Slavic
& East European Collections at Cornell
University Library
|
Related
Resources:
Cornell
University Library Links
CU
Library Gateway
CU
Library Catalog
Department
of Collections, Reference, Instruction, and Outreach
Cornell
University Links
Institute
for European Studies
Russian
Language Program
Department
of Russian Literature
Death
of the Father
|
The
Slavic and East European Collections at Cornell University Library cover
a wide range of materials, from famous works of literature to obscure
academic working papers. The collections have been systematically
built for over a century, beginning with the  gifts
of Andrew Dickson White, Cornell's first president,
and Eugene Schuyler, both of whom were American diplomats in Russia in
the late nineteenth century.
The
Collections Mature
During World War II, Cornell became a major center for US Army training
programs, and the Slavic and East European Collections expanded and took
on greater significance. In the 1960s and 1970s, Cornell saw the
creation of a Department of Russian Literature and a Committee on Soviet
Studies, which fostered interdisciplinary cooperation throughout Cornell's
departments and paved the way for the creation of the Slavic and East
European Studies graduate programs and undergraduate major. At about
the same time, the Library received generous funding from the Ford Foundation, which allowed
for the purchase of a number of retrospective materials from the Soviet
Union. The developments of the 1960s and '70s were largely responsible
for the evolution of the Slavic and East European Collections' broad-based,
diverse nature. Cornell University has established a tradition of
a strong, interdisciplinary approach to area studies, and Cornell University
Library, as one of the nation's largest academic research libraries, has
had to develop its collections accordingly.
Holdings
The Slavic and East European Collections contains over 300,000 volumes,
both in vernacular languages of the area and in Western European languages.
East European-language holdings are about 56% Russian, 13% Polish, 8%
Czech and Slovak, 10% Serbian, Croatian, and Serbo-Croatian, 5% Ukrainian
and Belorussian. The remaining 8% consists of Bulgarian, Hungarian,
Romanian, and other Eastern European languages. The overall collection
grows by more than 10,000 items per year. Cornell's holdings are strongest
in Russian language and literature and émigré literature, closely followed
by Slavic linguistics, Russian history, and Russian and East European
economics. Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Czech and Slovak materials are
well represented. Area language materials address a wide range of
subjects, from economics and ethnography to child development and city
planning.
Resources
Slavic humanities and social science materials are integrated into Olin Library.
There, a Slavic Studies seminar room houses a core reference collection
on current issues of about 100 journals on literature, linguistics, history,
government, and economics. Materials on Russian music are housed
in the Music
Library, and materials on architecture and city and regional planning
are housed in the Fine
Arts Library. The Fine Arts Library has one of the country's
strongest Russian architecture collections, as well as an extensive slide
collection. Early Russian architecture was a keen interest of A.D.
White, and an important strength in the personal collection he gave to
the Library. Nikolai A. Troitsky, a Russian architect who emigrated
to the US after World War II and served as Cornell's Slavic librarian
in the 1960s, greatly augmented the Russian architecture collection.
Individuals
Another remarkable individual whose efforts enriched Cornell's collections
was Alexis Babine, who came to Cornell from Russia to study history in
the 1890s. Babine worked his way though Cornell by working in the
Library, organizing the fledgling Russian holdings. Later he served
as first Slavic librarian at the Library of Congress, building collections
to enhance Slavic studies research for the nation. Our list of individuals
is incomplete without Vladimir Nabokov, who
taught Russian literature at Cornell in the 1950s. His research
and teaching needs, authority in his field and fame as a novelist all
inspired significant improvement in Cornell's Russian literature collections,
as well as the creation in 1963 of the Russian Literature department.
Special Collections
Of late, academic research interest in the political, social, and economic
affairs and transitions of this region has increased, and the Library
has increased its holdings of needed social science materials. Groundwork
for this type of research at Cornell was laid by the Committee on the
Soviet Studies of the 1970s, which fostered interdisciplinary research
and by the Slavic and East European Program established in the late 1980s.
In 1989, a new major in Russian and East European Studies was inaugurated.
Two new archival collections respond to these emerging research interests.
The first collection, developed by a sociology faculty member, documents
Hungary's
democratic transition with a range of materials including two sets of
interviews with key political figures in Hungary, conducted before and
after the establishment of parliamentary democracy. After transcription
and analysis are complete, a copy of the primary material and the analysis
will be deposited in the Hungarian
National Archives. Polish
affairs are represented by a second collection comprising over 2,500 volumes
published by the Polish resistance from 1970 to the present as well as
leaflets, flyers, and posters of the Solidarity trade union's multiple factions. These
contemporary collections take their place in Cornell's
archives among traditional collections such as the Denisoff Family
papers, documents and letters from 1715-1985 from this prominent Don Cossack
family. Those records include documents signed by Prince Potemkin,
Catherine the Great, and Field Marshal Suvorov. With these archival collections,
currently published research materials in all formats, and solid historical
collections, the Slavic and East European Studies collections support
the research and teaching needs of Cornell's interdisciplinary academic
community. Following their needs, the Slavic and Eastern European
Bibliographer is committed to maintaining and developing a collection
which is as strong as it is diverse.
|
