Metadata: A. E. Kaufman
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:
- F. 121
- Title:
- A. E. Kaufman
- Title (official language):
- Кауфман А. Е.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Kaufman, Abram Evgen’evich
- Date(s):
- 1848/1920
- Language:
- Russian
- Extent:
- 60 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
- The fonds contains letters to A. E. Kaufman from literary and public figures, including A. G. Gornfel’d (1919), M. Pergament (1921), V. I. Sreznevskii (undated), E. V. Tarle (1921), S. I. Shokhor-Trotskii (1919-21, and undated), I. I. Iasinskii (undated) and others; materials of various persons, including the autograph manuscript of an article by A. Gornfel’d titled “Rosa Luxemburg on V. G. Korolenko” (undated); minutes of a session (9 May 1919) of the commission to organise the funeral of Vera Zasulich; etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Abram Evgen’evich Kaufman (1855-1921) was a journalist, commentator, editor and memoirist. In 1871 he graduated from the Odessa Commercial School. He began contributing to Odessa newspapers in 1876. He published a pamphlet titled On the Eastern Question, which represents a Russian-Jewish response to events in the Balkans and the struggle for the Slavic peoples’ liberation from Ottoman rule. In 1876, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he studied at the university’s law school. At the same time, he was an active contributor to various newspapers in the capital, including Golos [The Voice]. From the late 1870s on, he was consistently involved with Russian-Jewish periodicals and was secretary of the editorial office of the weekly Russkii evrei [Russian Jew]. When this journal closed, he worked (1884-89) as editor of the newspaper Novosti (editor-in-chief and publisher: O. K. Notovich). He continued to contribute to Russian-Jewish periodicals, including the journal Voskhod [Sunrise]. He was also involved in carrying out a publishing programme, associated with operations of the High Commission for the Review of Current Legislation on the Jews (the Palen Commission), to combat antisemitic agitation; on the basis of materials he collected and arranged especially for members of this commission, P. P. Demidov San-Donato published a pamphlet titled The Jewish Question in Russia (St. Petersburg, 1883). In 1889, A. E. Kaufman moved to Odessa, where until 1904 he served as editor of the newspaper Odesskii listok and from 1895 to 1899 of the newspaper Odesskie novosti. In 1904, he returned to St. Petersburg and took the post of editor of the newspaper Birzhevye vedomosti. At the same time, he continued his study of issues of Jewish life in Russia and how to combat antisemitism. In 1907, he published a work titled Friends and Enemies of the Jews (vol. 1: D. I. Pikhno; vol. 2: V. A. Gringmut, M. N. Katkov, vol. 3: A. S. Suvorin; St. Petersburg, 1907-08). In 1919, he published a book titled The Tsarist Pogroms. Also in 1919, he was elected chair of the Writers’ and Scholars’ Mutual Assistance Society and became the editor-publisher of the journal Vestnik literatury.
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: locations:
- Russia
- Access points: persons/families:
- Pergament, M
- Subject terms:
- Correspondence
- Literature
- Manuscripts
- Revolutions
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is arranged according to the thematic-chronological principle.
- Finding aids:
- A card catalogue is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
