Metadata: Chancellery of the Russian Geographic Society
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Russian Geographic Society
- Holding institution (official language):
- Русское географическое общество
- Postal address:
- 190000, Russia, St. Petersburg, per. Grivtsova, d. 10, litera A
- Phone number:
- (812) 315-62-82
- Web address:
- http://www.rgo.ru/ru
- Email:
- rgo@rgo.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 1
- Title:
- Chancellery of the Russian Geographic Society
- Title (official language):
- Канцелярия Русского географического общества
- Creator/accumulator:
- Chancellery of the Russian Geographic Society
- Date(s):
- 1845/2010
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- approx. 6,000 storage units [Supplementation of the fond is ongoing, and it was being processed when this description was written; information given is as of 30 November 2014.]
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
Housed in the fonds are recordkeeping documents of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society / Russian Geographic Society from its founding to the present day: its bylaws; minutes and logs of sessions of its general assembly, council, and subdivisions (departments, commissions, etc.), and in particular regarding the outfitting of expeditions; publication of the society’s studies; drawing up various agendas; exchanging society publications; and electing full members of the society; lists of society members; reviews of their research studies; lists of the society’s personnel; materials on financial issues; departmental correspondence, including letters on providing the Imperial Russian Geographic Society with statistical and ethnographic information on the population of the Russian Empire, etc.
Materials pertaining to the history of Jews in Russia are found mainly in op. 1. Among these is a significant set of documents on the outfitting of an ethnographic expedition to the western provinces of the Russian Empire led by the well-known journalist, ethnographer, historian, and geographer P. P. Chubinskii (pt. 1, 1862-69; pt. 2, 1870-78), which contains correspondence between various subdivisions of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of the Imperial Court, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of State Properties, the Ministry of Communications, and the Synod on various issues pertaining to the organisation and conduct of the expedition: its financing, route, mission, participants, etc.; extracts and manuscript copies of fragments and clippings from the Journal of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society on sessions of the society’s council that dealt with the expedition (1862-70); the “Project for an historical-ethnographic journey through Russia”; expedition agendas, including the “Agenda for collecting information on folk superstitions and beliefs in southern Russia,” etc.; draft notes, memoranda, and comments on the study of the population of the western Russian Empire during the expedition, including letters on studying the religious life of “the Russian Orthodox, Old Believers, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims”; an unsigned letter “on an expedition … on the Jewish question” in Russia (1862-67); an unsigned memorandum (presumably by P. P. Chubinskii) titled “On Jews,” and in particular, on the conduct of a statistical study of the Jewish population of the West-Russian territory (undated); a handwritten report by P. P. Chubinskii on the conduct of the expedition, part of which includes information on the leasing of taverns in the western provinces by Jews (1869); a letter, also by P. P. Chubinskii, that deals with the publication of the expedition’s studies, and in particular, indicating that extant materials included detailed “maps on Jews and Poles” (1878); etc.
The fonds also contains a collection of documents titled “On Mr. [Ia. A.] Brafman’s petition to continue, at the society’s expense, the publication undertaken by him of The Book of the Kahal,” including a memorandum by Imperial Russian Geographic Society member Iakov Brafman regarding publication, at the society’s expense, of The Book of the Kahal and an unfinished work titled Jewish Brotherhoods (Local and Worldwide), said to include “materials collected over the course of many years for the study of Jewish life”; an excerpt concerning a discussion with Ia. A. Brafman regarding the publication of his book Jewish Brotherhoods and The Book of the Kahal, published in the city of Vil’na, with a summary of the contents and significance of both works; a letter to the council of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society regarding the setting of an honorarium for his book (1870); correspondence of Baron F. P. Litke (vice-chairman of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society), Education Minister Count D. A. Tolstoi, and Education Ministry Administrator I. Delianov with Ia. A. Brafman regarding the publication of his works (1871); etc.
Also housed in the fonds are documents on N. A. Kolbondarl’s presentation of a statistical description of the Bessarabia region to the Imperial Russian Geographic Society; presentation of similar materials “on the settlement of the city of Ekaterinoslav”; and P. Ia. Skal’kovskii’s presentation of “information on the Novorossiia territory” (1852); as well as correspondence between the Mogilev Provincial Statistics Committee and the Imperial Russian Geographic Society regarding the forwarding of an article by G. Berman titled “An Essay on the Ethnography of the Jewish Population in Russia” (1881); etc.
- Archival history:
- The Russian Geographic Society (RGO) was founded by imperial decree of Emperor Nicholas I and on recommendation of Interior Minister L. A. Perovskii on 6 (18) August 1845. The idea to establish the society was conceived by Admiral Baron F. P. Litke (subsequently head of the Imperial Academy of Sciences), tutor of Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich, the future first chairman of the RGO. The mission of the RGO was to “assemble and direct the best young minds of Russia toward a comprehensive study of their native land.” The RGO combined specialists in geography and allied sciences, as well as travel enthusiasts, ethnographers, and public figures. In the course of its activities it was renamed on several occasions: from 1845-50, it was called the Russian Geographic Society (RGO); from 1850-1917, the Imperial Russian Geographic Society (IRGO); from 1917-25, the Russian Geographic Society (RGO); from 1925-38, the State Geographic Society (GGO); from 1938-92, the Geographic Society of the USSR (the All-Union Geographic Society; VGO); from 1992-95, the Russian Geographic Society; and from 1995 to the present, the All-Russian Public Organization “Russian Geographic Society” (VOO “RGO”). At different times, the society has been headed by representatives of the royal family, famous travellers, researchers, and statesmen. The hundreds of expeditions organised by the society have played an important role in the colonisation of the Arctic, Siberia, the Far East, Central Asia, Australia, and the world’s oceans and seas. Honorary members of the IRGO / RGO have included statesmen, public figures, and scientists of Russia – P. P. Semenov-Tian-Shanskii, Count S. Iu. Witte, N. I. Vavilov, V. I. Vernadskii, Baron F. P. Vrangel’, A. M. Gorchakov, V. I. Dal’, V. A. Obruchev – as well as Leopold II of Belgium, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid, Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden, King Oscar II of Norway, Shah Naser al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia, Baron Ferdinand Richthofen, Roald Amundsen, Fridtjof Nansen, and Thor Heyerdahl. Since 2009, the president of the Russian Geographic Society has been RF Defense Minister S. K. Shoigu. In 2010, the RGO Board of Trustees was established; it is headed by RF Pres. Vladimir Putin.
- Access points: locations:
- Ekaterinoslav
- Russia
- St Petersburg
- Vil’na
- Access points: persons/families:
- Berman, G.
- Brafman, Ia. A.
- Chubinskii, P. P.
- Delianov, I.
- Farb, A. Ia.
- Kolbondarl, N. A.
- Litke, F. P.
- P. Skal’kovskii, Ia.
- Tolstoi, D. A.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes five inventories systematised mainly chronologically; there is a card catalogue systematised chronologically.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary