M. S. and S. S. Kutorga

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Российская национальная библиотека. Отдел рукописей

Postal address:: 91069, Russia, St. Petersburg, ul. Sadovaia, д. 18, main building

Scope and content:: Certain files and file fragments housed in the inventory sections “Letters of M. S. Kutorga” and “Materials of Other Persons” pertain to Jewish history and culture, including a manuscript by L. I. Mandel’shtam, who would go on to be a prominent scholar and public figure, titled “A discourse by L. I. Mandel’shtam, auditor of university lectures in the first philology department, on the subject [taught by] Prof. Mikhail Semenovich Kutorga. On Jewish antiquities,” which consists of two parts: “The political state (on the sociopolitical structure of the biblical period)” and “The beginning of the Talmud,” with an appended list of parts of the Talmud and the treatise Pirkei Avot, translated into Russian by the author (1844); an application-letter to M. S. Kutorga from M. Mikhlin of the city of Mstislavl’, who requests a position in the state Jewish school that was scheduled to be opened in the city; appended to the letter is an acrostic spelling “Mikhail” composed of “auspicious” biblical verses (Proverbs 19:17; Psalms 24:5, 112:6, 91:16; and Isaiah 66:11) (1851); etc.

Administrative/biographical history:: Mikhail Semenovich Kutorga (1809-86) was a historian who specialised in ancient Greece, and from 1848 on a corresponding member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He graduated from St. Petersburg University and the Derpt (Tartu) Professors’ Institute. In 1838, he defended a dissertation on “The Attic Tribes and Estates.” From 1835-69, he taught at St. Petersburg University; from 1869-74 at Moscow University. His main works: “The Political Structure of the Germanic Peoples prior to the Sixth Century” (1837); “The History of the Athenian Republic from the Assassination of Hipparch to the Death of Miltiades” (1848); “Critical Research on Legislation of Cleisthenes the Alcmaeonid” (1853); “The Persian Wars” (1858); “On the Division of Property in Athens and the Trapezites” (1858); and “The Struggle between Democracy and Aristocracy in the Ancient Greek Republics” (1875). The fonds also includes materials of M. S. Kutorga’s brother Stepan Semenovich Kutorga (1805-61), a St. Petersburg University professor of natural history; and materials of other persons.

Access points: persons/families:: Kutorga, M. S.; Kutorga, S. S. (Stepan Semenovich); Mandel’shtam, L. I.; Mikhlin, M.

Subject terms:: Bible; Correspondence; Education; Education--Schools and universities; Manuscripts; Professions; Professions--Scholars (secular), scientists, and academics; Talmud

System of arrangement:: The fonds includes a single inventory systematised according to the structural-chronological principle, and in part alphabetically.