Metadata: M. I. Semevskii
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. 274
- Title:
- M. I. Semevskii
- Title (official language):
- Семевский М. И.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Semevskii, Mikhail Ivanovich
- Date(s):
- 1718/1914
- Language:
- Russian
- Italian
- German
- French
- English
- Extent:
- 825 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The fonds contains materials pertaining to the life and activities of M. I. Semevskii: his articles, travel notes, notebooks, speeches and preparatory materials for his research work (1775-1892); correspondence; an album of visitors’ autographs, including, in particular, that of A. G. Rubinshtein (1883); documents of relatives of M. I. Semevskii and various other persons (1819-90), etc.
Materials pertaining to the history of Jews in Russia (op. 1) include notebooks of M. I. Semevskii that in particular contain a description of the life of the Jewish population of Saratov and Astrakhan’, made during a trip from St. Petersburg to Astrakhan’ (1853); travel notes written during a trip to Europe that include M. I. Semevskii’s opinions regarding the “Jewish question” in Russia (1887); documents pertaining to M. I. Semevskii’s activities as a councillor of the St. Petersburg Municipal Duma, including a printed list of duma councillors elected in 1889-93, among them, G. E. Gintsburg, an actual state councillor and merchant of the first guild; etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Mikhail Ivanovich Semevskii (1837-92) was a historian, journalist and public figure. In 1847, he entered the Polotsk Cadet Corps, graduating in 1852. Upon receiving the rank of non-commissioned officer, that same year he entered the St. Petersburg Noblemen’s Regiment. In 1855, he was assigned to the Pavlovsk Regiment’s Leib Guard with the rank of ensign. He was in military service until 1861, joining the First Cadet Corps in 1857 as a training officer. In 1861-62, he taught at the Smol’nyi Institute for Noble Young Ladies. He subsequently served in the State Chancellery, on the Main Committee on Rural Organisation, and until 1882 was involved in St. Petersburg’s municipal government. From 1877 on, he was a councillor on the Petersburg Municipal Duma and from 1883 to 1885 he served as deputy mayor. Having become associated in the mid-1850s with the Moscow literary milieu and having attended university lectures, M. I. Semevskii first published historical pieces in the journal Moskvitianin. His area of interest was the history of the 18th and first half of the 19th century: Petrine-era palace coups and political intelligence, and biographies of 18th-century statesmen. He played a significant role in Russian scholarship and culture as publisher of the historical journal Russkaia starina [Russian Antiquity]. He was a member of the Archaeographic Commission and an honorary member of the Archaeological Institute. He undertook research trips around Russia and familiarised himself with the work of scholarly archival commissions. He was the author of the studies Historical and Legal Documents of the 17th and 18th century Collected by Mikhail Semevskii (Moscow, 1870), Essays and Stories from Russian History of the 18th century (in three volumes; St. Petersburg, 1883-84) and The Political and Social Ideas of the Decembrists (St. Petersburg, 1909), in which, in particular, he discussed the Decembrists’ attitude toward the “Jewish question”.
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:
- Astrakhan
- Russia
- Saratov
- St Petersburg
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises three series arranged by structure, theme and alphabetically.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary