Metadata: E. V. Molostvova
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- State Museum of the History of Religion
- Holding institution (official language):
- Государственный музей истории религии
- Postal address:
- 190000, Russia, St. Petersburg, Pochtamskaia ul., d. 14/5
- Phone number:
- (812) 315-30-80
- Web address:
- www.gmir.ru
- Email:
- gmir@relig-museum.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 5
- Title:
- E. V. Molostvova
- Title (official language):
- Молоствова Е. В.
- Creator/accumulator:
- E. V. Molostvova
- Date(s):
- 1786/1936
- Language:
- Russian
- French
- German
- English
- Extent:
- 876 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- The fonds contains letters from various persons to E. V. Molostvova, including a letter from E. I. Zamyatin (1929), letters from V. D. Bonch-Bruevich (1909-32), and others; correspondence of various persons, in particular, letters of Lev Tolstoy, I. S. Prugavin, and N. S. Il’in (1850s-1930s); manuscripts by various persons; diaries of Lev Tolstoy, as well as materials of E. V. Molostvova pertaining to Lev Tolstoy: excerpts from his notebooks, diaries, etc. (1900s-30s); business documents; etc. The fonds contains a set of materials pertaining to the religious movement of the Jehovist-Il’inists (they called themselves egovisty; E. V. Molostvova uses iegovisty), including writings of N. S. Il’in; an excerpt by E. V. Molostvova from the journal Maiak [The Beacon], in which the movement’s founder published his early works, as well as numerous letters from Jehovists and other materials, which describe, in particular, the influence of Judaism on the Jehovist movement; letters from the Jewish historian S. M. Ginzburg expressing interest in E. V. Molostvova’s study of the trend in “religious sectarianism that is tangential to Jewish religious doctrine,” and requesting that she send an article about the Jehovists for publication in vols. II-III of Perezhitoe [The Past]. The fonds also contains materials on the history of converts to Judaism and Soviet Jews, and in particular, a typewritten copy of a letter from N. D. Platonov to A. Kh. Breido in which the former tells “Brother Aron” of difficulties arising from the incompatibility of certain aspects of his faith with military service (1909); letters from the medical doctor l. A. Iakobson to E. V. Molostvova, including a description of military service during the First World War (1914), and of life in the village of Malakhovka (Moscow region), which had a significant Jewish population (1935); etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Elizaveta Vladimirovna Molostvova (nee Ber, 1873-1936) was a researcher of Russian sectarianism and a commentator. She studied in Italy and France. Upon returning to Russia, she worked as a teacher at the women’s Sunday school in Nizhnii Novgorod, and later enrolled in the Bestuzhev courses in St. Petersburg. Under the influence of Lev Tolstoy, she became interested in the study of Russian sectarianism. In 1909, she read a report at the Imperial Russian Geographic Society on the Jehovist-Il’inist sect, founded in 1849-50 by retired Artillery Captain N. S. Il’in. In 1910, she was elected a member of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society. After 1917, on the direct orders of Vladimir Lenin and Anatolii Lunacharskii, E. V. Molostvova was appointed the curator of the library and archive located on her family estate of Dolgaya Polyana. In 1920, the estate was nationalised, but E. V. Molostvova continued to live in the manor house, which was subsequently used as a Writers’ House of Creativity and Recreation. For some time she served as chair of the Dolgaya Polyana sovkhoz. In the 1930s, she was active in researching the flora of the Kazan’ province, and organised a regional history department in the village. She was elected an honorary member of the Archeology, History, and Ethnography Society of Kazan University. She also engaged in literary activity, and studied the works of Lev Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev; during preparation of the jubilee edition of Tolstoy’s collected works, she edited and compiled commentaries on forty-two volumes.
- Access points: locations:
- Malakhovka
- Moscow
- Russia
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes a single inventory systematised according to the structural-chronological principle, and in part alphabetically.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
