Metadata: Collection of Manuscripts in Russian
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- National Library of Latvia
- Holding institution (official language):
- Latvijas Nacionālā Bibliotēka
- Postal address:
- Mūkusalas iela 3, Rīga, 1423, Latvia
- Phone number:
- +371 6780 6100
- Web address:
- www.lnb.lv
- Email:
- lnb@lnb.lv
- Reference number:
- RXA179
- Title:
- Collection of Manuscripts in Russian
- Title (official language):
- Krievu rokrakstu kolekcija
- Creator/accumulator:
- National Library of Latvia
- Date(s):
- 1817/1975
- Language:
- Russian
- German
- Latin
- French
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 54 items
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The Collection of Manuscripts in Russian includes documents, clippings, reflections, reviews, periodicals, notes, bibliography, drafts, author manuscripts, literary transcripts, lecture notes, lesson summaries, study plans, methodologies, school notebooks, diaries, letters, drawings, maps, plans, and construction projects.
This collection includes two Jewish works. The first is a handwritten translation from Hebrew into Russian of Tractate Berakhot, including the draft and notes, dating from 1864-1877. Together with the translation of the Tractate, several pages of calculating finances for different years (starting from 1864) are kept, with brief comments in a mixture of Yiddish and Hebrew. Tractate Berakhot (lit. "Blessings") is the first tractate of Seder Zeraim ("Order of Seeds") of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. The tractate discusses the rules of prayers and blessings.
The second work is the Russian translation and draft of the manuscript "Lecture on Dreyfusiada" (Dreyfus affair). It was signed with the pseudonym “Dreamer”, translated into Russian in 1900 and published in volume 9 of the Historical and Literary Almanac “Evreyskaya biblioteka” ("The Jewish Library") in 1901. This work reflects the author’s attitude to the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, who was brought to trial on false charges of treason and espionage on behalf of Germany. As a result of the slanderous accusations against Dreyfus, the word "Dreyfusiada" in the Russian language of the late 19th-early 20th century began to mean "shameful court”. The author of the “Lecture on Dreyfusiada” writes: “The people of Dreyfus [i.e. Jews] were put between the new and the old, between humanism and hate, between individual thought and collective tradition, between freedom and slavery. And the merciless struggle between them was carried out at the cost of its suffering."
- Archival history:
- The Rare Book and Manuscript collection of the National Library of Latvia includes all printed matter (books, ephemera, periodicals, maps, picture books) published in Latvian until 1850, in Russian until 1800, in other languages until 1700, and rare and restricted works printed after those years (banned and repressed publications, first editions of classic works, luxury editions and imprints of polygraphic interest, items with notes by authors or distinguished persons, etc.). The manuscript collection is a compilation of handwritten texts of cultural and historical significance: manuscripts, letters, photographs and other items from personal archives. The manuscript collection currently holds more than 400 personal archives and collections – published and unpublished essays, manuscripts of literary works, letters, photographs, etc.
- Access points: locations:
- Latvia
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova, Riga