Metadata: Collection of Historical and Literary Materials Received from the M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Holding institution (official language):
- Институт русской литературы (Пушкинский Дом) Российской Академии наук
- Postal address:
- 199034, St. Petersburg, nab. Makarova, d. 4
- Phone number:
- (812) 328-19-01
- Web address:
- http://www.pushkinskijdom.ru
- Email:
- irliran@mail.ru
- Reference number:
- Category III
- Title:
- Collection of Historical and Literary Materials Received from the M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- Title (official language):
- Собрание историко-литературных материалов, поступивших из Института мировой литературы им. М. Горького Академии наук СССР
- Creator/accumulator:
- Bakhrushin A A; Bakhrushin Museum; M Gorky Institute of World Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- Date(s):
- 1726/1951
- Language:
- Russian
- Yiddish
- French
- German
- Italian
- English
- Extent:
- 5,352 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The fonds contains a large collection of materials of Sholem Aleichem (op. 1); these may be provisionally divided into three thematic groups :
1) Letters from Sholem Aleichem (autograph manuscripts and typewritten copies), in particular, to his son M. S. Rabinovich (with postscripts by his wife O. M. Rabinovich, née Loeva) and his daughter E. S. Rabinovich, in which, among other things, the writer encourages his son’s experiments with translating his works from Yiddish into Russian and gives him various recommendations (1908-10); to his relative (on his wife’s side) N. E. Mazor (1886-1915) and her husband, the Kiev attorney I. S. Mazor (some with postscripts by O. M. Rabinovich), which cover a wide range of personal and literary-social issues in the writer’s life (1886-87, 1910-11); to Iu. I. Pinus, the translator of Sholem Aleichem’s works into Russian for the Moscow publishing house Sovremennye problemy, with a list of texts to be translated, notes and comments on translations, a copy of a letter from the translator Orlonskaia, copies of letters from Sholem Aleichem to the Sovremennye problemy publishing house, etc. (1910-13); to E. Feigin, with an enclosed typewritten copy of a letter from Sholem Aleichem to Feigin and a postscript by Ia. M. Rasnovskii to O. M. Rabinovich (1906); to A. B. Gurevich (1910) and the editorial office of Novaia zhizn’ [New Life] requesting that certain adjustments be made to the text of his satire All’s Well (1905).
2) Letters to Sholem Aleichem (autograph manuscripts): from Anton Chekhov, giving his consent to Yiddish translations of his stories for a collection to benefit Jewish victims of the Kishinev pogrom (1903), from the translator O. I. Liokumovich with various considerations regarding issues of translating the novel Wandering Stars, and with editing marks by Sholem Aleichem (1910) and from A. V. Amfiteatrova, with praise for works of Sholem Aleichem (1912).
3) Letters of relatives of Sholem Aleichem, including from O. M. Rabinovich to M. S. Rabinovich (1910) and to N. E. Mazor (1909-14), with postscripts by Sholem Aleichem; from E. S. Rabinovich to Iu. I. Pinus (1910); and from L. S. Kaufman (née Rabinovich; Sholem Aleichem’s daughter) to Iu. I. Pinus on behalf of Sholem Aleichem (1910).
The fonds also contains (op. 1) manuscripts of David Aizman’s plays Shepherds and Consul Granat (1921); letters from Shimen Frug (1888-92), S. A. Vengerov (1905-14) and E. N. Chirikov (1908-27) to various persons; letters from A. L. Flekser (Volynskii) to I. R. Kugel’ (1917); from S. M. Harkavy to the newspaper Kievskaia mysl’ (1913) and from Iu. I. Pinus to the Academy of Sciences of the Belorussian SSR (1930); a ticket for a place in the funeral procession for the transfer of the body of A. G. Rubinshtein to the Aleksandr Nevskii monastery in St. Petersburg (1894); etc.
- Archival history:
- The fonds was transferred from the M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IMLI) by decision of the bureau of the Literature and Language Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences on 31 May 1951. The basis of the fonds was the collection of the Bakhrushin Museum.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
In 1932, in accordance with a decree of the presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee (“On measures to mark the 40th anniversary of Maksim Gorky’s literary activity”), the M. Gorky Literary Institute was founded. In 1934, it was renamed the A. M. Gorky Institute of Literature by decree of the presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee. The institute’s first director was L. B. Kamenev. In 1937, the institute established the Maksim Gorky archive and museum. In 1938, it became part of the USSR Academy of Sciences and received its current name, the M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Academy of Sciences.
The Bakhrushin Museum was established in 1894, when the theatre patron and collector of theatrical rarities A. A. Bakhrushin first offered his collection to public viewing. In 1913, it was transferred to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences on the condition that it remain in Moscow. After the October Revolution, the museum became part the network of state institutions of the RSFSR, and by order of V. I. Lenin the museum was named for its founder (complete title: the A. A. Bakhrushin State Theatre Museum) and Bakhrushin himself was given a lifelong appointment as its director. The museum’s collection currently numbers over 1.5 million exhibition items.
The Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) (IRLI RAN) is a research institution within the Russian Academy of Sciences system. It was established in December 1905 on the initiative of several Russian cultural figures. In 1899, the Academy of Sciences had organised a commission to prepare celebrations of the centenary of Alexander Pushkin’s birth. The commission originally planned to erect a monument to the poet, but eventually it was decided to establish a museum and library. In April 1906, government funding was allocated for the acquisition of Pushkin’s library, which, upon its transfer to Pushkin House, became the initial basis for an enormous collection of books, manuscripts, and items related to the great Russian poet. The main fonds of the Pushkin House was assembled by B L Modzalevskii. He also drafted the “Pushkin House statute”, ratified by Emperor Nicholas II in 1907. Since 1930, the Pushkin House has been the academic Institute of Russian Literature while also preserving its original name of Pushkin House. In 1955, the Pushkin House was added to the State Codex of Particularly Valuable Objects of Cultural Heritage. The Pushkin House is currently one of the leading centres for research on Russian literature.
The manuscripts department constitutes a complex for source studies; along with the literary museum and library, it served as the basis for the establishment of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) (IRLI RAN) in 1930. It was organised in 1906, when the Pushkin House received the library of A. S. Pushkin, numbering over 3,500 volumes. In 1908, the first manuscript materials were received: A. N. Pleshcheev’s letters to V. D. Dandevil’ and autograph manuscripts of A. S. Pushkin; subsequently received (1928) was a collection of Pushkin-era manuscripts and memorabilia that had belonged to A. F. Onegin. By resolution of the government (1938) and Academy (1948), all Pushkin autograph manuscripts formerly held in the country’s various archives were concentrated at Pushkin House. In 1917, the manuscript heritage of M. Iu. Lermontov was transferred to Pushkin House, and in 1919, the Dashkov collection and the collection of M. I. Semevskii, consisting especially of the extensive archive of the journal Russkaia starina [Russian Antiquities]. Upon the incorporation of Pushkin House into the Academy of Sciences structure in 1930, the manuscripts department was established and tasked with the special functions of collecting, housing, systematising and studying the manuscript heritage of Russian writers, and fonds of their personal papers were organised. The manuscripts department also includes collections of literary organisations, publishing houses and periodicals. In all, the manuscripts department houses over 900 fonds and collections. There are also numerous reference and biblioGraphic materials, first and foremost the card catalogue of S. A. Vengerov. This is joined by the card catalogues of B. L. and L. B. Modzalevskii, as well as of V. I. Saitov; these contain bibliographic, biographical and genealogical information, not only about writers but also about the entire cultural stratum of 19th-century Russian society. The manuscripts department is constantly updated with new materials. The department’s research activities are reflected in its publications and editions, its primary serial being the Yearbook of the Manuscripts Department of Pushkin House. The web site of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) features an electronic version of the publication Personal Fonds of the Manuscripts Department of Pushkin House. An Annotated Index (St. Petersburg, 1999).
- Access points: persons/families:
- Chirikov
- Sholem Aleichem
- Vengerov, S. A.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises four series arranged mainly according to the structural-alphabetical principle.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
