Documents of Russian and Ukrainian Émigrés in the Collections of the Slavic Library

The books of Russian and Ukrainian émigrés published after 1917 are a particularly important component of the book collections in the Slavonic Library. They comprise mainly fiction, political journalism, scientific works and memoirs related to modern Russian and Ukrainian history. The quantitative representation of individual emigrant publishing houses of the interwar period provides a rather concise picture of their production. The leading positions among the hundreds of publishing houses and organisations are taken by the Berlin publishing houses I. P. Ladyzhnikov and Z. I. Grzhebin along with Slovo and Grani, also acting in Berlin, further Plamia in Prague, Vozrozhdenie in Paris, Rossiisko-bolgarskoe knigoizdateľstvo in Sofia, Russkii nauchnyi institut in Belgrade, and the publishing house Sviatoslav operating in Belgrade and Novi Sad. A specific place belongs to the Parisian publishing house YMCA-Press, which built on its interwar activities with extensive production after 1945, richly represented in the library, like the production of the Frankfurt publishing house Posev or the Izdatelʼstvo im. Chekhova in New York and the production of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences, Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. The Ukrainian interwar collection is dominated by publications issued in Czechoslovakia, which reflects Prague’s role as the largest publishing centre of Ukrainian émigrés in Europe at the time.

Publications of fiction or of mostly fictional character that deserve to be mentioned include literary almanacs issued in Berlin, Paris, Prague, Belgrade, Sofia, Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Warsaw, Harbin, Shanghai and New York, which continued the tradition of pre-revolutionary Russia. Among the numerous historical and historical-literary collections, one should mention at least Arkhiv russkoi revoliutsii, published in Berlin, which comprises twenty-two volumes. An important place is taken by memoirs of political, public and military officials which were related to events at the turn of the 20th century, to the First World War, to revolutionary events and the Civil War in Russia as well as Ukrainian endeavours for independence.

The main part of the collection of Russian and Ukrainian émigrés definitely lies in interwar production, but one should also draw attention to the group of publications from the period after the Second World War. In addition to monographs, these include some multi-volume collections, for instance Zapiski Russkoi akademicheskoi gruppy v SShA (New York), Zapysky Naukovoho tovarystva im. Shevchenka (New York, Paris, Sydney, Toronto), Litopys Volyni (Winnipeg), the journal Bohosloviia, published by the Ukrainian Theological Society in Rome etc.

The collection of émigré periodicals, deposited in the Slavonic Library, is unique as well.