Indivisual (Private) Collection at the University Library

Indivisual (Private) Collection at the University Library

The Vernadsky Collection | Boris Souvarin Collection on Russian Revolutionary Movements
The Lensen Collection | The Epstein Collection | The Bernstein Collection
Collection of Russian Emigre Fiction | Henryk Gierszynski Collection | Gibson Collection

【１】The Vernadsky Collection

• This collection consists of the former private library of the Russian historian George Vernadsky (1887-1973), who went to America after the Russian Revolution and became a professor at Yale University. It includes 3,886 titles published in Western and East European languages. It is lamentable that all Russian-language books were excluded from those purchased by the University; nevertheless many basic volumes relating to Russia and all areas of East Europe can be found in this collection. The University Library has published a classified catalogue to this collection. (Russia and Eastern Europe a List of the George Vernadsky Collection. 1982, 403 pp.).

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【２】Boris Souvarin Collection on Russian Revolutionary Movements

• This is the famous collection compiled by Boris Souvarin (1898-1992), who sided with the Mensheviks after the Revolution and as a result was expelled from the Communist Party, then went into exile and worked in Paris as a journalist while continuing to collect materials relating to the revolutionary movement in Russia. It contains materials from the end of the 19th century to the early 20th century relating to the Russian revolutionary movement which were printed both in Russia and abroad ; many are pamphlet-type publications of less than 100 pages. Among the items are some which were printed in London and Geneva and later brought into Russia surreptiously; because these items were of a secretive character, many of them display pen names or pseudonyms of their authors, and convey the revolutionary atmosphere of the time. In the catalogue to this collection (Boris Souvarin Collection on Russian Revolutionary Movements. 1980, 164 pp.), the pen names and pseudonyms of known authors have been investigated as far as possible and are listed by author, title, and year of publication. For reasons of preservation, access to this collection is limited to use of a complete set of microfilm. The University Library holds one set, and the Library of Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo holds the another set.

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【３】The Lensen Collection

• This is the former private library of Dr. George Lensen (1923-1979), renowned authority on Russo-Japanese and Soviet-Japanese relations, and professor at Florida State University. This collection consists of approximately 3,200 individual volumes (667 in Japanese or Chinese languages and 2,524 in English, German, French, or Russian), 130 reels of microfilm covering 450 titles (for which there is a card list), as well as many manuscripts. The special characteristic of this collection is that in addition to materials on Russo-Japanese, Soviet-Japanese relations and Soviet Far Eastern policy, the large number of books have been carefully selected to cover the history, politics, economics, international relations, and culture of all the surrounding regions. This collection has been cataloged with a card file (classification, author, and title). After the acquisition by the SRC, most part was transferred to the University Library and located at the Northern Collention room, but microfilms and other small part are in the SRC Library.

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【４】The Epstein Collection

• This collection is the former private library of Prof. Epstein (1898-1979), who left Germany in 1933 and went to the United States, where he taught at various universities. He returned to Germany after the end of the Second World War. This collection reflects the academic interests of Prof. Epstein and contains books which mostly relate to Russian and Soviet history, with an emphasis on the history of Soviet foreign relations, published in the English, German, French, and Russian languages. Of the total number of 2,750 items, some 2,300 are in Western European languages, and 450 are in Russian. Another area of emphasis in the collection is Soviet-German relations. Although Russian-language books account for a mere 20 percent of the total they have been specially selected, to the point of including essential material relating to theDoukhovoul sect. The bibliographical data for this collection has already been computerized.

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【５】The Bernstein Collection

• Leon (Lev Borisovich) Bernstein (1877-1962) was a founding member of the Bund (the General Union of Jewish Workers in Russia and Poland). This collection can be divided into two main categories. The first part is comprised of Russian-language materials pertaining to the Russian revolutionary movement and to revolutionary thought, while the second part features French-language research on the Soviet Union. The first part includes, in addition to materials personally collected by Bernstein, books formerly belonging to exiled socialists such as P. B. Aksel'rod and V.0. Kliuchevskii, and political pamphlets, as well as a selection of material from the Bund, Zagranichnaja Liga of RSDRP (Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) , the SR (the Socialist-Revolutionary) Party archives, and the fascinating archives of the RSDRP Central Committee. Included among these are items relating not only to specific revolutionary organizations such as the Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks, and the SR, but also periodicals and other materials from ]esser-known revolutionary groups. What immediately attracts the researcher's attention are the volumes of writings by the princip~ 19th century revolutionary thinkers and materials of the Narodnaja Volia Moreover, essential publications about Russian history and culture are also included in the collection. Among these volumes are a few, such as "Акты исторические", "Сборник Нмператорского руссского исторического общества", and "Искра" all previously hard to find in Japan,which are here in their original editions. Also to be found are the writings of revolutionary thinkers such as A.N. Radishchev, A.I. Gertsen, N.P. Ogarev, M.A. Bakunin, S.G. Nechaev, Dekabristy, as well as works by representative philosophers of Russia's 'Silver Age' such as V.S. Solov'ev, N.A. Berdiaev, and M.A. Bulgakov.

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【６】Collection of Russian Emigre Fiction.

• It has mainly been thought that modern Russian literature can be divided into 'Soviet literature' and 'emigre' literature', but research into the latter category of literature has long been hampered by an inadequacy of material and the difficulties involved in locating and investigating available copies of such works. This collection has been systematically assembled over the course of many years, with the objective of eliminating such obstacles to research. This collection brings together items from the former private libraries of bibliophiles such as A.N. Benua, M.E. Zernov, P.N. Miliukov, S, Ernst, L.A. Grinberg, A. Popov, A.P. Struve, N. Valiev, and of publishers, authors, and literary critics; many books contain handwritten comments made by their previous owners. Among these items can be seen literary works which greatly influenced the development of Soviet literature, and even some works which cannot be found in most Russian, European, and American libraries.

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【７】Henryk Gierszynski Collection

 

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【８】Gibson Collection

2,544 titles [University Library]

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【９】Taizo Nakamura collection

1,751 titles [University Library]

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[Special collections]

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