Research Guides: Slavic and East European Unique Print Collections: Early Soviet Materials

Early Soviet Materials

In addition to a large collection of works dealing with the early Soviet state, including those on the following subjects

The library also holds a collection of almost a thousand Early Soviet serials (see a checklist, Early Soviet serials 1917-1935) as well as hundreds of pamphlets published in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and received by the Library as part of an exchange program with the Marx–Engels Institute (est. 1919, renamed Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute in 1931), a Soviet library and archive attached to the Communist Academy. They were grouped into the following collections:

Natural resources, agriculture and industry during the late Imperial and early Soviet periods: a collection of 86 Russian-language pamphlets. This collection includes 83 pamphlets printed in Moscow, Leningrad, Vladivostok, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Arkhangel'sk, etc. The majority of the pamphlets concern the First and Second Five Year Plans. See also: A checklist of 83 Russian-language pamphlets dated 1879 to 1935....
A collection of 70 pamphlets dated 1925 to 1935 relating to agriculture (primarily cotton growing) during the early years of Soviet power. A checklist of titles included in this collection is available.
A collection of 7 Agricultural machinery: Russian-language pamphlets (1925-35).
Collection of 549 publications of the International Organization for Aid to Revolutionaries (International Red Aid) circa 1924-1937. Pamphlets are bound by the NYPL in 36 volumes, grouped by broad subject categories. Vol. 36 includes materials in non-Slavic languages. Vols. 32-35 include drama and fiction. A checklist of broad topics and individual titles included in this collection is available. See also a Collection of 46 publications of the International Organization for Aid to Revolutionaries (International Red Aid), 1932-1934]: a supplement to the Collection of 549 publications by the same organization, held by the NYPL.
A collection of 27 anti-illiteracy movement pamphlets, issued by the Obshchestvo "Doloĭ negramotnostʹ" contains pamphlets dated 1929-1931. A checklist of titles included in this collection is available (A checklist of 27 anti-illiteracy movement pamphlets, issued by the Obshchestvo "Doloĭ negramotnostʹ).
Various pamphlets in Russian language: translations of religious articles written by Joseph Franklin Rutherford; articles on dairy farming in Omsk Province in Siberia.

Works describing Early Soviet materials in the collection of the New York Public Library and their acquisition.

Davis, Robert H. “Collecting the Revolution: The New York Public Library.” Slavic & East European Information Resources 19, nos. 1-2 (2018): 1-15.
Davis, Robert H. "Early Soviet periodicals in the Slavic and Baltic Division, the New York Public Library: A Note", Association of College and Research Libraries, Slavic and East European Section Newsletter no. 5 (1989): 41-45.
Isaac, Elliot S. The Samples Collection of The New York Public Library (Slavonic Division). [New York: The New York Public Library, Slavonic Division, 1985]. A listing of early Soviet periodical titles acquired from various Soviet agencies as samples; during the 1920s and 1930s, and filmed by the NYPL.
Kain, Kevin M. “Reading the Early Soviets: Alexander S. Gumberg and the Collection, Translation, Exchange, and Preservation of Russian Print Matter (1917–1930).” Slavic & East European Information Resources 12, no. 1 (2011): 3-36.
Kain, Kevin M. "Records from the NYPL Archive: L. B. Khavkina and Early Twentieth- Century Exchanges between the Kharkov and New York Public Libraries,” In D. D. Rakntians’ka ed. Vid XIX do XXI st.: Transformatsiia bibliotek u Konteteksti Rozvitky Suspilstva: Do 125-richchia Kharkivskoi derzhavnoi naukoi biblioteli im. V. G. Korolenka, 75-83. Kharkiv: IRIS, 2011.
Kain. Kevin M. "Collecting the Revolution: New Directions in Research,” Slavic and East European Information Resources 19, Nos. 3-4 (Fall 2018): 141-158.
Kasinec, Edward. "Library resources for the study of socialist and labor history: a brief survey of materials for the study of communism, socialism, and labor history in the Slavonic (i.e. Slavic and East European) collections of the NYPL", Socialism and Democracy 6 (Spring/Summer 1988): 155-164.
Long, John W. and Elliot S. Isaac, "Red Versus White: The Russian Civil War in the Slavic and Baltic Division's Pamphlet Collection", Bulletin of Research in the Humanities 87:2/3 (1986/1987): 158-179.