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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: E-28

Last update of repository: 15 March 2020

Institut russkoi literatury (Pushkinskii Dom) RAN (IRLI/PD)


Rukopisnyi otdel
[Manuscript Division]

Telephone: +7 812 328-19-01

Fax: +7 812 328-11-40

Website: http://www.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default....  (Rus); http://ro.pushkinskijdom.ru/;  http://www.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default....  (Eng)

Opening hours: MWTh 10:00–17:00 (closed July and August)

Head: Tat'iana Sergeevna Tsar'kova (tel. +7 812 328-19-01)


Holdings

Total: 826 fonds; 261,175 units; 18th c.–1993
institutional fonds—53; personal papers—769 fonds; archival collections (razriady)—6

The Manuscript Division is the largest depository of archival materials relating to the history of Russian literature and world culture from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, including a number of important groups of institutional records from literary and other organizations and publications, and extensive personal papers of literary and other cultural figures.
        The pride of the Manuscript Division is the core fond of the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin (7,734 units). Here are found almost all of Pushkin’s autograph literary manuscripts and many other documents (notebooks, diaries, letters, and sketches), as well as documentary materials relating to his life and creative work, scholarly work on Pushkin (including materials for the scholarly edition of his complete works), and the archives of various members of Pushkin’s family.
        The Pushkin epoch is also characterized by personal papers of many poets and writers, such as K.N. Batiushkov, A.S. Griboedov, and V.A. Zhukovskii, the Orientalist and literary figure, O.I. Senkovskii, President of the Russian Academy Admiral A.S. Shishkov, and also many materials of the Decembrists. Although the largest complexes of documentary materials are from the nineteenth century, the historical and literary heritage of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is represented, for example, by the personal papers of A.T. Bolotov, G.R. Derzhavin, V.V. Kapnist, and I.A. Krylov. There is a particularly large collection of M.Iu. Lermontov papers, which had earlier been donated to the former Lermontov Museum of the Nicholas Cavalry School. Also of considerable importance are the papers of N.V. Gogol', with many literary manuscripts, drawings, and correspondence. Subsequent literary, social, and cultural developments are reflected in the personal fonds of V.G. Belinskii, Sovremennik publisher P.A. Pletnev, the Aksakov family archive, documentary collections of the historian D.N. Bantysh-Kamenskii, the Minister of Internal Affairs and President of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences D.N. Bludov, the historians P.G. Butkov and A.I. Mikhailovskii-Danilevskii, the publisher of the journals Teleskop and Molva N.I. Nadezhdin, and the composer M. Iu. Viel'gorskii, to name only a few.
        The documentary heritage of literary and cultural leaders from the mid- to late nineteenth century is represented by the personal papers of N.A. Dobroliubov, F.M. Dostoevskii, V.M. Garshin, A.I. Herzen (Gertsen), N.S. Leskov, N.A. Nekrasov, Ia.P. Polonskii, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, and I.S. Turgenev.
        Among personal papers of journalists, literary critics, Slavicists, philologists and historians of the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century, are the documentary collections of E.F. Budde, Ia.K. Grot, A.F. and F.A. Koni, N.A. Kotliarevskii, L.N. Maikov, B.L. Modzalevskii, V.N. Peretts, A.N. Pypin, and A.N. Veselovskii, to name only a few.
        Among the largest group of materials spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are the personal and family papers of the poets A.A. Blok (over 1,000 file units), and those of M.A. Voloshin (over 1,500 file units). Other significant fonds include those of L.N. Andreev, V.Ia. Briusov, A.I. Kuprin, A.M. Remizov, Grand Duke Constantine (Konstantin) Romanov (pseud.—K.R), F.K. Sologub (pseud. of F.K. Terernikov), and the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, along with many others.
        Among many fonds of literary organizations from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, are those of the Free Society of Friends of Russian Philology (Vol'noe obshchestvo liubitelei rossiiskoi slovesnosti) (1816–1825), the Society of Friends of Fatherland Philology in Kazan (1806–1828), the Literary Foundation (1859–1860 and 1870–1921), which was established in 1859 for assistance to men of letters and scholars (the other part of its files is held in the Manuscript Division of the Russian National Library). There are also fonds of the Society of Mutual Assistance among Russian Writers (1897–1901), the Society of Playwrights and Operatic Composers (1841–1926), and the Russian Bibliological Society (1899–1930), among others.
        Literary movements in the prerevolutionary period are represented by the archives of the “Ogni” publishing house (1909–1923), and the editorial records of such important journals as Sovremennik, Russkaia mysl', Russkaia starina, Russkoe bogatstvo, and Severnyi vestnik, and also a number of less well-known publications, all of which retain rich documentation on Russian history and culture from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Among the most voluminous is the extensive archive of the editor and publisher of Vestnik Evropy, M.M. Stasiulevich, which includes scholarly works, records of editorial and publishing activities, and letters of Russian and foreign social and cultural leaders. There are also records of the museums which became part of Pushkin House, such as the Museum of the Alexander Lyceum, the Nekrasov and Tolstoi Museums, as well as the archives of the Ia.P. Polonskii circle and the village of Trigorskoe.
        Literary materials of the Soviet era are represented by the personal papers and archival collections of poets, writers, and literary critics, such as M.A. Bulgakov, S.A. Esenin (Yesenin), Sholom Aleichem (Sholom-Aleikhem, pseud. of Sh.N. Rabinovich), M.L. Slonimskii, and M.M. Zoshchenko. There are also personal fonds of philologists and literary scholars, such as M.P. Alekseev, V.P. Andrianova-Peretts, S.D. Balukhatyi, D.S. Likhachev, V.A. Manuilov, N.K. Piksanov, V.Ia. Propp, and P.E. Shchegolev.
        Among institutional materials from the postrevolutionary epoch are the fonds of the Leningrad Division of the All-Russian Union of Soviet Writers, the All-Russian Union of Poets, theFederation of Associations of Soviet Writers, the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers—RAPP (Rossiiskaia assotsiatsiia proletarskikh pisatelei), and the editorial records of the journals Zvezda, Zemlia sovetskaia, and Perelom, and the Leningrad Division of the State Publishing House for Belles-Lettres, along with others.
        Among the miscellaneous special collections of manuscript materials (razriady) there are autographs (literary manuscript materials and/or letters) of many foreign writers of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, including English writers (George Byron, Walter Scott, William Thackeray, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, H.G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw); American writers (James Fenimore Cooperand Mark Twain); French writers (Voltaire, Denis Diderot, René de Chateaubriand, Honoré de Balzac, Pierre Béranger, Prosper Mérimée, Émile Zola, Anatole France, Guy de Maupassant, Romain Rolland, and Henri Barbusse); and German writers (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Friedrich von Schiller); and many others. There are also autograph documents of many foreign scientists and scholars, musicians, actors, artists, and political leaders, including original music scores of Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
        Some manuscripts and literary autographs are subdivided into subject-related or personal collections (razriady), including collections of family albums, Masonic-related materials, questionnaires of the All-Russian Society of Journalists, jubilee and other congratulatory documents, manuscripts of dissertations defended in IRLI, listings of writings of foreign authors from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, as well as a collection of materials relating to the history of Russian literature that were acquired from the A.M. Gorkii Institute of World Literature (IMLI) in 1951.
        A number of important reference materials and special collections are also held in the so-called Sixth Subdivision (Razriad VI) of the Manuscript Division, including the card catalogue of the bibliographer S.A. Vengerov together with autobiographical essays and portraits of Russian writers from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century; the card catalogue compiled by B.L. Modzalevskii on the history of nineteenth-century Russian literature (complemented by catalogues of L.B. Modzalevskiiand V.I. Saitov); the card catalogue of N.M. Lisovskii with his analytics of Russian periodicals and bibliographic data on Russian theater, music, and literary life; part of the V.I. Mezhov card files with materials for his Russian historical bibliography (Russkaia istoricheskaia bibliografiia) for 1800–1854; a number of unpublished dictionaries of Russian writers and necropolises; V.F. Bulgakov’s “Dictionary of Russian Writers Abroad”; and a card file for a dictionary of literary pseudonyms, among others. Also of note is the card catalogue of A.D. Alekseev with lists of contents of Russian artistic journals (1900–1918) and émigré press, a card file of literary materials published in major newspapers in the early twentieth century, and the unpublished catalogue by B.I. Koplan, “Descriptionof Manuscripts in Pushkinskii Dom dating to 1816 (18th c.)”.


Working conditions:
There are currently only eight places available in the reading room, which often limits the possibilities of accommodating researchers. Currently one can order up to five files a day, with delivery from one to three days. Advance orders for manuscript materials are usually advisable.

Reference facilities:
Opisi are available for all processed fonds in printed, typewritten, or manuscript form. There are extensive card catalogues (with names and subjects) covering many fonds, but the extent and comprehensiveness of coverage varies tremendously with individual fonds. For the most thoroughly processed fonds, card catalogues even include personal name references within letters or to addressees, and other materials by a given individual in fonds other than that of the creator. Of special interest for eighteenth-century materials is the unpublished catalogue of B.I. Koplan mentioned above, which is held as a manuscript in the division.
        Electronic catalogue available on the website: http://ro.pushkinskijdom.ru/.

Copy facilities:
Xerox, microfilm, and photographic copies can be ordered, but xerox is not normally permitted of manuscript materials.


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted