Bibliografiia gazetnykh sobranii russkogo istoricheskogo arkhiva za gody 1917-1921.  

Prague, 1939.

 

By Lev Magerovskii

 

                This bibliography is an invaluable tool for those studying the Russian Revolution and the Civil War.  It provides an extensive listing of newspapers from this period in the Library of the Russkii zagranichnyi istoricheskii archiv (RZIA), now part of the Slovanská knihovna in Prague. 

 

            The Bibliografiia... was part of a project started in the late 1930s by the RZIA staff to provide topical indexes to the RZIA's book and newspaper collections.  Unfortunately, the project was stopped at the beginning of World War II, and only this work and Sergei Postnikov's Bibliografiia russkoi revoliutsii i grazhdanskoi voiny (1917-1921) were actually published.  Magerovskii's work was published under the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia but, because of the war, was not widely distributed.  (There appear to be only two copies of the original edition in the entire United States, one in the Library of Congress and the other in the private collection of the author's son.  It is from the latter copy that the current reprint is being produced.)

 

            The bibliography is divided into two main parts.  The first deals with publications from 1914 until October 1917.  The second, and more extensive part, covers newspapers published from October 1917 through 1921.  The second part is itself divided into two sections:  The Bolshevik Press (about 425 titles) and the opposition press.  The section dealing with the opposition press is further divided by region: Inside Russia (189 titles); South Russia (242 titles); Urals-Volga Region (42 titles); Ukraine (74 titles); Northern Russia (8 titles); North-West Russia (53 titles).

 

            The entry for each newspaper provides detailed information on the issues held by the RZIA as well as information on publishers, editors and political affiliations.  Many entries are cross-referenced and provide information on changes in title or, in the case of the anti-Bolshevik papers, on changes in place of publication.  Most of the newspapers originally held by the RZIA are still in Prague.

 

            The reprint edition includes an appreciation of the author by his son, Eugene Magerovsky, prepared specially for this edition.

 

 

Magerovskii, Lev. Bibliografiia gazetnykh sobranii russkogo istoricheskogo arkhiva za gody 1917-1921.  Prague, 1939. vi + 136 pp., 6x9", illus., library binding.
ISBN: 0-88354-352-4..........................................................................$25