The Hoover Institution's Russian collections are among its most extensive and important. While the Russian Empire was swept away in 1917, the collections relating to it span the period from the mid-19th century through the 20th and into the 21st centuries, including the Russian Civil War and the activities of émigrés and exiles forced abroad as a result of Bolshevik rule. Among the subjects best covered are the First World War, 1917 revolution, Russian Civil War (mainly the anti-Bolshevik side) and emigration. The records of various Russian embassies, legations and missions abroad are significant for diplomatic history, as are the papers of Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov and diplomats Mikhail Girs, V.A. Maklakov and Nikolai Bazili. The papers of Grand Duchess Kseniia Aleksandrovna and Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna open up the world of the Romanov dynasty. Military history is also well represented in the papers of General N.N. Golovin, V.E. Flug, Dmitrii Shcherbachev and others. The Hoover Library is an excellent resource for Imperial government documents and both Imperial and émigré society.
Correspondence, diaries, printed matter, and photographs relating to events in Russia before, during, and after the Russian Revolution, and to Russian Imperial family matters. Includes letters of Nicholas II and his mother, Mariia Feodorovna.
Photo: Grand Duchess Kseniia Aleksandrovna papers, Box 10, Folder 99, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Correspondence, speeches and writings, reports, diaries, and clippings, relating to Russian foreign relations with France, the Bessarabian territorial question, the Russian Revolution, and Russian emigres in France after the revolution.
Photo: Vasilii A. Maklakov papers, Box 22, Folder 13, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Correspondence, writings, memoirs, biographical material, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, photographs, clippings, and printed matter relating to Russian émigré activities following the Russian Revolution and Civil War, including political, military, veterans', religious, educational, cultural, literary, artistic, and social activities. Includes a few papers of M. D. Vrangel'. Also available on microfilm (49 reels). Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.
Photo: Mariia D. Vrangel' collection, Album 12, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Correspondence, studies, reports, telegrams, memoranda, statistics, charts, clippings, and other printed matter, relating to White Russian diplomatic, political, and military activities during the Russian Revolution, Russian émigré activities, and conditions in Russia during and after the Revolution.
Photo: Mikhail N. Girs papers, Box 27, Folder 4, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Correspondence, speeches and writings, and printed matter relating to Russian military activities during World War I, the Russian Civil War, and the Sino-Japanese War.
Photo: Nikolai N. Golovin papers, Box 13, Folder Borisov, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Correspondence, writings, memoranda, reports, notes, photographs, memorabilia, and artwork relating to Russian political and foreign affairs (1900-1917), Russian involvement in World War I, the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, and Soviet economics and politics. Includes drafts and background materials for N. A. Bazili's books.
Photo: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bazili papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Intelligence reports from agents in the field and the Paris office, dispatches, circulars, headquarters studies, correspondence of revolutionaries, and photographs, relating to activities of Russian revolutionists abroad. Collection is available on microfilm (509 reels). Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.
Photo: Register of the Okhrana records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Correspondence, memoranda, writings, speeches, memoirs, minutes of meetings, conference proceedings, leaflets, resolutions, bulletins, reports, clippings, newspapers, other printed matter, and photographs relating to Karl Marx and the international socialist movement; the First, Second, Third and Fourth Intenationals; Russian revolutionary, anarchist and socialist movements, especially the Rossiiskaia sotsial- demokraticheskaia rabochaia partiia (RSDRP) and its Menshevik wing; the Partiia sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov (PSR); the Russian Revolution and Civil War.
Photo: Boris I. Nicolaevsky collection, Box 210, Folder 15, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Letters to Queen Alexandra of Great Britain. Relates to matters of state and family.
Photo: Mariia Feodorovna, Empress, Consort of Alexander III, Letters to Queen Alexandra, Box 13, Folder 2, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Correspondence, memoirs, other writings, printed matter, photographs, and memorabilia relating to the Russian aristocracy and to Russian émigré affairs following the Russian Revolution.
Photo: Romanov family papers, Box 28, Folder 5, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, copyright Stanford University.
Bazili (Nikolai Aleksandrovich) papers
1851-1973
Correspondence, writings, memoranda, reports, notes, photographs, memorabilia, and artwork relating to Russian political and foreign affairs (1900-1917), Russian involvement in World War I, the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, and Soviet economics and politics. Includes drafts and background materials for N. A. Bazili's books.
Bastunov (Vladimir J.) collection
1897-1917
Imperial orders, military orders, personnel rosters, and casualty reports, relating to the operations of the Russian Imperial Army and its personnel.
1926-1933
Includes a study titled Pekhota (1926), relating to infantry organization and tactics, and a memorandum, 1933, relating to activities of the Russian 10th Army in September 1914.
1917-1926
Correspondence, studies, reports, telegrams, memoranda, statistics, charts, clippings, and other printed matter, relating to White Russian diplomatic, political, and military activities during the Russian Revolution, Russian émigré activities, and conditions in Russia during and after the Revolution.
1912-1943
Correspondence, speeches and writings, and printed matter relating to Russian military activities during World War I, the Russian Civil War, and the Sino-Japanese War.
1881-1956
Correspondence, speeches and writings, reports, diaries, and clippings, relating to Russian foreign relations with France, the Bessarabian territorial question, the Russian Revolution, and Russian emigres in France after the revolution.
Mariia Feodorovna, Empress, Consort of Alexander III, Letters to Queen Alexandra
1881-1925
Letters to Queen Alexandra of Great Britain. Relates to matters of state and family.
Nicolaevsky (Boris I.) collection
1801-1982
Correspondence, memoranda, writings, speeches, memoirs, minutes of meetings, conference proceedings, leaflets, resolutions, bulletins, reports, clippings, newspapers, other printed matter, and photographs relating to Karl Marx and the international socialist movement; the First, Second, Third and Fourth Intenationals; Russian revolutionary, anarchist and socialist movements, especially the Rossiiskaia sotsial- demokraticheskaia rabochaia partiia (RSDRP) and its Menshevik wing; the Partiia sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov (PSR); the Russian Revolution and Civil War; Russian politics and government in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; communism in the Soviet Union; Russian emigre politics; the Vlasov movement during World War II; and Russian displaced persons after World War II. Includes records of the RSDRP, the PSR, and other organizations; and papers of Rafail Abramovich, Pavel Aksel'rod, Viktor Chernov, Leon Trotsky, Iraklii TSereteli, and many others. Also includes papers of B. I. Nicolaevsky. Includes documents from Anna M. Bourguina.
Register of the Okhrana records
1883-1917
Intelligence reports from agents in the field and the Paris office, dispatches, circulars, headquarters studies, correspondence of revolutionaries, and photographs, relating to activities of Russian revolutionists abroad. Collection is available on microfilm (509 reels). Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.
1847-2003
Correspondence, memoirs, other writings, printed matter, photographs, and memorabilia relating to the Russian aristocracy and to Russian émigré affairs following the Russian Revolution.
Russia. Gosudarstvennaia duma issuances
1906-1916
Proclamations, speeches, photograph, and translation of proceedings of the Russian Duma, relating to activities of the Duma and to political conditions in Russia.
1900
Relates to expenses of digging canals on the Glukhoozerskaia Farm, an estate of Nicholas II, tsar of Russia.
Russia. Konsul'stvo (Breslau, Germany) records
1860-1914
Correspondence, intelligence reports, orders, and printed matter, relating to Russian-German relations, especially commercial relations.
Russia. Konsul'stvo (Leipzig, Germany) records
1830-1914
Correspondence, reports, and printed matter, relating to Russian-German relations, especially commercial relations.
Russia. Legatsiia (Hesse, Germany) records
1857-1913
Correspondence, reports, circulars, instructions, telegrams, and printed matter, relating to Russian-German relations.
Russia. Legatsiia (Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany) records
1902-1908
Correspondence, orders, reports, and printed matter, relating to Russian-German relations.
Russia. Legatsiia (Wuerttemberg, Germany) records
1828-1904
Correspondence, reports, orders, memoranda, and notes, relating to Russian-Württemberg relations.
Russia. Ministerstvo Imperatorskogo Dvora bulletins
1894
Relates to the illness and death of Alexander III, tsar of Russia.
Russia. Ministerstvo inostrannykh del miscellaneous records
1861-1914
Dispatches and reports, relating to Russian foreign policy in the Balkans. Photocopy.
1876-2022
The newspapers in this collection were originally collected by the Hoover Institution Library and transferred to the Archives in 2019. The Russia newspaper collection (1876-2022) comprises nine-hundred and sixty-six unique titles of publication in Russian, Armenian, Ukrainian, English, French, German, Kazakh, Czech, Ruthenian, Kalmyk, Georgian, Turkmen, Yiddish, Tatar and Uzbek. The collection includes Russian émigré newspapers and periodicals, for which local subjects have been created. Some titles also exist on microfilm. Information about microfilm availability as well as further analyzed title information can be found in Stanford University Libraries catalog.
Russia. Posol'stvo (U.S.) records
1897-1947
Correspondence, telegrams, memoranda, reports, agreements, minutes, histories, financial records, lists, and printed matter, relating to Russia's role in World War I, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, activities of the Russian Red Cross, Russian emigres in foreign countries, and operations of the embassy office. Includes files of the Russian Military, Naval, and Financial Attaches in the United States; the Russian State Control Office and the Russian Supply Committee Office in the United States; and the Consulate General in Montreal, Canada. Entire collection also on microfilm (484 reels).
1790-2024
Pamphlets, leaflets, serial issues, clippings, other printed matter, correspondence, memoranda, reports, orders, translations, election campaign literature, video and sound recordings, and memorabilia relating to political, social, and economic conditions in Russia, and in the Russian empire as a whole, the Soviet Union as a whole, and the Soviet successor states collectively, and especially to the Russian Revolution and Civil War, American engineers in Russia, and post-1991 elections in Russia.
Sazonov (Sergei Dmitrievich) papers
1914-1928
Clippings, correspondence, and writings relating to Russian political and foreign affairs in 1909-1917, Russian involvement in World War I, and the career of Sergeĭ Dmitrievich Sazonov as Russian foreign minister.
Shcherbachev (Dmitrii G.) papers
1919-1920
Correspondence, orders, reports, and printed matter, relating to Russian military operations during World War I, Russian prisoners of war in Germany, and the Russian Revolution and Civil War.
Taneev (Sergei Aleksandrovich) papers
1850-1998
Sergei Taneev was a Captain in the Russian Imperial army, and was married to Tinatine Djordjadze. The collection contains correspondence, notes, government documents, certificates, printed matter, photographs, and books, relating to the Russian Imperial army and Russian émigrélife. It also includes papers of the father and grandfather of S. A. Taneev, both tsarist government officials.
Tarsaidze (Alexandre Georgiviech) papers
1648-1977
Correspondence, speeches and writings, research notes, printed matter, photographs, engravings, lithographs, maps, and sound and video recordings relating to the history of Georgia (Transcaucasia), the Romanov family, Russian-American relations, and the Association of Russian Imperial Naval Officers in America. Includes photocopies of Romanov family letters, photographs of Russia during World War I by Donald C. Thompson, and a documentary film of Tsar Nicholas II.
Tatistcheff (Alexis B.) papers
1870-1977
Correspondence, memoranda, writings, printed matter, and photographs, relating to the Russian nobility, the Romanov dynasty, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, and Soviet-American relations during the 1960s and 1970s.
1916-1929
Reports, orders, correspondence, memoranda, dispatches, financial records, minutes, printed matter, maps, and photographs relating to Russian military operations in France during World War I; White Russian diplomatic activities and military operations, especially in southern Russia, during the Russian Revolution and Civil War, including military purchasing and intelligence operations; administration of territory under White Russian control during the Civil War; the evacuation of White Russian military personnel and civilians from the Crimea in 1920; and the resettlement of Russian refugees in Turkey and various European countries. Includes records of the Russian Expeditionary Corps in France, the Volunteer Army, the Armed Forces of Southern Russia, the Northwestern Army, the Foreign Supply Directorate, military representatives in foreign countries and attached to the Allied Supreme Command, and the Russian Army in exile, and some personal papers of Baron Petr Vrangel', commander-in-chief successively of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia and Russian Army. The majority of the collection is also available on microfilm (220 reels). Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.
1849-2003
The Vrangel' family papers include correspondence, printed matter, and photographs, relating to Russian military activities during World War I, White Russian military activities during the Russian Civil War, and especially to Russian émigré affairs in the interwar period. Includes obituaries of Petr Vrangel' and letters of condolence following his death. Mainly in Russian.
Vrangel' (Mariia D.) collection
1915-1944
Correspondence, writings, memoirs, biographical material, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, photographs, clippings, and printed matter relating to Russian émigré activities following the Russian Revolution and Civil War, including political, military, veterans', religious, educational, cultural, literary, artistic, and social activities. Includes a few papers of M. D. Vrangel'. Also available on microfilm (49 reels). Digital copies of select records also available at https://digitalcollections.hoover.org.
1917-1960
Correspondence and photographs, relating to conditions of the Russian imperial family in captivity following the Russian Revolution, and to Russian emigre affairs. Includes letters written by the four daughters of Tsar Nicholas II and by the Tsar's sister Grand Duchess Olga Aleksandrovna. Also includes papers of the children of Erast Zborovskii, Viktor and Ekaterina.
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