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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: G-24

Last update of repository: 18 March 2020

Nauchno-tekhnicheskaia biblioteka Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta putei soobshcheniia (NTB PGUPS)


Fond rukopisnykh izdanii
[Fond of Manuscripts Publications]

Telephone: +7 812 457-86-11

Opening hours: M–F 9:30–18:00, Sa 9:30–16:00

Head: Irina Georgievna Tokareva (tel. +7 812 457-86-11)


Holdings

Total: ca. 1,000 units; 18th c.–to present

Documentary holdings of the fond include manuscript materials relating to the history of the administration of transportation and public buildings, as well as an extensive collection of architectural drawings and plans for engineering construction in Russia. Documentation of the Main Administration of Transportation, earlier held in the St. Petersburg Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1811–1813), includes materials on the design and construction of the most important canals and highways in Russia, as well as of the first Russian railroads. For example, there are technical notes and other documents relating to the construction of the Ladoga and Obvodnoi Canals, bridges and embankments in St. Petersburg, the Georgian Military Highway, St. Petersburg flood prevention projects (1792–1842), registers with measurements and descriptions of rivers, technical manuals, and expense records. Among other materials, there is a “Report on the Present Situation, Prospects, and Suggestions Regarding the Inland Water Transportation in Russia” (1782) by General Ia.E. Sivers, Director of Water Transportation; a file from the Chancellery of the Main Administration of Transportation relating to railroad construction in Russia submitted by the Austrian engineer Franz Anton von Gerstner (1835–1836), which documents plansfor the construction of the first Russian railroad connecting St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo; and a collection of comprehensive manuscript supplements to the I.F. Shtukenberg’s (Stuckenberg) “Hydrography in Russia” (1855).
        Most extensive is a collection of materials relating to the Institute of the Corps of Transportation Engineers itself, which includes the original reports of the Institute’s inspector and first director, Lieutenant-General Augustin de Béthencourt (A.A. Betankur), rescripts of Alexander I (1813–1819), journals of Institute conferences (1836–1842), resolutions of the Ministry, lists of professors and students, documents relating to the Institute buildings and workshops, and reports of expeditions undertaken by Institute teachers throughout Russia, Western Europe, and America, including data on hydrography, ports, communications, and transportation construction.
        A complex of documentation on construction and architecture includes the manuscript version of an “Elementary Course in Architecture” (1763) from August Ricard de Montferrand’s library and a collection of the architectural drawings of St. Petersburg historical monuments (1810s). It also includes technical notes and projects relating to construction in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Mykolaiv, Sevastopol, and Novgorod, and other cities in the Russian Empire, including plans by Pierre Dominique Bazain, August Béthencourt (A.A. Betankur, Betancourt), Jean-François Thomas de Thomon, M.O. Mikeshin, and A.A. Mikhailov, among others. Of considerable significance is the file of the Commission for the Construction of St. Isaac Cathedral (1821–1826) in St. Petersburg acquired from office papers of Alexander I, which includes the original plans by Pierre Dominique Bazaine, V.V. Stasov, A.A. Mikhailov, V.I. and A.V. Beretti, A.I. Mel'nikov, and August Ricard de Montferrand, along with sixteen folders of drawings relating to the Montferrand construction plan (1818–1868) approved by the Emperor, and sketches of the Cathedral interior (1843–1852) by F.P. Briullov, V.K. Shebuev, and Giovanni Battista (I.B.) Scotti, among others. There are also plans and drawings by Charles Cameron (1764), Carlo (K.I.) Rossi, Scotti, Montferrand, and others, for the interior decoration of palaces.
        There is a large collection of plans of Russian cities, including plans for water-supply, sewers, and heating systems, as well as maps of krais and oblasts, railroads and highways, and atlases, along with plans of rivers and canals and sea and river ports.
        A collection of biographical materials includes, for example, autobiographical notes of General F.P. Devolan, Chief Director of Transportation (1787–1815) and his letters to K.I. von Liphardt, Director of the Mariinskii Canal (1806–1815); the original signed register of I.P. Kulibin’s inventions (1807), letters of M.G. Destrem (1845), and the memoirs of A.I. Shtukenberg (Stuckenberg) (1836–1861), as well as correspondence of Minister of Transportation Admiral K.N. Pos'et (1874–1875) and the civil engineer N.A. Beleliubskii (1892–1901), who specialized in bridge-building.


Working conditions:
Files are delivered to the reading room on the day after orders are placed.

Reference facilities:
There is an alphabetical card catalogue; manuscript materials also are reflected in a systematic catalogue.

Copy facilities:
Xerox and photographic copies can be ordered.


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted