Metadata: Collection of Documents of a Memoiristic Nature
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- The Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering, and Communications Forces
- Holding institution (official language):
- Военно-исторический Музей артиллерии, инженерных войск и войск связи
- Postal address:
- 197198, Russia, St. Petersburg, Aleksandrovskii park, d. 7
- Phone number:
- (812) 610-33-01
- Web address:
- http://www.artillery-museum.ru/collection-fond.html
- Email:
- artillery@yandex.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 52-R
- Title:
- Collection of Documents of a Memoiristic Nature
- Title (official language):
- Коллекция документов мемуарного характера
- Creator/accumulator:
- G. E. Degtiarev and others
- Date(s):
- 1913/1998
- Language:
- Russian
- English
- Extent:
- 376 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Scope and content:
- Pertaining to the history of Jews in Russia are materials housed in ops. 4, 7, 9, and 10 that include personal documents of Jewish servicemen and Red/Soviet Army weapons designers, including autobiographical statements, questionnaire forms, service records, evaluations, work histories, membership cards, identification papers, certificates, photographs, letters, and memoiristic essays containing reminiscences of Jewish life in cities and towns of the Russian Empire in particular, by L. I. Malikin (1960s-70s), I. G. Kliatskin (1913-20s), A. E. and G. E. Nudel’man (1956-87), etc.; lists of servicemen of Soviet Army artillery units who died on the front from 1943 to 1945, including information on Jewish soldiers and officers compiled on the basis of materials from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TsAMO) in the 1970s and 1980s; etc.
- Archival history:
- This was established in 1703 by order of Emperor Peter I as the tseikhgaus (from the German Zeughaus, “arsenal”), a storehouse of “memorable and curious” artillery pieces. According to a special decree, the tseikhgaus was to receive the most valuable and interesting exemplars of artillery pieces from all over Russia, and later other types of weapons, uniforms, and banners, including such items taken as war trophies. In 1756 Empress Elizaveta Petrovna decreed that the tseikhgaus reorganise as the Commemorative Hall and be housed at the Foundry (Liteinyi dvor). Since 1868, the military-historical collections have been located at the Kronverk of the Peter and Paul Fortress. From 1903 on, it was called the Artillery History Museum. In the Soviet period, it received the fonds of the Central Historical Military Engineering Museum (1963), and in 1965 the Military Communications Museum became part of it. Since that time, the museum has been called the Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering, and Communications Forces. The museum includes a document fonds (archive), formed in November 1872 on the initiative of N. E. Brandenburg, the museum’s director. It consists of 130 fonds housing 217,261 storage units on the subjects of artillery, urban planning, geographic discoveries, medicine, and the history of diplomacy. Also housed in the archival files are letters, notebooks, diaries, and autograph manuscripts of statesmen, scientists, military leaders, designers, artists, and architects.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- This collection contains memoirs, letters, and essays about combat operations of various units of the Red Army and Soviet Army, mainly during the Second World War, as well as documents related to the activities of engineers and designers, signalmen, and arms development specialists. The materials were compiled in part by G. E. Degtiarev, who collected information about artillerymen of the Soviet Army in 1941-45.
- Access points: locations:
- Russia
- Access points: persons/families:
- Degtiarev, G E
- Kliatskin, I G
- Malikin, L I
- Nudel’man, A E
- Nudel’man, G E
- System of arrangement:
- The collection includes fourteen inventories systematised according to the thematic-chronological principle.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
