Research Guides: HIST 3365: Russian History Research Guide: Find Primary Sources

Librarian

Kristina Claunch

Contact:

936-294-1520
kclaunch@shsu.edu
Library (NGL) Room 223G

Primary Sources in Library Databases

Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2015 This link opens in a new window
New content is added each year. Consult the resource itself for the most recent content available.
Every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2015, including full-color images, multiple search indexes, and browsing facilities. Timely reporting, concise commentary, and comprehensive analysis of global news, including political, business, scientific, technological, and cultural developments and the connections between them.
The Times Digital Archive, 1785 to 2014 This link opens in a new window
"World's newspaper of record." Covers all major international historical events. Every page of every issue, from 1785 to 2014.
National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-1994 This link opens in a new window
Every page and every photograph of the official journal of the National Geographic Society, from the first issue to the mid-1990s.
Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 This link opens in a new window
Complete, full-color run of the worlds most iconic illustrated newspaper. Covers topics such as news, wars, royal events, scientific invention, exploration, fashion, and more.
British Periodicals I & II This link opens in a new window
British periodicals, late 17th to early 20th centuries. History of Britain and its colonies, as well as a British view of events in America and the world.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994 This link opens in a new window
Historical government documents from the U.S. Congress.
Search Tip: On the Subjects tab, choose "International Affairs," then scroll down the list and click "Russian Revolution."

Russian History: Primary Source Collections Online

Bosnian War (1992-1995): Intelligence and Clinton's Presidency CIA, State Department, Department of Defense & White House Files. 343 declassified documents dating from 1990-1997. Highlights the accomplishments of the Clinton Administration in brokering the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which resolved the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, and the role the Director of Central Intelligence Interagency Balkan Task Force (BTF) played in informing policymakers' decisions.
Images of Russia and Caucasus Region, 1929-1933
More than 700 images of Russia and the Caucasus region, particularly of rural areas in Georgia and Dagestan. Supplemented by photographer William O. Field's diaries, travel notes, and a selection of maps of the Caucasus region. (Univ. of Wisconsin Milwaukee)
Posters of the Russian Civil War, 1918-1922
213 posters, placards, and broadsides comprising one of the largest assemblages of such posters outside of Russia. (New York Public Library)
Russia, 1905-1915, in Color Photos: Prokudin-Gorskii Collection
"The Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection 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." (Library of Congress)
Russia and Eastern Europe in Rare Photographs, 1860- 1945
Original Russian and East European photographs from the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, in more than 150 albums. (New York Public Library)
Sino-Soviet Relations, 1930s-1959
This is a collection of primary source documents that discuss the Soviet-Chinese relationship during the Cold War. Composed largely of cables, memos, and telegrams, this collection spans the 1930s through 1959, or the period prior to the split. (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)
Sino-Soviet Split, 1960-1984
Documents on the growing division and worsening relations between China and the Soviet Union from 1960 onward. (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)
Soviet-Era and Stalin-Era Documents
Site in Russian. Soviet and Stalin-era documents from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History. Includes all the Politburo materials from the archives for 1919–1932, as well as every single document relating to Stalin’s life and work up until his death, including his correspondence with Roosevelt, Churchill and Molotov. Note: About 1/3 of content may be closed to public. Original site changed and link should direct to the new site.
Wartime Press - Digital Archive of WWII Publications Original books, booklets, magazines, manuals, newspapers, and documents relating to WWII, from many sides of the conflict. Includes US, British, Polish, German, Czech, Italian, Japanese, and Russian documents.
Wilson Center Digital Archive: International History Declassified "Contains once-secret documents from governments all across the globe" in "the history of international relations and diplomacy," focusing on "the interrelated histories of the Cold War, Korea, and Nuclear Proliferation." (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)
World Digital Library Significant primary source documents from around the world in multiple languages. Strong in Latin America & Europe. Also North America, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Oceania. Free collection produced by many international institutions and the United Nations.

Primary Source Collections in Print

The library has many books which contain primary source documents. Some may contain both primary and secondary content, so be sure to distinguish carefully. Search for more books with primary sources on Russia or primary sources on the Soviet Union.

Revolutionary Russia: A History in Documents
Call Number: DK266 .A3 W45 2011 - 4th floor
Collection of far-flung documents, photographs, posters, and objects. Topics include the prelude to revolution, the Bolshevik rise to power, the fate of the royal family, peasant resistance to Bolshevik policies, Stalin's "revolution from above," the Great Terror, and women's liberation.
The Russian Provisional Government, 1917: Documents
Call Number: DK265.19.B7, vol. 1-3 - 4th floor
The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal witness to the Russian Revolution : with excerpts from family letters and memoirs of the period
Call Number: DK254 .O46 A3 2014 - 4th floor
The first English translation of the wartime diaries of the eldest daughter of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, with additional documents of the period.
Russia in War and Revolution, 1914-1922: A Documentary History
Call Number: DK265 .A54155 2009 - 4th floor
Newly available Russian sources, many of which appear in English for the first time here. Broad array of topics, including the Bolshevik rise to power and World War I as the catalyst and cradle, respectively, of the Revolution.
Soviet Culture and Power: A history in documents, 1917-1953
Call Number: DK266.4 .C575 2007 - 4th floor
Documents include decisions of the Politburo, Stalin’s correspondence with individual intellectuals, his responses to particular plays, novels, and movie scripts, petitions to leaders from intellectuals, and secret police reports on intellectuals under surveillance.
Competing Voices from the Russian Revolution
Call Number: DK265 .A5165 2011 - 4th floor
The Fall of Tsarism: Untold Stories of the February 1917 Revolution
Call Number: DK265.69 .L93 2013 - 4th floor
Selection of interviews with leading participants in the February Revolution in Petrograd, sources that have been hidden for most of a century.
Four Russian Serf Narratives
Call Number: Read Online - Or find print: HT807 .F68 2009, 4th floor
Millions of Russians lived as serfs until the middle of the nineteenth century. These accounts offer readers a glimpse, from the point of view of the serfs themselves, into the realities of one of the largest systems of unfree labor in history.
From Supplication to Revolution: A documentary social history of imperial Russia
Call Number: HN526 .F74 1988 - 4th floor
Collection of primary documents on the social history of Imperial Russia.
The Lost Politburo Transcripts: From collective rule to Stalin's dictatorship
Call Number: JN6598 .K7 L598 2008 - 4th floor
Transcripts of the Soviet Politburo, a set of verbatim accounts of meetings that took place from the 1920s to 1938. These records reveal the actual process of decision making at the highest levels of the Soviet communist party.
My Dear Mr. Stalin: The complete correspondence between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin
Call Number: Read Online - Or find print: E807 .A4 2005, 4th floor
Complete correspondence between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin, more than three hundred hot-war messages.
Readings in Russian history from ancient times to the post-Stalin era
Call Number: DK3.W3 1963, vol. 1-3 - 4th floor
Romanov relations : the private correspondence of Tsars Alexander I, Nicholas I and the Grand Dukes Constantine and Michael with their sister Queen Anna Pavlovna, 1817-1855
Call Number: DK188.J313 - 4th floor
The Russia Reader: History, Culture, Politics
Call Number: Read Online - Or find print: DK18 .R874 2010, 4th floor
Brings together selections from the earliest written accounts of the Russian people to today. The book is filled with the voices of men and women, rulers and revolutionaries, peasants, soldiers, literary figures, émigrés, journalists, and scholars. Most of the selections are by Russians, and thirty are translated into English for the first time. Illustrated with maps, paintings, photographs, posters, and cartoons; also incorporates song lyrics, jokes, anecdotes, and folktales, as well as poems, essays, and fiction.