European Division

About the Collection

The uncataloged Russian and Ukrainian Pamphlet and Brochure Collection was acquired by the Library of Congress over many decades from diverse sources and placed in the custody of the European Division in 1956. Major components of this collection came from the Yudin collection, acquired by the Library of Congress in 1906, and from the United States consulates in Vyborg, Finland, and Riga, Latvia, through the Department of State, following World War II. Some of the materials were acquired on exchange from the New York Public Library and from libraries of the former Soviet Union, some were personal gifts, some were transferred from the libraries of government agencies, including embassy libraries.

The earliest imprint found in this collection is 1717; the latest belong to the end of the 1940s. Between the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and the revolutions of 1917, Russia underwent a period of significant development in its social and economic life, culture and education, science and scholarship. The revolution brought more dramatic changes into society. Nearly every major intellectual and social movement or idea, nearly every major concern, every new interest, every critical historical event in the period 1861-1949 is reflected in the material comprising the Russian and Ukrainian Pamphlet and Brochure Collection. A sampling includes such topics as the emergence of Russian Panslavism, English positivism and Herbert Spencer, the rise of the first native Slavic historians, discussions of the future of the Russian landownership system, memoirs dealing with the Decembrist revolutionaries, the education of women, the national question, and Russian orthography reform. Items dealing with the revolutionary period of 1917 to the early 1920s, the ensuing factionalism centering around such figures as Leon Trotsky, the Stalinist purges of the 1930s, and the invasion of the Soviet Union by German forces form a significant part of the collection. Titles published abroad are also represented; places of publication include many of the traditional centers of Russian emigre culture, such as Prague, Paris, Berlin, New York, and Geneva.

The collection contains several categories of material that deserve special mention:

• Limited editions
• Titles cited as "rare" in Soviet bibliographic sources
• Works censored either before release by the publisher or confiscated by censorship authorities from book sellers in Imperial Russia.
• Authors, editors, or writers of introductory material who were leading figures of the Communist party, but who later were denounced, expelled, or purged; some were executed.
• Publications by political parties and groups participating in the political struggle of the revolutionary period.
• Duplicates of works held by the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
• A previously unavailable work by a notable figure in a given field.