Metadata: K. B. Starkova
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Holding institution (official language):
- Институт восточных рукописей Российской Академии наук
- Postal address:
- 191186, St. Petersburg, Dvortsovaia nab., d. 18
- Phone number:
- (812) 315-87-28
- Web address:
- http://www.orientalstudies.ru
- Email:
- iom@orientaistudies.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 158
- Title:
- K. B. Starkova
- Title (official language):
- Старкова К. Б.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Starkova, Klavdiia Borisovna
- Date(s):
- 1935/2000
- Language:
- Russian
- English
- French
- German
- Arabic
- Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE); Imperial Aramaic (700-300 BCE)
- Hebrew
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 195 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
Documents pertaining to Jewish history and culture may be provisionally divided into the following thematic groups:
1) The section “Scholarly works and materials pertaining thereto” includes manuscripts and typescripts of published and unpublished works by K. B. Starkova: a draft of her dissertation “Leningrad Fragments of the ‘Diwan’ of Yehuda Halevi” (1944-85); fragments of manuscripts containing translations of the “Diwan” of Yehuda Halevi (no later than 1944); an outline of an undefended doctoral dissertation titled “The Poet Solomon ibn Gabirol” (no later than the early 1950s); her dissertation for her advanced doctorate in philology, “Monuments of Qumran Literature” (1971), published in The Palestine Collection (no. 4, 1973); two versions of her monograph The Qumran Texts, the second version (1985) of which was published with minor changes as a separate book in the series “Monuments of the Culture of the Orient” (The Qumran Texts, 2nd edition; translation from the Hebrew and Aramaic, and commentary, by A. M. Gazov-Ginzberg, M. M. Elizarova and K. B. Starkova, St. Petersburg, 1996); typewritten copies of the articles “Jews in Russia and the USSR” and “Jews of Europe” (1948), published in a memoiristic book on K. B. Starkova titled Memories of the Past. The Life and Work of a Semitics Scholar and Hebraist in the USSR (St. Petersburg, 2006); the text of a report delivered at the Third All-Union Conference of Semitics Scholars in Tbilisi titled “Echoes of Ideas from 2 and 3 Isaiah in Qumran Literature” (1977), published in English in The Qumran Chronicle (vol. 2, no. 1 [1992]: 51-62) under the title "The Ideas of the Second and Third Isaiah as Reflected in the Qumran Literature”; a review of an article by L. Kh. Vilsker titled “Unknown Meshalim Mekhorazim (Rhymed Parables), or the Sefer ha-Hochma (The Book of Wisdom) of Sa’id ben Babshad” (1980); a translation from the Hebrew of Amnon Ginzai’s story “Pharaoh, the King of the Insects” (1980s); lecture materials with the heading “The Grammar of the Hebrew Language” (1980s); etc.
2) The sections “Documents pertaining to K. B. Starkova’s biography” and “Documents pertaining to her activities” include photocopies of her Leningrad State University diploma with honours, her graduate student record, her certification as a “Resident of Leningrad during the Siege” and a notarised copy of her doctoral degree (1938-91); greeting cards from friends and colleagues: I. M. Smilianskaia, S. Segert, I. Iadin and others (1989-93); a photocopy of the journal publication of an article in Yiddish by V. L. Vikhnovich and V. V. Lebedev titled “Klavdiia Borisovna Starkova” (1990) from Sovetish heymland (1990, no. 9); photographs of K. B. Starkova (1930s-40s); letters of invitation from Russian and foreign scholarly institutions, publishers and individuals with proposals regarding the publication of articles and reviews and participation in scholarly events with the subsequent publication of abstracts; K. B. Starkova’s correspondents included: the editorial staff of the Linguistics Encyclopaedia and the Palestine Collection of the Oriental Studies department of Leningrad State University, the Institute of Scientific Atheism, the Institut de Recherche et d’histoire des textes (Paris, France), the National Library of France, the World Union of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, Israel), etc. (1947-91). There is also correspondence with A. Habermann on scholarly issues, the exchange of articles, gratitude for his sending his monograph on the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc. (1955, 1964, 1968); with Sh. D. Goitein, professor of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, US), regarding consultations on the A. S. Firkovich manuscript collection of the State Public Library, information about the Cairo Geniza, etc. (1956, 1967); with the Krymchaks and Crimean Karaites B. M. Achkinazi, D. M. Gumush, L. I. Kaia, S. I. Kushul’ and M. Ia. Choref, and with the archaeologist E. V. Veimarn, about the activities of A. S. Firkovich, the history of the cemetery in Chufut-kale, etc. (1958-90), and with Harry Fox of Quebec, Canada, on microfilming Hebrew manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1976-78).
3) The section “Correspondence” contains K. B. Starkova’s letters to Manfred R. Lehmann, the American philanthropist, Bible scholar and author of scholarly works on Jewish history (1980s); the historian and Arabist A. P. Kovalevskii (1951); the philologist and geographer A. M. Gazov-Ginzberg (1975-82); letters from Jean Carmignac, an abbot of the Catholic Church and researcher of the Qumran manuscripts (1974); Academician I. Iu. Krachkovskii (1944-47); the French Hebraists Therese and Mendel Metzger (1989-91); etc.
4) The section “Works and Documents of Other Persons” contains materials of other Hebraists: A. M. Gazov-Ginzberg, in particular, notes to the monograph The Qumran Texts regarding transliteration of biblical names in Russian (1960s-70s); a printed copy of an article in Hebrew by A. Habermann titled “Five New Poems by Yehuda Halevi” (1960); and personal documents of the Semitics scholar and Hebraist A. Ia. Borisov, as well as manuscripts and proofs of his articles later published by K. B. Starkova in the Palestine Collection and other publications (1942-87).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Klavdiia Borisovna Starkova (1915-2000) was a Hebraist and Semitics and Qumran studies specialist, philologist and senior researcher of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1933, she began studying in the linguistics department (Semitic languages and literatures) of the Leningrad Institute of History, Philosophy and Linguistics (LIFLI), which she graduated in 1938, whereupon she began work on a dissertation devoted to the work of the medieval Hebrew poet Yehuda Halevi. She was unable to defend her dissertation on time due to the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in 1941. In 1942, she was evacuated from besieged Leningrad along with other staff members of Leningrad State University. In 1942-44, she worked as a teacher in a secondary school in the Arzamas district of the Gorky region. In the spring of 1944, she moved to Tashkent, having been invited by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences to conduct research in the field of her specialisation. In this period she also worked concurrently at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR and in particular was engaged in inventorying the institute’s Arabic manuscripts. In 1944, she defended her philology PhD dissertation on “Leningrad Fragments of the ‘Diwan’ of Yehuda Halevi”. She returned from evacuation to Leningrad in May 1945 and resumed her studies in Hebraica, selecting the work of the medieval Hebrew poet and philosopher Solomon Ibn Gabirol as the subject for her advanced doctorate at the Institute of Oriental Studies, at the same time serving as acting secretary of this institute’s Arabic Office, senior lecturer of the Oriental studies department of Leningrad State University and research consultant to the State Public Library regarding its Hebrew manuscript collection; she rendered invaluable assistance to the library after the 1946 return of the A. S. Firkovich manuscript collection from evacuation. In 1949-50, she worked as an instructor of the Hebrew language at Leningrad State University’s department of Semitic studies and Hebraica, which was closed in February 1950. That same month, she joined the staff of the Library of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a correspondent of the foreign acquisitions department and subsequently became its chief bibliographer. In 1952, she received the position of junior research associate in the branch library of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in 1954, junior research associate in the Oriental manuscripts sector of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From that time onward, her primary research interest was the Qumran manuscripts. The “anti-Zionist” campaign that began in the USSR in 1967 delayed publication of K. B. Starkova’s works on Qumran studies for some thirty years and her monograph The Qumran Texts was published only in 1996. Her original research in the field of Qumran studies received the recognition of the world’s most prominent Hebraists. In 1979, she retired for health reasons, whereupon she focused on publishing the works of her mentor, the Semitics scholar A. Ia. Borisov.
The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IVR RAN) is a research institute in the Academy of Sciences system. Its operations are focused mainly on the comprehensive study of landmarks of the literature of the East, as well as of the ancient and medieval history of the countries of Asia and North Africa. The fonds of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts currently contain a significant collection of Jewish materials reflecting both the rabbinical and Karaite traditions: approximately 50,000 printed books in Hebrew (including 66 incunabula and approximately 300 paleotypes); about 10,000 printed books in Yiddish; over 1,700 manuscripts (among them, 1,217 codices and 79 scrolls), not counting a great number of fragments; and about 5,000 copies of Jewish newspapers (published before 1917). The Hebrew fonds was formed during the 19th and 20th centuries from the private collections of L F Friedland, D A Khvol’son, D G Maggid, V V Radlov, E Ross, P K Kokovtsov and other collectors, mandatory copies of all books printed in the territory of the Russian Empire and books expropriated after the October Revolution from synagogues and Jewish schools. Some of the publications were acquired as ‘trophies’ of the Second World War.
- Access points: locations:
- Russia
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises a single series arranged according to the structural-thematic principle.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary