Materials from Expeditionary Research in Central Asia

Collection

Postal address:: 191036, St. Petersburg, 1-aia Sovetskaia ul., d. 10, lit. K, 1-N

Scope and content:: The fonds contains the following expedition materials: op. 1 includes reports and journals of expedition participants; projects and programs of Central Asia research compiled by staff members of the St. Petersburg Jewish University; correspondence with staff members of local museums; tourist maps of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, etc. (1988-94). Op. 2 includes surveys of synagogue structures and ritual items in cities of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, as well as a collection of prints of reliefs of Jewish gravestones (1992). Op. 3 contains photoGraphic materials (1930-92), including expedition photographs (1992) and copies of photos from the photograph archive of the Indigenous Jewish Museum in Samarkand, made by expedition photographer M. Kheifets from originals that had been taken in 1930-35 and that are housed in the Samarkand State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum Reserve (1992). (See also the description of f. 5 [“Historical Materials”] of the Archive of the St. Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies.). Op. 4 includes a collection of colour slides from the 1992-94 Central Asian expeditions. Ops. 5 and 6 contain audio and video interviews with local residents, including Bukharan Jews, recorded during expeditions on cassette tapes, and transcripts thereof. Ops. 7 and 8 include printed and handwritten materials collected during expeditions that pertain to the history and culture of the Jews of Central Asia (1981-92).

Archival history:: Materials were archived by expedition leaders as the documents collected were processed.

Administrative/biographical history:: Historical-ethnographic expeditions to Central Asia were organised by I. Dvorkin from 1988 to 1994. (For detail on these expeditions, see T. Vyshenskaia, “Rezul’taty ekspeditsii v Sredniuiu Aziu. Obzor”, in I. S. Dvorkin, ed., Evrei v Srednei Azii. Proshloe i nastoiashchee: Ekspeditsii, issledovaniia, publikatsii [St. Petersburg, 1995)], 20-69.) Expedition participants who worked in the cities of Tashkent, Andijan, Bukhara, Kattakurgan, Kokand, Margilan, Namangan, Samarkand, Fergana, Shakhrisabz (Uzbekistan) and Dushanbe (Tajikistan) included E. Byshevskaia, T. Vyshenskaia, M. Davidson, V. Dymshits, O. Dymshits, A. L’vov, R. Nektalov, M. Nosonovskii, Iu. Olshanetskaia, I. Pecherskii, V. Rytsar’, B. Khaimovich, M. Kheifets and others.

Subject terms:: Cemeteries; Cemeteries--Gravestones; Ceremonial objects; Correspondence; Museums; Oral history; Photographs; Synagogues

System of arrangement:: The fonds comprises eight series arranged chronologically, as well as in the order in which materials were received by the archive.