Davis Center Collection

The Davis Center Collection contains books and periodicals related to the field of Russian and Eurasian studies, particularly in the areas of political science, economics, sociology and history.

The collection consists of approximately 20,000 volumes, primarily scholarly monographs, reference books, archival guides and statistical publications. It also includes a collection of Soviet and post-Soviet newspapers and periodicals and a growing collection of unique and archival materials.

Collections

General Collection

The Davis Center Collection maintains a core collection of books and periodicals related to the field, particularly in the social sciences (political science, economics, sociology, and history). There are about 6,000 volumes on Fung Library’s shelves; these include a dedicated reference section containing major encyclopedias, atlases, print periodical indexes, print bibliographies, and other important reference works. Another 14,000 volumes are housed in Offsite Storage and available on request. 

Periodicals

In addition to monographs, the DCRES Library holds a core selection of area journals and newspapers. A large number of these titles also have online versions available through HOLLIS and can be accessed via the databases listed in Harvard Library’s guide to Slavic digital resources. 

Periodicals collections on Microfilm:

• Union Republic newspapers (1955–1990)
• Davis Center Library Microfilm Collection (stored off-site)
• Pravda (1917–1957)

Special collections

The Davis Center library holds a growing number of archival and special collections, including the following major resources, many of which have been fully or partly digitized. Click here for more information on selected special collections held at the Davis Center.

• The Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System - keyword-searchable transcripts of 705 interviews conducted with refugees from the USSR during the early years of the Cold War.
• The Soviet Information Bureau photograph collection - 6,000 black-and-white images documenting daily life and the reconstruction of the Soviet Union following World War II.
• Post-Soviet transition in Russia photograph collection - 1,240 photographs depicting street scenes emblematic of the economic, social, and political changes that swept Moscow and other Russian cities from 1992 to 1997, the tumultuous period immediately following the collapse of the USSR.
• Richard E. Hoagland papers on U.S. diplomacy in South and Central Asia - materials documenting the career of ret. Amb. Richard Hoagland, whose diplomatic assignments in Pakistan, Moscow, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan between 1985 and 2015 shaped and reflected U.S. foreign policy in the region in the post-Soviet era. 
• (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov, Catherine Mannick, and Hannelore Fobo papers - artwork, diaries, photographs, and correspondence that shed light on the work of Kozlov as artist and founding member of the nonconformist New Artists movement in Leningrad in the 1980's.
• Gennadii Burbulis video interview collection, 2021 - 9 video interviews in which Burbulis, Boris Yeltsin’s second-in-command in the 1990's, gives a firsthand account of the 1991 Soviet coup, the formation of the post-Soviet Russian government, and his own role in drafting the Belovezha Accords and shaping Russia’s foreign and economic policies in the 1990’s. 
• Karpovich-Kalashnikov family correspondence and photographs, 1912-1948 - 200 letters and 30 photographs bearing witness to the experiences of a prominent Russian-Georgian-Italian family, including the noted Soviet-Georgian architect Mikhail Karpovich, during the Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian Civil War, Stalinism, and World War II. 
• Kazbegi-Dadiani family papers - photographs, documents, correspondence, and memoirs detailing the lives of several generations of members of Georgian noble families before the Bolshevik Revolution and in subsequent exile in Europe and the U.S.  
• Genrikh M. Deich papers - research and archival documents on Jews in the Russian Empire.
• Mark G. Field papers, 1951-2008, bulk 1962-1996 - materials documenting the eminent medical sociologist's scholarly career, and in particular his study of the health-care systems of the former Soviet Union and its successor states. (100 boxes)
• Jeremy R. Azrael papers, 1961-2007, bulk 1977-2000 - research materials related to Azrael's position in the RAND Corporation or as a government advisor, and his studies on and analysis of Soviet and post-Soviet policy, policymaking, and relations with the United States. (8 boxes)
• Print materials on the women’s rights movement in Russia, 1895-1915 -- 30,000 pages of periodicals, monographs, pamphlets, organizational reports, and congress proceedings documenting the activities and debates that shaped the movement.
• Poliksena Shishkina-Iavein digital photograph collection - 140 digital images documenting the life and work of Poliksena Shishkina-Iavein (1875-1947), a major figure in the Russian women's rights movement who headed the Russian League for Women's Equal Rights from 1910 to 1917.
• The Soviet anti-bureaucracy poster collection - 140 posters, Krokodil covers, and clippings, most created by members of the Fighting Pencil (Boevoi karandash) artists’ collective, satirizing bureaucratic abuses and inefficiencies during the last decades of the Soviet period.
• The Davis Center poster collection - about 200 posters dating from 1919 to the 1990s, including early Soviet pro-literacy posters, World War II propaganda, images satirizing NATO, Western capitalism, religion, and posters from late-Soviet anti-drug and anti-alcoholism campaigns.
• The Marshall Goldman Papers - 100 boxes of correspondence, research files, photographs, and other materials documenting the work of Marshall Goldman (1930-2017), noted Sovietologist and Associate Director of the Davis Center from 1975 to 2006. 
• Dorothy Dawson Burlage Soviet exchange materials, 1947-1960, bulk 1959 - materials documenting a 1959 student exchange trip to the USSR sponsored by the YMCA and YWCA.
• Catherine Mannick papers on Soviet and Post-Soviet exchanges, 1968-2005, bulk 1978-1991 - Materials documenting Mannick's work on the 1979 Agriculture USA exhibit in Soviet Tajikistan, as an IREX exchange student in 1980's Leningrad, and her subsequent work in the Russian Federation for the law firm Hale and Dorr.
• Pantiukhov-Ragosine family papers, 1864 – 1996, bulk 1920-1980 - materials on Oleg Olegovich Pantiukhov (Col. John L. Bates, 1910-1995), translator and aide at the Yalta Conference, and his father Oleg Ivanovich Pantiukhov (1882-1973), a key founder of Russian Scouting. 
• Paul Gossard, USSR and Europe travel journal, 1959 - travel journal with photographs documenting Gossard's experience in the USSR on an exchange trip for American educators.
• Davis Center collection of Soviet model airplanes - 8 plastic models of Soviet and East German airplanes, assembled in the USSR in the 1970’s.
• Thomas W. Simons materials on U.S. diplomacy in the USSR, 1985-1998 - materials connected to Thomas W. Simons, Jr’s work as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (1986-1989), and as coordinator of U.S. assistance to the newly independent states in the early 1990s.

For a more complete list of special collections held at the Davis Center Library, please visit HOLLIS for Archival Discovery. 

Audio-Visual Materials

• Soviet and Post-Soviet TV News Collection

Ephemera

• Davis Center Library Press Packets Collection – material from the Center for Democratic Institutions (1997-1998) (stored off-site)
• Davis Center Library Reprint File – papers, articles and off-prints donated by Russian Research Center professors (stored off-site)
• Davis Center Library Vertical File – clippings, articles and brochures arranged alphabetically by subject (A–Zyuganov) (stored off-site)
• Russian Research Center Seminars – seminar papers delivered by Russian Research Center professors (1948-1979) (stored off-site)

Library Information and Hours

The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Collection is located in Fung Library (Knafel Building, Concourse Level, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138).

Fung Library's semester schedule is as follows: Monday - Thursday: 9 am - 8 pm; Friday 9 am - 5 pm; Sunday: 1 - 8 pm. 

When classes are not in session, the library is open weekdays from 9 am - 5 pm. The library is closed for University and legal holidays.

View current schedule.