The Gering Bibliography of Russian Emigre Military Publications

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The Gering Bibliography of Russian Émigré Military Publications

2nd edition, revised and enlarged
Published in 2007

By Anatol Shmelev

[Drawn from the Introduction to the revised edition]
      Anyone who has ever worked in the field of Russian military history or studied topics such as the Russian Civil War, Russia's part in the First World War, the emigration, or the place of the military in pre-revolutionary Russia, has probably come across Aleksei Gering's Materialy k bibliografii russkoi voennoi pechati za rubezhom.
     Gering died in 1977. He was a lieutenant in the Russian navy, served on the battleship Petropavlovsk until the spring of 1918, when, like many officers, he chose to retire from the service rather than serve in the Red fleet. He participated in the Civil War in the south of Russia. Gering later moved to Paris, where he became active in the publishing and editing of a number of émigré periodicals.
     Gering died in 1977. He was a lieutenant in the Russian navy, served on the battleship Petropavlovsk until the spring of 1918, when, like many officers, he chose to retire from the service rather than serve in the Red fleet. He participated in the Civil War in the south of Russia. Gering later moved to Paris, where he became active in the publishing and editing of a number of émigré periodicals.
      Gering's extraordinarily useful bibliography of Russian émigré military literature, published in 1968, has since itself become a bibliographic rarity, along with the bulk of works it describes. The guide is unique, not only as a bibliography, but as a monument to an entire body of literature. However, it deserves a second edition. The time for this is especially propitious due to the enormous changes over the 35 years since the bibliography first saw light. Not only has émigré publishing continued in this field, but the collapse of Communism in Russia has revived and stimulated an interest there-and abroad-in the history of the Civil War, in the emigration and in Russian military history in general.
      This is not to say that the original was defective. On the contrary, Gering did an extraordinary job, used a fantastic array of resources, and he compiled the original with great care. But it is the nature of such a compilation that not all works can be found and accessed and examined.
      This second edition includes certain changes which make it in some respects substantially different from the first. The basic format of Gering's original has been retained, but a quantity of works has been deleted. In the first place these are works which were either never published or are classed by Gering as manuscripts that appeared in serial form (usually in Voennaia Byl', which he edited). Also deleted are works which had no connection to strictly military subjects, such as many of General P.N. Krasnov's novels. Corrections relate largely to exact titles, place and date of publication, etc. Where possible, annotations have been added or lengthened.

The books included in this guide can be broken down into a number of categories, although there is a good deal of overlap among them:

Works of literature (novels, short stories, sketches, etc.) are included when the authors were themselves soldiers and officers, or when the contents reflect a military theme.
Autobiographies and memoirs run the gamut from large and authoritative works, supplemented by numerous documents, such as the memoirs of General P. N. Vrangel', to personal and intimate documents, sometimes bearing a superficial resemblance to a literary work in the amount of dialogue or detail of description.
Works on military history cover a wide range of subjects from ancient Rome (P. N. Simanski) to Genghis-Khan (E. Khara-Davan) to twentieth-century Russia. Understandably, the last period is the richest and most important for the user of this catalog.
Military science is a topic that draws heavily on military history, and the works of N. N. Golovin, A. A. Zaitsov, A. K. Baiov and others reflect this.
Political literature is included mainly for purposes of context. In part it draws on the interest of many authors in international affairs, which, aside from direct implications for strategy, also demanded of the emigration a test of its patriotism.
Finally, reference works form a small but significant group within this bibliography.

The corpus of these works constitutes an entire world of research possibilities, and combined they stand as a monument to a profession, a caste, a social order and a historical time. The revised edition of Gering's Bibliography opens the corpus to the researcher.

The Gering Bibliography of Russian Émigré Military Publications, 2nd edition, revised and enlarged. By Anatol Shmelev, 8 ½ x 11", ca. 300 pages, 0-88354-182-3…................................................................. $50 (only on disc)
Published in 2007.