The Library of Congress' vast collection of audio recordings is accessible in the Recorded Sound Research Center. The center's Russian holdings include recordings of music, poetry, speeches and more.
The bulk of the Russian collection consists of recordings from two of the most prominent studios - Melodiia and Aprelevskii zavod gramplastinok. Recordings from these studies can be browsed here:
To browse more recordings of Russian music, use the following subject headings:
The center has recordings of several leading Soviet and Russian artists, including Bulat Okudzhava, Vladimir Vysotskii, Alla Pugacheva and Muslim Magomaev. The center also has recordings of Soviet and Russian bands such as Kino, DDT and Akvarium. The collection covers not only popular music, but recordings of music by Russian composers as well, such as Peter Tchaikovsky and Dmitrii Shostakovich.
In addition to music, the center has recordings of Russian poets, some of which were recorded during events at the Library of Congress. The collection is particularly strong for the late Soviet period, featuring recordings of such luminaries as Joseph Brodsky, Bella Akhmadulina, Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesenskii.
To search for individual artists or poets, visit the online catalog and enter a name using the following format: LAST NAME, FIRST NAME PATRONYMIC. You can narrow the search with the "Advanced Search" option. Once in "Advanced Search," click on the "Add Limits" feature and find "Recorded Sound" under "Location in the Library." This will narrow the search results to items in the Recorded Sound Research Center.
The Recorded Sound Research Center provides access to the commercial and archival audio holdings of the Library of Congress. The collection dates from 1926 when Victor Records donated over 400 discs to the Library's Music Division to supplement its print and manuscript holdings. In the custody of the Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division since 1978, the collection has grown to include over 2 million items encompassing audio formats from cylinders to CDs.
