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British Library of Political and Economic Science

MEL'GUNOV, Sergei Petrovich, 1879-1956, Russian historian and émigré


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0097 MELGUNOV

Held at: British Library of Political and Economic Science

Title: MEL'GUNOV, Sergei Petrovich, 1879-1956, Russian historian and émigré

Date(s): [1910-1960]

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 255 boxes

Name of creator(s): Mel'gunov | Sergei Petrovich | 1879-1956 | Russian historian and émigré

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born in 1879; worked as Professor of History previous to the Russian Revolution; founded an anti-Bolshevik socialist party (Popular Socialist Party), 1919; sentenced to death, then reprieved, with the sentence commuted to imprisonment; expelled from the Soviet Union, 1920; settled in Prague, Berlin and Paris, where he continued his historical researches and published works on Russian history; became editor of several émigré journals; died 1956. Publications: The Red Terror in Russia (JM Dent and Sons, London and Toronto, 1925); numerous publications in Russian.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Professor Sergei Petrovich Mel'gunov, [1910-1960], including a large amount of material relating to the Russian Revolutions and the Russian Civil War, notably handwritten and typewritten accounts of eyewitnesses and victims of the Bolshevik regime, [1918-1920], cuttings from various Russian newspapers, 1919-1921, papers and cuttings relating to trials and executions of opponents of the regime, 1921-1934, papers concerning the Cheka (and lists of Chekists), 1918-[1927], and the GPU, and other material relating to the period; and correspondence with Russian émigrés and prominent people abroad and in Russia, including comments on contemporary political events and problems, notably letters from Yekaterina Dmitriyevna Kuskova, an early Russian Marxist who was exiled in 1922 for opposition to the Bolshevik government.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: Russian, English

System of arrangement:

Unsorted.

Conditions governing access:

Apply to Archivist.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright unknown. Some documents may be photocopied.

Physical characteristics:

The condition of many of the documents is poor, and they require careful handling.

Finding aids:

Summary boxlist available.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Bought from the family in 1961. A further deposit was made by the family in 1968.

Immediate source of acquisition:

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Mel'gunov's book collection forms part of the Library's Russian collection.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Sources: British Library On-Line Public Access Catalogue 97; Historical Manuscripts Commission National Register of Archives. Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 2001


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Communism | Collectivism | Political doctrines
Exiles | Migrants
Russian Civil War (1917-1922) | Civil war | Political movements
Russian Revolution (1917) | Revolutionary movements | Political movements
War | International conflicts

Personal names
Kuskova | Yekaterina Dmitriyevna | 1869-1958 | Russian political figure and émigré
Mel'gunov | Sergei Petrovich | 1879-1956 | Russian historian and émigré x Melgounoff | Sergei Petrovich x Melgounov | Sergei Petrovich

Corporate names
Cheka | Soviet secret police agency x Vecheka
GPU | Soviet political police agency
Russian Social-Democratic Workers Party | Bolsheviks x Russian Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) x All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) x Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Places
Russia | Eastern Europe
Crimea x Krym