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Websites and Statistics

Internet Sites with Primary Sources for History

19th century Russian literature
Links to sources for Professor Elizabeth Beaujour's Russian Literature course at Hunter College. Includes material from the typical Russian giants of literature and some potent ially useful background material on the various authors. Online full text versions of many of the authors' works are included.

Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary: Children's Books and Graphic Arts
Web exhibit from the University of Chicago Library. "The Soviet Union was a world in pictures. A vibrant image culture based largely on new media revolutions facilitated its creation following the Russian revolutions and its re-making during Stalin's Great Leap Forward, World War II, the Thaw, and Perestroika. Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary explores Soviet image culture through two of its most striking manifestations: the children's book and the poster."

Alexander Palace: Russian History Websites
This website has images, online books of translated first-hand accounts, and articles relating to the Romanov Dynasty. (The Alexander Palace Time Machine is particularly popular)

Berdyaev Online Bibliotek Library
This resource contains online articles by and about Russian philosopher Berdyaev. Many of the articles have been translated into English.

Bibliography for Women in Russia
Part of H-Russia which is "a member of H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine. H-RUSSIA encourages scholarly discussion of Russian and Soviet history and makes available diverse bibliographical, research and teaching aids." Using bibliographies to steer your research can be a very effective research strategy.

David Rumsey Map Collection
"Started over 25 years ago, contains more than 150,000 maps. Focuses on rare 18th and 19th century maps of North and South America, although it also has maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. Includes atlases, wall maps, globes, school geographies, pocket maps, books of exploration, maritime charts, and a variety of cartographic materials including pocket, wall, children's, and manuscript maps. Items range in date from about 1700 to 1950s."

Digital Public Library of America
"Brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America's heritage, to the efforts and data of science." Provides images, moving images, text, and more from many of the United States' best libraries, archives, and museums.

Directory of Open Access Books
A directory of open access, academic peer reviewed books.

Early Twentieth-Century Russian Drama From the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Northwestern University. Provides information regarding the plays, directors, designers, and visual arts associated with Early Twentieth-Century Russian Drama.

Face of Russia (PBS series) 
Based on the PBS film series of the same name. The film and website are based on the "personal interpretation of Russia's cultural history by one of America's preeminent Russian scholars, James H. Billington."

From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Russian Verse
Provides "an intelligently chosen, well-translated, and comprehensive anthology of Russian poetry from its beginnings in the 18th century to the contemporary scene. The anthology breaks new ground the in study and appreciation of Russian poetry by including multimedia elements that would have been impossible in any other format." From the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Northwestern University.

Hathi Trust
Open access repository that "is a partnership of academic and research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world."

The Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Online
"The Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Online provides access to digitized materials selected from the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System (HPSSS). The digital collection consists chiefly of summary transcripts of 705 interviews conducted with refugees from the USSR during the early years of the Cold War. A unique source for the study of Soviet society between 1917 and the mid-1940s, the HPSSS includes vast amounts of one-of-a-kind data on political, economic, social and cultural conditions. The HPSSS's value is compounded by the fact that it was compiled in English and organized according to a rigorous social science framework, making it accessible to a broad range of students and scholars."

Historic Cities
"Contains maps, literature, documents, books and other relevant material concerning the past, present and future of historic cities and facilitates the location of similar content on the web."

Hoover Institution Poster Collection
"These Russian posters were selected from the 33,000 cataloged political posters at the Hoover Institution Archives. Embracing posters from around the world, the largest numbers are from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Russian empire and the Soviet Union, and France."

Internet Archive
"A digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public."

Mapping Petersburg
From the University of California, Berkeley, "explores the everyday life and the material, political, and literary culture of St. Petersburg (renamed Petrograd during the First World War) at the beginning of the twentieth century. It maps eleven itineraries through the city with the purpose of creating a palpable sense of life in Russia's late imperial capital on the eve of the 1917 revolution and during the subsequent decade (when the city became Leningrad). Instead of taking the city's better known landmarks and history, Mapping Petersburg focuses on the relationship between modernity and modernism as it navigates the city's urban life, architectural sites, adopting perspectives that have not been considered before. It offers a unique narrative of the Russian metropolis, bringing together familiar and unfamiliar historical visual and literary material in a new way and creating a guide to the city for scholars, students, tourists, and web users who enjoy virtual travel through the past and to unfamiliar places."

New York Public Library Digital Gallery/Digital Collection
"Provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more."

Nikolai Berdyaev 1874 - 1948
This is another potentially useful site that focuses on Berdyaev. It includes translated articles and essays, bibliographies, and images related to Berdyaev.

Project Gutenberg
"Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks."

Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated: The Empire That Was Russia
From the Library of Congress, " features color photographic surveys of the vast Russian Empire made between ca. 1905 and 1915. Frequent subjects among the 2,607 distinct images include people, religious architecture, historic sites, industry and agriculture, public works construction, scenes along water and railway transportation routes, and views of villages and cities."

Royal Russia: A Celebration of the Romanov Dynasty, the Russian Monarchy, and the History of Imperial Russia in Words and Photographs 
"Offers more than 50 full-length articles, more than 500 news articles, more than 300 videos, over 1,000 photographs, plus a blog with more than 600 news clips, videos and photographs, an online bookshop that specializes in books on the Romanovs and Imperial Russia, and much more." Useful for background information.

Russia Religion News
Monitors "news media reports about religion in Russia and other countries of former USSR." Useful for keeping abreast of religious issues in Russia. However, as with all resources, be sure to maintain a critical eye regarding the quality and reliability of the resource.

Russian-American Relations: 1863-1905
From the people who bring you Harper's Weekly, "contains news, feature stories, editorials, illustrations, and cartoons showcasing Russian-American relations over the 43-year period from 1863 through 1905."

Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910-1934
Online exhibit of 112 avant-garde books from the Museum of Modern Art.

Russian History Blog-Digital Russian History
Blog about Russian History that is the combined work of Steven Barnes (George Mason University), Miriam Dobson (University of Sheffield), Andrew Jenks (California State University-Long Beach), Joshua Sanborn (Lafayette College), Asif Siddiqi (Fordham University), and Alison Smith (University of Toronto). This is a potentially useful resource for background information and keeping abreast of new ideas in Russian History.

Russian Theatre Designs from the Harvard Theatre Collection
"The entire collection of original Russian art work in the Harvard Theatre Collection, which comprises approximately 650 theatrical designs and portraits has been cataloged and digitized and is available in VIA. Most of these are associated with productions of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes."

Russian Visual Arts: Art Criticism in Context, 1814-1909
"Online research archive documenting the growth of diverse forms of commentary on the visual arts (particularly painting) in Russia from the early nineteenth- to early twentieth centuries." Hosted by the Humanities Research Institute at Sheffield University.

Society of Historians of Eastern European, Eurasian and Russian Art and Architecture
"Brings together scholars specializing in the art and architecture of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, from ancient times to the present day. SHERA creates a sense of community for scholars around the world, serving as a vibrant source of information and sharing." Useful resource for keeping abreast of research and resources relating to Eastern European, Eurasian and Russian Art and Architecture.

The State Hermitage Museum
Museum of art and culture in St. Petersburg, Russia. Includes a digital collection containing some of the museum's collection.

Studies In Slavic Cultures (SISC)
Online scholarly journal "published by members of the Slavic Department at the University of Pittsburgh, with support from the Center for Russian and East European Studies. SISC consists entirely of analytical articles by graduate students, appears annually, runs to approximately 120 pages, and is devoted to Slavic culture."

Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910-1917
Online exhibit from the renowned J. Paul Getty Museum. "Tango with Cows takes its title from a book and poem by the Russian avant-garde poet Vasily Kamensky. The absurd image of farm animals dancing the tango evokes the clash in Russia between a primarily rural culture and a growing urban life. During the years spanning the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, Russia was in spiritual, social, and cultural crisis. The moral devastation of the failed 1905 revolution, the famines of 1911, the rapid influx of new technologies, and the outbreak of World War I led to disillusionment with modernity and a presentiment of apocalypse."

World Digital Library
"Makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world."


Statistics

Russian Imperial Bureaucracy, 1762-1881 from the University of Wisconsin Madison Libraries and Data & Information Services Center
"Provides access to the raw data and documentation which contains information on Russian Administrative elites, including ca. 415 governors: dates of incumbency in different central administrative, territorial, foreign trade, Imperial Court, top Moscow and St. Petersburg posts; dates of attaining each of top four civil and military ranks; dates of birth, death and entrance into civil service."

Russian Revolution of 1917: A Guide to Electoral Behavior in Revolutionary Russia
"Accesses graphic representations of the electoral results of some constituencies in revolutionary Russia, illustrating the relative appeal to Russian voters in 1917 of Bolsheviks and other leading parties."