(From the report of the Chief, Mr. N. R. Rodionoff)

By the middle of February, 1934, the division moved to its new quarters in the Eastern Annex, and this undoubtedly was the most important event in the history of the division since 1907, when the acquisition of the famous Yudin Collection of Russian books (brought from Siberia) marked the date of its origin.

It should be noted, however, that, while the division now enjoys the comforts of a better accommodated working space, the increase of its shelving space, in comparison with the shelving space of its old quarters of 1927–31, does not exceed 17 per cent, and this additional shelving space will be filled up in a few years through the normal growth of the division's Russian holdings only. The total shelving space of the division is now about three miles and three hundred yards.

Accessions

During the year 1933–34 the collections of the division were increased through purchase, exchange, and transfer by 2,506 books and 4,073 pamphlets, totaling 6,579 publications. About 1,000 books in this amount are wanting back issues of 66 periodicals, of which 41 are no more published.

Though the majority of the books, acquired during the year for the division, have a considerable reference value, but only the most noteworthy of them are mentioned here in groups, as follows:

Bibliography

• Catalogues des "Bibliothèque et Musée de la Guerre." Catalogue méthodique du fonds russe de la Bibliothèque. Rédigé par Alexandra Dumesnil. Paris, 1932.
• Opisanie slavianskikh rukopisei Moskovskoi Sinodal'noi Biblioteki. (A description of the Slavonic MSS. of the Moscow Synodical Library). Section 3, part 2. Moscow, 1917. This part completes the division's set. Sections 1, 2 (in three parts), and the part 1 of the section 3 were published in 1855–1869. The work had been done by many bibliographers.
• Pokrovskii, A. A. Drevnee Pskovsko-Novgorodskoe pis'mennoe nasliedie (The inheritance in MSS. from the ancient cities of Pskov and Novgorod). Moscow, 1916. The parchments, brought long ago from Pskov and Novgorod to Moscow and finally deposited in the Library of the Synod's Press and the Library of the Patriarchs, are described in this work.
• Shnel, A. A. Khudozhestvennye pereplety i drugiia mozaichnyia raboty, ispolnennyia ruchnym sposobom v masterskoi A. Shnel. (Artistic bindings and other mosaic works executed by hand in the studio of A. Shnel). St. Petersburg, 1905. This folio album contains 34 plates of photographs of mosaic leather bindings and some other mosaic works of A. A. Shnel, a preeminent artist in this field, working in Russia in 1885–1905.
• Titov, F. Tipografiia Kievo-Pecherskoi Lavry. Istoricheskii ocherk (The press of the Kief Pecherski Monastery. A historical description). Volume 1st of text (covering the period of 1606–1721), with one volume of supplements. Folio. Kief, 1916–18. This is the first conscientious account of the activities of one of the oldest Russian presses for the first 116 years of its existence. For over 300 years the Press of the Pecherski Monastery in Kief had served the Russian people as an important religious educational institution of the Greek Orthodox Catholic Church.
• Vereshchagin, V. A. Materialy dlia bibliografii russkikh illiustrirovannykh izdanii (Material for a bibliography of Russian illustrated publications). Volumes 1–4. St. Petersburg, 1908–10.

Missing parts

• Akademiia nauk (The Imperial Academy of Sciences), St. Petersburg. Khristianskii Vostok (The Christian East). Volumes 1–3 for 1912–14. These volumes complete the division's set (volumes 1–5).
• Ekonomicheskoi Magazin (The Economical Magazine). Volumes 21–40. Moscow, 1785–89. These volumes complete the division's set. This is a rare Russian periodical of the 18th century, devoted to household economy, published by a well-known liberal Russian publisher of that time, A. I. Novikov, and edited by A. T. Bolotov, a distinguished husbandman and writer.
• Niva (The Field). St. Petersburg-Petrograd, 1907–1917. This is a popular illustrated Russian weekly magazine with the enormous circulation for the last 25 years of its existence. Its publication was started in 1876. The newly acquired eleven volumes complete the division's set.
• Satirikon and its continuation Novyi Satirikon (The New Satyricon). Separate issues for 1908–09, and 1913–17. The newly acquired issues of this remarkable liberal weekly illustrated magazine, with the numerous illustrations in colors, had almost completed the division's set. The magazine was published in St. Petersburg-Petrograd in 1908–1918 first by M. G. Kornfeld and later by a group of young and talented writers and artists, who broke with the publisher in the summer of 1913 and a few weeks later started to publish another magazine of the same character, under the title of: Novyi Satirikon. They successfully continued its publication until the spring of 1918. Both Satirikon and Novyi Satirikon were edited by A. T. Averchenko, a well-known Russian humorist. The wanting nos. in the division's set are now the following: no.12 for 1909, nos.1 and 52 for 1914, nos. 5, 10, 17, and 18 for 1918.
• Sreznevskii, I. I. Materialy dlia slovaria drevne-russkago iazyka po pis'mennym pamiatnikam (Material for a dictionary of the ancient Russian language, according to the written monuments). Volumes 2–3. St. Petersburg, the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1895–1912. These volumes complete the division's set.
• Vol'noe Ekonomicheskoe Obshchestvo (The Imperial Free Economic Society), St. Petersburg-Petrograd, 1765–1917. Trudy za (The Works for) 1765–1820, 1860, 1862, 1865–68, 1872–76. 1884, 1893, 1905–1909 gody. These parts considerably complete the library's set of this very important serial, especially rare for the first 50 years of its publication. We still want it for the years 1821, 1833, 1835, 1877, 1883, and 1901. The Imperial Free Economic Society was one of the oldest agricultural and economic societies in Europe and the oldest Russian scientific society. One of its founders was I. A. Taubert, the librarian to the Empress Catherine the Second. The Empress herself granted the Society her special protection and the privilege of an independent and broad investigations, researches, and discussions in the fields of agricultural economics and scientific agriculture. At the suggestion of the Empress, the Society conducted in 1767 its famous international contest of discussions on the peasants' title to the land, cultivated by them. A discussion in French by a member of the Academy of the city of Dijon, Besrdé de l'Abaye, advocating the emancipation of the peasants with the land from their landlords and owners, was awarded the highest prize of 100 chervonetzs (approximately, about $1,000 in the American currency of the present time), and was published in a good Russian translation in one of the issues of the above-mentioned serial for 1768, which the library now has in its set.

Religion

• Mogila, Petr, metropolitan of Kief (1596–1647), editor, Trebnik (The Book of Needs). Kief, the Press of the Pecherski Monastery, 1646. Mogiia was a famous prelate and theologian of the 17th century, a leader in the struggle for the independence of the Greek Orthodox Catholic Church from the Roman Catholic Church. This folio in the Church-Slavonic contains 1,696 pages and is beautifully illustrated with many engravings. Many of the titles and sub-titles are printed in vermilion. The book is very skillfully executed and bound in contemporary full leather binding.
• Pypin, A. N. Religioznyia dvizheniia pri Aleksandrie I (Religious movements in the reign of Alexander I). Petrograd, 1916.
• Solov'ev, V. S. Rossiia i Vselenskaia tserkov' (Russia and the Universal Church). Moscow, 1911.

History

The division was especially successful during the year in acquiring of some valuable, out of print, publications of Russian historical documents and some important, also out of print, monographs, based on the long and conscientious researches in the archives material.

• Akademiia nauk (The Imperial Academy of Sciences), St. Petersburg. Akty Moskovskago gosudarstva (The Documents of the Moscow state). Volumes 2–3. St. Petersburg, 1894–1901. These volumes complete the division's set. The publication contains various documents of the 15th and 17th Centuries.
• Rossiia i Italiia. Sbornik istoricheskikh materialov i izsliedovanii, kasaiushchikhsia sneshenii Rossii a Italiei (Russia and Italy. A collection of historical material and researches pertaining to the relations of Russia with Italy). Volumes 1–4. St. Petersburg-Leningrad, 1907–27. This publication appeared as a result of the researches in the Italian archives, undertaken by the late Professor E. F. Shmurlo, a prominent Russian historian.
• Komissiia dlia razbora drevnikh aktov (The Commission for bringing to order the ancient documents). Kief. Arkhiv Iugo-Zapadnoi Rossii (The Archives of South-Western Russia). 33 volumes. Kief, 1859–1914.
• Sbornik statei i materialov po istorii Iugo-Zapadnoi Rossii (A collection of articles and material pertaining to the history of South-Western Russia). Volumes 1–2. Kief, 1911–1916.
• Russia.. I. Arkheograficheskaia Komissiia (The Imperial Archeographic Comission). Gramoty, kasaiushchiiasia do snoshenii Sievero-Zapadnoi Rossii s Rigoiu i Ganzeiskimi gorodami v XII, XIII i XIV viekie (The documents pertaining to the relations of North-Western Russia with the city of Riga and the cities of the Hanseatic League in the 12th, the 13th, and the 14th centuries). St. Petersburg, 1857.
• Russko-Livonskie akty, sobrannye K. E. Napierskim (The Russian-Livonian documents, collected by K. E. Napierskii). St. Petersburg, 1868.
• Komissiia dlia razbora drevnikh aktov (The Commission for bringing to order the ancient documents), Vilna. Akty (The documents). 12 volumes. Vilna, 1865–1914.
• Berezhkov, M. O torgovlia Rusi s Ganzoi do kontsa 15-go vieka (About the trade of Russia with the Hanseatic League up to the end of the 15th Century). St. Petersburg, 1879.
• Pogoslovskii, Z. Zemskoe samoupravlenie na russkom sieverie v 17 viekie (The local self-government in the Russian North in the 17th Century). Volumes 1–2. Moscow, 1909–12.
• D'iakonov, N. A. Ocherki obshchestvennago i gosudarstvennago stroia drevnei Rusi (Essays on the social and state order of ancient Russia). 4th edition. St. Petersburg, 1912.
• Kasso, L. A. Rossiia na Dunaie i obrazovanie Bessarabskoi oblasti (Russia on the Danube river and the formation of the Bessarabian province). Moscow, 1913.
• Pypin, A. N. Russkoe masonstvo 18 i pervoi chetverti 19 vieka (The Russian freemasonry of the 18th and of the first quarter of the 19th Centuries). Petrograd, 1916.

Economics

• Kaufman, A. A. Pereselenie i kolonizatsiia (Migration and colonization). St. Petersburg, 1905.
• Kaufman, A. A. Russkaia obshchina v protsessie eia zarozhdeniia i rosta (The Russian village community in the process of its origin and growth). Moscow, 1908.
• Kun, Bela, ed. Kommunisticheskii internatsional v dokumentakh (The Communistic International in the documents). Moscow, 1933.
• Liubimov, N. N. S.S.S.R. i Frantsiia. Franko-Russkaia finansovaia problema, v sviazi s mezhdunarodnoi zadolzhennost'iu (The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and France. The French-Russian financial problem, in connection with the international indebtedness). Leningrad, 1926.
• Lokhtin, P. Sostoianie sel'skago khoziaistva v Rossii sravnitel'no drugimi stranami (The condition of the agriculture in Russia in comparison with the other countries). St. Petersburg, 1901.

Fine Arts

• Bal'men, Ia. P., graf de-. Gogolevskoe vremia. Original'nye risunki (The time of Gogol. Original drawings). Moscow, 1909.
• Levinson, A. Staryi i novyi balet (The old and the new ballet). Petrograd, 1917.
• Makovskii, S., ed. Sovremennaia russkaia grafika (Contemporary Russian graphic art). Petrograd, 1917.
• Polonskii, V., ed. Mastera sovremennoi graviury i grafiki (The masters of the contemporary engraving and graphic art). Moscow, 1928.
• Svietil'nik. Religioznoe iskusstvo v proshlom i nastoiashchem (The Torch. The religious art in the past and present). A monthly magazine. Moscow, 1913–15.

Philology, Belles-Lettres, History of Literature and Theatre

• Iushkevich, A. Litovskii slovar' s tolkovaniem slov na russkom i pol'skom iazykakh (A Lithuanian dictionary with the interpretation of words in the Russian and the Polish languages). Volumes 1–2. St. Petersburg, the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1904.
• Ezhov, I. S. and Shamurin, E. I., editors. Russkaia poeziia 20 veka (The Russian poetry of the 20th Century). Moscow, 1925.
• Kallash, V. V. and Efros, N. E., editors. Istoriia russkago teatra (A history of the Russian theatre). Volume 1. Moscow, 1914.
• Longfellow, H. W. Piesn' o Gaiavatie (The Song of Hiawatha). Translated into Russian by I. A. Bunin. St. Petersburg, 1903. I. A. Bunin is the winner of the Nobel prize for literature of 1933. His translation of the famous "Song" is the only Russian translation of it in verse.
• Perrault, C. Volshebnyia skazki (Fairy tales). Translated from the French into the Russian by Ivan Turgenev. Illustrated by G. Doré. St. Petersburg, 1867. I. S. Turgenev was a celebrated Russian novelist of the 19th Century.
• Piesni, sobrannyia P. N. Rybnikovym (The folk songs collected by P. N. Rybnikov). 2d edition. Volumes 1–3. Moscow, 1909–10.
• Sakulin, P. N. Iz istorii russkago idealizma. Kniaz' V. F. Odoevskii (From the history of the Russian idealism. Prince V. F. Odoevskii). Volumes 1–2. Moscow, 1913.
• Tolstaia, S. A. Dnevniki Sof'i Andreevny Tolstoi. 1860–1909. (The diaries of Sophia A. Tolstoi for 1860–1909). Volumes 1–3. Leningrad-Moscow, 1928–32. The author was the wife of the great Russian novelist Count Leo Tolstoi. Her diaries authentically reveal their gradual severance and the tragedy of a woman, who happened to be the wife of a genius.

Science

• Akademiia nauk (The Imperial Academy of Sciences), St. Petersburg. Protokoly zasiedanii Obshchago Sobraniia, Fiziko-Matematicheskago i Istoriko-Filologicheskago otdielenii. S predmetnym i immenym ukazateliami... 1893–1903 (Proceedings of the General meetings of the Academy and of the meetings of its Physical-Mathematical and Historical-Philological sections. With subject and nominal indices. . . 1893–1903). 11 folio volumes. St. Petersburg, 1893–1903. The "Proceedings" have a special inscription on their title pages: "Pechatano kak rukopis'," i.e. "Printed as MS." They were printed for the members of the Academy only, and, therefore, are very rare. The set acquired for the division belonged to grand duke Constantine, the former president of the Academy.
• Nikolaevskaia Glavnaia Fizicheskaia Observatoriia (The Main Physical Observatory in the name of Nicholas I), Pulkovo. Klimatologicheskii atlas Rossiiskoi Imperii. 1849–1899 (Climatological Atlas of the Russian Empire for 1849–1899). St. Petersburg, 1900. The records of the climatic condition of Russia for 50 years are scientifically presented in this folio on the numerous maps and charts.

Military Science

• Viskovatov, A. V. Istoricheskoe opisanie odezhdy i vooruzheniia Rossiiskikh voisk s drevnieishikh vremen do 1855 goda (A historical description of the uniforms and arms of the Russian Army from the most ancient times until 1855). 30 parts of text and 30 albums of engravings (3953 plates). Folios. St. Petersburg, 1841–62. The set is complete. Complete sets of this publication are extremely rare. 18 artists and 52 engravers contributed their works to this momumental series.

Work

The staff of the division has been decreased by one assistant since July 1, 1933.

During the year 2,483 new author and title entries (including 106 special card entries for newspapers and periodicals) were added to the card catalog of the division, and 1,956 titles were temporarily classified. About 12,800 numbers and issues of magazines and newspapers were checked, and the total of special card entries for them amounted to 761 by the end of the fiscal year. 3,850 volumes were perforated, 2,303 volumes labeled, 1,573 volumes were marked with call numbers on their bookplates and labels, and 1,072 volumes were prepared for binding.

The division received and properly distributed during the year 7,000 cards for the Union Catalog of Slavic publications in American libraries.

From the middle of February, 1934, to the end of the fiscal year a considerable time was devoted by the division to the proper shelving of its holdings in the new quarters. This work has proved to be not an easy task, for many books had been misplaced in the division's temporary quarters (during the construction of the Eastern Annex), owing to a limited shelving space there, and the easy access of the public to the shelves in the absence of the staff of the division.

The division continued to render its reference service in the same scope as described in its report for the preceding year. The following topics and subjects from those, on which this service was rendered during the year, are mentioned here as illustrative: English translations of some Russian novelists and short stories writers; the black race in the Russian literature; literary and scientific works of the Russian refugees; descriptive and bibliographical publications on the economic geography of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the mutinies in the Russian Navy; bibliography of Slavic historical bibliographies; collectivization of agriculture in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; migration of the population in the same country and its regulation by the Government: the rise of the Bulgarian nationalism; commercial treaties between Russia and China.