Photographs from Russia, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe

While world renowned for its extensive archival, library and artifact collections, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives also boasts an impressive, yet lesser-known, collection of tens of thousands of photographs. These range from individual prints to curated albums, offering a photographic journey through the many diverse history, peoples, landscapes and cultures of our world. Hoover’s photographic collections span the late nineteenth and early twentieth century onward, documenting war, peace, and revolution, as well as formal and informal views of the people who witnessed and made history. This Research Guide to just a portion of these collections has evolved over several years and represents part of a larger effort to highlight the art and visual (illustrated and photographic books, posters, moving images) holdings of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Because the photographic holdings relating to Russia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Baltics, and the Caucasus represent so significant a portion of the overall photographic holdings, they form the subject of this Research Guide, which is divided into two parts. Part I is focused on Russian and Soviet Collections, with more than one-third of collections reviewed on sight by co-compiler Edward Kasinec. Part II is focused on Eastern European, Balkan, Baltic, & Caucasian Related Collections.

Please download the complete Research Guide Introduction. It includes additional information to help your research and about the guide's formatting.

Research Guide Color Key

• Highlighted in Green are all Pictorial and Subject collections
• Highlighted in Yellow are albums
• Highlighted in Blue are collections digitized in whole or part by Hoover staff
• An asterisk (*) indicates that the collection was reviewed physically by co-compiler Edward Kasinec

DOWNLOAD a copy of the complete 512 page Research Guide to Photographs in the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University (it includes the Introduction, Part I, and Part II). It will allow you to keyword search across all section, make use of indexed record headings, and refer to the contents offline. Please note that this is an accessible PDF at 20.4MB.

Kasinec, Edward. “An American Philanthropist in Istanbul, 1920‒1929: Anna Van Schaick Mitchell’s Albums, Photographs and Papers at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives.” Slavic and East European Information Resources, 25, no. 1 (2024): 96‒104.

Kasinec, Edward. “The Confiscation of Art, Icons and Valuables in Revolution: The Witness of Maurice Laserson (‘M. J. Larsons’)” in A Blue Brick: Festschrift in Honor of John E. Bowlt on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday, edited by Yury Leving. Frankfurt am Main: Esterum, 2023.

Yoo, Hee-Gwone, and Edward Kasinec. “The Concerned Lens: Towards a First Census of Russian, Soviet, and Eastern European Photographs in the Hoover Institution Archives‒The Albums.” Slavic and East European Information Resources 21, no. 3‒4 (2020).

Patenaude, Bertrand M. Defining Moments: The First One Hundred Years of the Hoover Institution. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 2019.

Patenaude, Bertrand M. A Wealth of Ideas: Revelations from the Hoover Institution Archives. Stanford General Books, 2006.

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Kasinec, Edward. “Columbia University Rare Books and Manuscript Library.” Slavic and East European Information Resources 23, no. 3 (2022). (Two unique photographic albums depict sub-Carpathian Rus’ during the period 1919–1923. The albums also evidence the political use of photography by Czechs to “lay claim” to the newly incorporated lands and peoples of sub-Carpathian Rus’.”

Yoo, Hee-Gwone. “Russian, Soviet and East European Photographs in the Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Columbia University: A Note on Albums.” Slavic and East European Information Resources 23, nos. 1‒2 (2022).

Smith-Peter, Susan, and Hee-Gwone Yoo. “Pre-Revolutionary Russian Photography at the New York Public Library: An Introduction.” Slavic and East European Information Resources 19, nos. 3‒4 (2018).

Wernecke, Jessica, and Hee-Gwone Yoo. “Soviet Photography in America: An Introduction to the New York Public Library’s Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Slavic, East European, and Baltic Collection.” Slavic and East European Information Resources 19, nos. 3‒4 (2018).

Edward Kasinec
Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and
Research Associate, Harriman Institute, Columbia University

Hee Gwone Yoo
Senior Librarian, General Research Division, The New York Public Library

With the assistance of Marissa Rhee and colleagues at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives