Moscow, 1959).

29 ,(Moscow, 1947). Although the guide indicates that inventories in some form exist for many of the fonds, these are not generally available for researchers.

30 (Moscow, 1960), pp. 37-109. Additional lists of inventories, often published in the form of articles, are to be found in the (see note 6 above).

31 (Moscow, 1954).

32 (MOSCOW, 1949).

33 These drawbacks have recently been criticized by a group of Soviet historians: , No. 2, 1964, pp. 242-43. It is interesting to note that the editors upheld the signers of the letter in their criticism of cataloguing and bureaucratic impediments to scholarly work in TsGADA, particularly the withholding of inventories.

34 (Leningrad, 1956).

35 (Moscow, 1941).

36 (Moscow, 1960), pp. 3-36; the second half of this booklet is devoted to TsGADA. See also No. 2, 1963, pp. 25-30.

37 (Moscow, 1961).

38 Leningrad (Oblast), (Leningrad, 1960). Another small volume issued in the same year by the same agency includes a briefer description and lists some of the fonds in this archive: (Leningrad, 1960). This volume gives the same type of survey of the holdings of the State Archives of the October Revolution and Socialist Development of the Leningrad Oblast as the more fully descriptive guide cited in note 40. The volume also briefly mentions some of the smaller archives of the Leningrad Oblast.

39 (Moscow, 1961).

40 et al. (Leningrad, 1962).

41 Recently a few non-Soviet scholars have been admitted to the Foreign Ministry archives for very limited research. For exchange participants, requests for admission are handled through the sponsoring Soviet institution; for others, application to the Foreign Ministry is made formally by the visitor's embassy.

42 , Part I, pp. 13- 156. It is not clear from present information exactly which portions of the documents described in these pages remain in TsGADA. A brief prerevolutionary account is included in No. 2, 1925, pp. 72-77.

43 It is discussed in Golder, Guide to Materials for American History in Russian Archives, I, 13. Golder's two-volume study provides an inventory for many of the Foreign Ministry materials relating to the United States from the beginning of diplomatic relations to 1870.

44 Recently some non-Soviet scholars have had an opportunity to work in the collections of the Academy of Sciences which have been specifically mentioned here. Arrangements for exchange participants are usually made through the sponsoring Soviet institution; for others, formal application must be made to the Foreign Department of the Academy of Sciences.

45 (Leningrad, 1958); the third unnumbered volume, considered a supplement to Vol. I, is entitled (Leningrad, 1961).

46 (Petrograd, 1915). (Under the revised general title of the series, (Leningrad, 1930; a new edition of Vol. Ill, Part 1, was published in 1959 under the title (Leningrad, 1951).

47 (Leningrad, 1950; , Vol. IX); Vol. IV, ed. (Leningrad, 1959; , Vol. XVI); Vol. V, ed. (Leningrad, 1963; , Vol. XIX).

48 et al. (Leningrad, 1958).

49 (1951- ). The title of this series varies slightly; single volumes are generally devoted to inventories of individual fonds or collections.

50 (1947- ).

51 Paul L. Horecky describes some of the major Soviet libraries and their operation but includes only slight coverage of their manuscript divisions. The later report by Melville J. Ruggles and Raynard C. Swank provides a helpful list of libraries and a good bibliography of works on Soviet libraries in English but again contains little of value for users of the manuscript divisions: Soviet Libraries and Librarianship: Report of the Visit of the Delegation of U.S. Libraries to the Soviet Union, May-June, 1961, under the U.S.-Soviet Cultural Exchange Agreement (Chicago, 1962). A much older Soviet guide listing special libraries and archives in Moscow contains a more comprehensive list of libraries than the above-mentioned volumes but is somewhat outdated: (Moscow, 1931).

52 The most recent general guidebook to the Lenin Library devotes only a paragraph to the manuscript division (although it is helpful for researchers using other parts of the library): (Moscow, 1959). It should be noted that, while the presentation of a passport at the entrance permits a foreign visitor to obtain a reader's ticket for the library, admission to the manuscript division is a much more complicated and lengthy procedure. For visitors not on the official exchange, application is usually handled by a formal letter from the visitor's embassy in Moscow to the Ministry of Culture.

53 (Moscow, 1961). For catalogues of the early manuscripts in the Lenin Library, see Djaparidzé, Mediaeval Slavic Manuscripts, pp. 31-39.

54 (Moscow, 1948). The copy of this guide in the manuscript division reading room has been corrected and brought up to date.

55 (Moscow, 1951).

56 (1938- ).

57 As in the case of the Lenin Library, the general guide to the library, while helpful for general research, has little information on the manuscript division. An English translation of the 1956 edition was published recently: Nikolai Iakovlevich Morachevskii, Guide to the M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library, Leningrad, tr. Raymond H. Fisher (Los Angeles, 1963; “UCLA Occasional Papers,” No. 14). The second Russian edition was published in Leningrad in 1962: As at the Lenin Library, admission to the manuscript division is through formal application to the Ministry of Culture (see note 52 above).

58 For a prerevolutionary description of the collection, see , I, Part 1, 781-841.

59 (1957- ). This publication supersedes the library's (Vols. I-III, 1953-55).

60 (Leningrad, 1940); (Leningrad, 1951); (Leningrad, 1952); (Leningrad, 1953); and the later reports, all written by A. H. MaxaieBa: , II (1954), 171-86; , III (1955), 187-99; , I (1957), 293-302; ibid., V (1958), 221-30.

61 See Djaparidé, Mediaeval Slavic Manuscripts, pp. 44-52.

62 , Vol. I (Moscow, 1958).

63 (1958- ). Before the Revolution also the museum published a journal which described its holdings: (1883-1925).

64 These holdings, which include the collection formerly belonging to the library of the Holy Synod, are described, and inventories or catalogues for them listed, in Djaparidzé pp. 22-31.