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Annual Report of the
Division of Slavic Literature for 1939

(From the report of the Chief, Mr. Rodionoff)

During the fiscal year 1938–1939 the collections of the Division were increased by the acquisition, through exchange, purchase, transfer and gifts, of 948 books, 2,261 unbound numbers and 91 bound volumes of periodicals and serials and 306 pamphlets, or a total of 3,606 pieces of printed material, of which about ninety per cent were received through the International Exchange Service.

With 160,179 pieces collected prior to July 1,1938, the Division, therefore, contained about 163,785 pieces on June 30, 1939. (This total includes about 52,100 numbers and issues of periodicals and serials which were tallied as individual items upon receipt but were subsequently bound into approximately 11,478 volumes).

The increase, therefore, of the holdings of the Division from the original collection of about 68,000 Russian items, acquired in 1907 from Mr. G. V. Yudin,1 can be estimated at about 95,785 items, or about 141 per cent.

The Division, however, has long been badly under-staffed for taking the proper technical care of its collections; moreover, it is now confronted with a perceivable lack of the shelving space prerequisite for their sound arrangement. This condition, coincidental with an yearly influx of unsolicited material coming through the International Exchange Service, constrains the Chief of the Division to limit his recommendations of new acquisitions through purchase, although the book market, even in this country, has not yet been exhausted in the Slavic material of conceivable interest.

Nevertheless, the Division succeeded in acquiring during the year several publications which might be regarded as outstanding ones, either for their rarity or reference value. A few only are mentioned in the following paragraphs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Of the bibliographical works recently published by the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the following three were acquired by the Division during the year:

  •  Dinze, O. F. and Shafranovskii, K.I., compilers. Matematika v izdaniiakh Akademii nauk. 1728–1935. Bibliograficheskii ukazatel' ("Mathematics in the publications of the Academy of Sciences issued from 1728 to 1935. A bibliographical index."). Moscow – Leningrad, 1936. This index comprises 2,439 entries covering the period of over two centuries.
  •  Feider, V. A., compiler. Aleksandr Petrovich Karpinskii. 1846–1936. Bibliograficheskii sbornik. Moscow – Leningrad, 1938. A bibliographical index comprising over 500 entries for the works of A. P. Karpinskii, a well known Russian scientist, the founder of the Russian school of geology and the President of the Academy of Sciences for the last twenty years of his life (1916–1936).
  •  Smirnova, O. K., Faidel', E. P. and Shafranovskii, K. I., compilers. Geologiia v izdaniiakh Akademii nauk. Tom I. Vypusk 1: 1728–1928 ("Geology in the publications of the Academy of Sciences. Volume I, issue 1: 1728–1928"). Moscow – Leningrad, 1938. This bibliographical index is supposed to be complete in two issues of which the first one, mentioned above, covers the period of the two centuries, from 1728 to 1928, comprising 3,607 entries. The second issue, now in preparation, is supposed to cover the years of 1929–1935.

The Vsesoiuznaia Biblioteka imeni V. I. Lenina ("The All-Union Library in the name of V. I. Lenin") in Moscow 2 recently published the two important bibliographical works, copies of which were acquired by the Division during the year, viz.,

  •  Buslaev, F. V., compiler. Rukopisi L. N. Tolstogo. Katalog ("The manuscripts of L. N. Tolstoi. A catalog"). In two parts, Moscow, 1937. This catalog lists the Library's very large collection of the manuscripts of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoi (1828–1910), the great Russian novelist, publicist and philosopher, and is divided in two parts, the first one containing entries for the manuscripts of Tolstoi's works, and the second one — for those of his letters.
  •  Siniavskii, N., Tsiavlovskii, M. and Bogaevskaia, K., compilers. Russkaia Pushkiniana ("The Russian Pushkiniana"). In two issues. Moscow, 1938. The first issue bears the title Pushkin v pechati 1814–1837 ("Pushkin's works published in 1814–1837") and contains the second, revised edition of a bibliographical index compiled by N. Siniavskii and M. Tsiavlovskii of which the first edition was published in 1914; the new edition is apparently an exhaustive index listing 1,183 entries for all the publications of the works of Aleksandr Sergieevich Pushkin (1799–1837), the great Russian poet, which appeared during his lifetime. The second issue has the title Pushkin v pechati za sto let, 1837–1937 ("The publications of Pushkin's works for one hundred years, 1837–1937") and contains a new bibliographical index covering the period of one hundred years which had elapsed after the poet's death. It was compiled by K. Bogaevskaia comprising, by a coincidence, also 1,183 entries, like the first issue. Both indices, published under the general title of the Russkaia Pushkiniana, should be regarded as invaluable additions to the Division's large collection of Pushkiniana.

SERIALS ACQUIRED IN SETS

  •  Imperatorskoe Pravoslavnoe palestinskoe obshchestvo ("The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society"). St. Petersburg–Petrograd. Pravoslavnyi palestinskii sbornik ("The orthodox Palestine magazine"). Sixty-three issues in twenty-five bound volumes. Complete set, made of vellum. St. Petersburg–Petrograd, 1881–1917. The magazine was devoted to the history, archeology, topography of, and the original accounts of medieval and contemporary travelers through, the Holy Land and the Near East. A great number of the original texts, not only in Russian but also in some other languages, can be found in this magazine, with explanatory articles and notes written by the best historians, archeologists, theologians, etc.
  •  Imperatorskoe Russkoe arkheologicheskoe obshchestvo ("The Imperial Russian archeological society"). St. Petersburg. a) Zapiski Numizmaticheskago otdieleniia ("The Memoirs of the Numismatic section"). Two volumes, each in four issues, with numerous illustrations and plates. A complete set. St. Petersburg, 1906–1913. b) Zapiski Otdieleniia russkoi i slavianskoi arkheologii ("The Memoirs of the Section of the Russian and Slavonic archeology"). Volumes 4–18. St. Petersburg, 1887–1918. Since the Division has already had the first three volumes of this serial, the volumes newly acquired make its set thereof complete, with all the texts, illustrations and plates.
  •  Poliarnaia zviezda ("The Pole-star"). Volumes 1–8. London and Geneva, 1858–1868. This is a complete set of the first Russian political serial published outside of Russia by famous Russian liberal publicists and political emigrants A. I. Gertsen (lskander, pseud.) and N. P. Ogarev. The volumes 1–6 and 8 of the set are in single issues, the volume 7 — in two issues. The volumes 1–7 were published in London, the volume 8 — in Geneva. The first four volumes of the set acquired by the Division are in their second, revised editions of 1858–1861. Their titles, however, respectively bear the original references to the years of their first editions, 1855–1858, and their contents in some instances reflect the events of those years. The fifth volume, "for 1859," appeared the same year. There was no volume issued for 1860. The sixth volume, "for 1861," was published in 1861. The first issue of the seventh volume, "for 1862," was published in 1861, while the second issue, also "for 1862," bears no date of its publication. Then seven years elapsed, and the eighth volume, "for 1869," was published in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1868. Complete sets of this serial are very rare. The complete set described above was delivered to the Division in good condition, almost all of its pages being uncut. On July 1, 1857, Gertsen and Ogarev started the publication of their famous semimonthly serial Kolokol ("The Bell"), with the subtitle Pribavochnye Listy k Poliarnoi Zviezdie (i.e. "Supplementary Leaves to the Pole-Star").3 The rigid Russian official censorship would not make the publication of the Poliarnaia Zviezda and the Kolokol feasible within Russia's borders, and copies of their issues were forbidden for importation therein. Nevertheless, large quantities of those copies were successfully and systematically smuggled in to satisfy a great demand for the first Russian free press fighting for the real democratic order of society. Thus both serials proved great moral factors in developing a liberal public opinion in Russia and expediting the social, administrative and judicial reforms of Emperor Alexander II.
  •  Red Cross, Russia. Viestnik Krasnago Kresta ("The Messenger of the Red Cross"). Petrograd, 1915–1917. A complete set of 22 nos. An official organ of the Russian Society of the Red Cross, published monthly, giving accounts of the activities of that organization during the World War and devoting considerable space to special articles on medical subjects.
  •  Vsemirnaia illiustratsiia ("The World illustration"). St. Petersburg, 1869–1898. Acquired were the thirty-nine bound volumes (two volumes per year) which had long been wanting in the Division's set of this periodical and which now make the set complete. This magazine was published weekly. It is of folio size, made of vellum and profusely illustrated with beautiful engravings depicting the most important contemporary events throughout the world. Although a de luxe publication, the magazine had about 10,000 subscribers which was a very considerable number for Russia of the second half of the nineteenth century.

HISTORY AND AUXILIARY SCIENCES

Besides the two serials published by the Imperial Russian Archeological Society and mentioned above, the Division acquired in this field during the year a complete set of the nine issues of Count I. I. Tolstoi's monumental Russian work Vizanatiiskiia Monety ("The Byzantine Coins") published in 1912-1914 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The work contains detailed descriptions of the Byzantine coins minted during the period from 395 to 867 years and their lithographs on seventy plates. The author was a well known Russian archeologist, numismatist and owner of one of the large private numismatic collections in Europe.

There is another noteworthy Russian publication, acquired by the Division during the year, which also bears on the Byzantine history, viz., a copy of Professor F. I. Uspenskii's posthumous book Ocherki iz istorii Trapezundskoi Imperii ("Outlines from the History of the Trebizond Empire") published in 1929 by the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. The author, a Russian, was one of a few outstanding European historians of the Byzantine Empire and other bodies political of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor.

Some of the other historical works, copies of which were acquired by the Division during the year, may also be mentioned either for their profound treating of their respective subjects, or for their reference value, namely, the following publications:

  •  Kochin, G. E., compiler, Grekov, B. D., editor. Materialy dlia terminologicheskogo slovaria drevnei Rossii ("Material for a terminological dictionary of ancient Russia"). Moscow–Leningrad, 1937. This work aims to facilitate the reading of ancient Russian historical documents and chronicles abounding in many long forgotten terms.
  •  Massa, I. Kratkoe izvestie o Moskovii v nachale XVII veka ("A brief information about Moskovia at the beginning of the seventeenth century"). Moscow, 1937. With front. (port.), plates, head and tail pieces. Translation from the Dutch, footnotes and introductory article by A. A. Morozov. The author was a Dutch merchant who lived in Moscow at the beginning of the seventeenth century and this account of his personal impressions is one of the most important foreign sources of the history of the civil war and the foreign intervention which happened in the Moscow State at that time.
  •  Petrushevskii, D. M. Ocherki po istorii angliiskogo gosudarstva i obshchestva v srednie veka ("Essays on the history of the English common weal and society in the Middle Ages"). Moscow, 1937. The fourth edition, augmented and revised. This work is devoted to the origin of Magna Carta, the revolution of 1258 and the rise of the British Parliament. Professor Petrushevskii, the author, has long been one of the outstanding Russian historians of medieval England. In the preface to this work (which appeared first in 1903 and was classed by specialists as one of the most profound researches in its field) he explained his interest in its subject as follows: ". . .History of medieval England . . . deeply interests every cultured individual as a local laboratory in which the highest cultural values had been worked out . . ."
  •  Petrushevskii, D. M., translator. Pamiatniki istorii Anglii X–XIII v. v. ("Documents of England's history from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries"). Moscow, 1936. The book contains the original Latin Texts of Magna Carta and of many other documents, with Russians translations.
  •  Petrushevskii, D. M. Vosstanie Uota Tailera. Ocherki iz istorii razlozheniia feodal'nogo stroia v Anglii ("The revolt of Wat Tyler. Essays on the history of the decline of the feudal order of society in England"). The fourth, revised edition. Moscow, 1937. For this work the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg awarded in 1904 the grand prize of Metropolitan Makarii to the author. It has also been highly appreciated after the Russian revolution of 1917. For, its third edition, revised and augmented, appeared in 1927, and in the preface to its fourth edition listed above the publishers (The State Social and Economic Publishing House) praise the work in the following terms: "... The greatest research in the social and economic history of the fourteenth century England. It is devoted to the revolt of the peasantry in 1381 against the foundation of the feudal order of society, the revolt which was named by the name of one of its leaders, Wat Tyler. The Revolt of Wat Tyler represents a great scientific value by the significance of the theme, the wealth of material, the elaborate analysis of sources..."
  •  Savin, A. N. Lektsii po istorii angliiskoi revoliutsii ("Lectures on the history of the English revolution"). The second edition. Moscow, 1937. Professor Savin is also, like Professor Petrushevskii, an outstanding Russian specialist in the history of England, and this work is probably the best original Russian research on the English revolution of the middle of the seventeenth century (1645–1648).

FINE ARTS

  •  Benua, A. Pamiatniki zapadno-evropeiskoi zhivopisi ("The monuments of the western European painting"). Moscow, 1911–1914. Folio, with reproductions of the famous paintings, mostly of the Italian masters of the Renaissance, in twenty-two folio heliogravures, forty-one mounted plates in color, of different size, and many phototypes in the text.
  •  Burachek, M. G. Velikii narodnii khudozhnik ("The great national artist"). Kharkof, the State publishing house "Mistetstvo," 1939. Small folio containing seventy-five plates of reproductions from the pictorial works of T. G. Shevchenko (1814–1861), the great Ukrainian poet and artist. Many of the plates are done in color. This is a jubilee edition, in commemoration of the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of Shevchenko's birth. M. G. Burachek, a contemporary Ukrainian artist, is the author of an introductory note (in the Ukrainian). The captions for the pictures are given in four languages, viz., Ukrainian, Russian, French and English.
  •  Shpringer, IA. Frantsuzskaia tsvietnaia graviura XVIII stolietiia. ("The French colored engravings of the eighteenth century"). St. Petersburg–Moscow, n.d. Small folio containing fifty engravings on copper reproduced in color, with an explanatory text by IA. Shpringer. In silk bindings, with ornamental frame and a medallion printed on.
  •  Syreishchikov, N. P. and Trenev, D. K., editors. Ornamenty na pamiatnikakh drevne-russkago iskusstva ("Ornaments on the monuments of ancient Russian art"). Small folio, complete set in three issues. Moscow, 1904–1916. This publication, complete sets of which are rare, comprises fifty-five plates with two hundred and seventy-six ornaments reproduced in color.
  •  Ternovets, B. N. Gosudarstvennyi muzei novogo zapadnogo iskusstva ("The State Museum of the new western art"). Moscow, n.d. Small folio. The Museum was founded in Moscow in 1918 from the private collections of S. I. Shchukin and A. I. Morozov. This publication comprises thirty-five reproductions in color of the paintings of the French artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gaugin, André Derain, Pablo Picasso, etc. B. N. Ternovets is the author of explanatory texts.
  •   Vysochaishe utverzhdennyi komitet popechitel'stva o russkoi ikonopisi ("The Committee confirmed by His Majesty on the guardianship of the Russian icon-painting"). Ikonopisnyi sbornik ("Symposium of articles on the icon-painting"). St. Petersburg, 1906–1910. In four issues, with many illustrations and plates. The Committee named above was organized in St. Petersburg in 1901 for the purpose of restoring, preserving, developing and perfecting the ancient Russian art of icon-painting. It maintained the four schools of icon-painting and a permanent exhibition of icons.
  •  Zhelieznov, V. Ukazatel' masterov, russkikh i inozemtsev, gornago, metallicheskago i oruzheinago diela i sviazannykh a nimi remesl i proizvodstv rabotavshikh v Rossii do XVIII vieka ("An index of the artisans, Russian and foreign, who worked in Russia prior to the eighteenth century in mining, metal, armour and allied handicrafts and industries"). St. Petersburg, 1907.

BELLES-LETTRES AND HISTORY OF LITERATURE

In commemoration of the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the birth (1814–1939) of the great Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Grigor'evich Shevchenko (1814–1861) several new editions of his works were recently published in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Probably the best publications in this group, copies of which were acquired by the Division during the year, are the following:

  •  Shevchenko, T. G. Povna zbirka poezii. Kobzar 4 ("Complete collection of poetry. Kobzar"). Kiev, 1939. Shevchenko's poems are collected here in a single quarto volume, beautifully bound, comprising 742 pages of text and thirty-one plates of illustrations by I. S. Izhakevich. The volume was edited by the Institute of Ukrainian Literature in the name of T. G. Shevchenko, of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and published by the State Publishing House. Kobzar is the famous collection of Shevchenko's poems. After its first publication, in 1840, he was recognized as a great poet, for his melodious and charming verse, deep heartiness, brightness of picturesque characters of his poems and his supreme love for the populace to which he belonged by his origin. For, he was a peasant and a former serf; only two years before the publication of Kobzar Shevchenko's friends redeemed him from the serfdom by paying his master 2,500 roubles for his liberty.
  •  Shevchenko, T. G. Povna zbirka tvoriv v p'iati tomakh ("Complete collection of works in five volumes"). Kiev, 1939. Edited by the Institute named above, this publication comprises all Shevchenko's works, in both Ukrainian and Russian languages, i.e. his poems, short stories, plays and diary. There had never been hitherto published such a complete collection of his works.
  •  Shevchenko, T. G. Vibrani tvori ("Selected works"). [Odessa,] 1939. A single quarto volume containing Shevchenko's most popular poems, with many illustrations and plates reproducing his own drawings and paintings, this publication was edited by O. I. Bilets'ki who also furnished it with his introductory article and numerous commentaries.

Among the new acquisitions for the Division's collection of books on the history of Russian literature and language the following publications are probably the most noteworthy:

  •  Adrishova-Perets, V. P. Ocherki po istorii russkoi satiricheskoi literatury XVII veka. ("Essays on the history of the Russian satirical literature of the seventeenth century"). Moscow–Leningrad, 1937.
  •  Gukovskii, G. A. Ocherki po istorii russkoi literatury i obshchestvennoi mysli XVIII veka ("Essays on the history of Russian literature and public opinion of the eighteenth century"). Leningrad, 1938.
  •  Gudzii, N. K. Istoriia drevnei russkoi literatury ("A history of the ancient Russian literature"). Moscow, 1938. This is a college and university text-book covering the period from the eleventh to the seventeenth centuries.
  •  Orlov, A.S. Drevniaia russkaia literatura XI_XVI v.v. ("The ancient Russian literature of the eleventh – the sixteenth centuries"). Moscow–Leningrad, 1937.
  •  Vinogradov, V. V. Ocherki po istorii russkogo literaturnogo iazyka XVII–XIX v.v. ("Essays on the history of the Russian literary language of the seventeenth – the nineteenth centuries"). The second edition. Moscow, 1938.
  •  Zhirmunskii, V. Gëte v russkoi literature ("Goethe in the Russian literature"). Leningrad, 1937. This publication is apparently an exhaustive account of the influence of Iohann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the great German poet and prose-writer, on the Russian literature, as the said influence had been reflected in the works of Russian poets, prose-writers, critics and translators.

THEATRE AND BALLET

There were received by the Division during the year several recent Russian publications pertaining to the history and technique of stage productions and also to the history of the ballet and choreography.

In 1938 the famous Moskovskii Khudozhestvennyi Teatr ("The Moscow Art Theatre") celebrated the fortieth anniversary of its existence, and this had caused the publication of some historical reviews of the growth and achievements of the theatre as well as of some accounts of perfecting its technique not only in staging, designing and producing plays, but also in developing the finest and the most subtle art of acting.

From this group copies of the following very interesting and instructive books reached the Division during the year:

  •  Balukhatyi, S. D., editor. Chaika v postanovke Moskovskogo Khudozhestvennogo teatra. Rezhisserskaia partitura K. S. Stanislavskogo ("A Gull as produced by the Moscow Art Theatre. The score of the producer, K. S. Stanislavskii"). Leningrad–Moscow, 1938. A Gull, a play by A. P. Chekhov, a well known Russian prose-writer and dramatist, was produced by the Moscow Art Theatre during its first season, 1898–1899. In the season 1938–1939 it was successfully produced, in an English translation, by a troupe of American actors in this country.
  •  Boiarskii, IA. O. and Brodskii, A. M., editors. Moskovskii Khudozhestvennyi teatr v illiustratsiiakh i dokumentakh. 1898–1938 ("The Moscow Art Theatre in illustrations and documents. 1898–1938"). Moscow, published by the Moscow Art Theatre, 1938. A single volume comprising seven hundred and fifty-six pages, with many illustrations, portraits and plates. Some of the plates are done in color. There are eight articles in the volume and a selective bibliography on the Moscow Art Theatre.
  •  Nemirovich-Danchenko, Vl. I. Iz proshlogo ("From the past"). Moscow, 1938. The second edition (although this is not mentioned anywhere in the book). Being reminiscences of one of the founders of the Moscow Art Theatre (who had also served as one of its directors for forty years) the book is devoted mostly to historical essays on that theatre. It is adorned with several plates.
  •  Stanislavskii, K. S. Rabota aktera nad soboi ("The self-training of an actor"). Moscow, 1938. The author (who died in 1938, a few weeks before the publication of this book) was one of the two famous founders and directors of the Moscow Art Theatre (another being Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko mentioned above), under whose guidance and leadership the theatre had successfully carried on its work during the forty years, introducing and developing new technique[s] in staging, acting, designing and producing a great number of plays. This book is a summary of the author's experience in working out a new system of self-training in acting which Russian actors now call The Stanislavskii System. The book, however, is interesting and instructive not only to professional actors but to all the lovers of good acting in the theatre.

The modern growth of interest to the ballet and choreography throughout the world has caused the publication of some interesting books in several languages on these subjects, and copies of the three Russian works in this field acquired by the Division during the year might deserve special mention, viz.,

  •  Borisoglebskii, M., compiler. 200 let Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo khoreograficheskogo uchilishcha. 1738–1938. Proshloe Baletnogo otdeleniia Peterburgskogo teatral'nogo uchilishcha, nyne Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo khoreograficheskogo uchiliishcha.
  •  Materialy po istorii russkogo baleta ("The two hundred years of the Leningrad state school of choreography. 1738–1938. The past of the Ballet division of the Petersburg theatrical school which is now the Leningrad state school of choroeography. Material on the history of the Russian ballet"). Leningrad, published by the Leningrad state school of choreography, 1938. Volume first, in small folio, with numerous illustrations and plates (some are done in color). This is a de luxe publication containing a wealth of hitherto unpublished archives material, with an extensive nominal index. Only the first volume, covering the period of one hundred and fifty years (1738–1888), has been published so far. The second volume, to cover the period from 1888 to 1938, is now in preparation.
  •  Chesnokov, E. I., editor. Klassiki Khoreograafii ("The classics of the choreography"). Leningrad–Moscow, 1937. With many illustrations and plates. Published by the State Publishing House "Iskusstvo" and the Leningrad State School of Choreography, this work contains extensive excerpts, in Russian translations, from the treatises and memoirs of some of the western European classics of the choreography, as Jean Georges Noverre, Carlo Blasis etc.
  •  Slonimskii, IU. Mastera baleta. Peterburgskie mastera baleta XIX stoletiia. ("The ballet masters. The Petersburg ballet masters of the nineteenth century"). Leningrad, State publishing house "Iskusstvo," 1937. With many illustrations and plates. In this book the author gives historical and critical reviews of the professional activities of the five famous ballet masters of the Imperial Theatres at St. Petersburg, Russia, viz., C. Didelot (1767–1837), A. Saint-Leon, J. Perrot (1810–1892), L. Ivanov (1834–1901) and M. Petipas (1822–1910).

SCIENCE

In this field the two recent publications of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics acquired by the Division during the year should be regarded invaluable for reference use, viz.,

  •  Akademiia nauk S. S. S. R. ("The Academy of sciences of the U.S.S.R."). Energeticheskie resursy S. S. S. R. ("The Power resources of the U.S.S.R."). In two volumes, with charts, tables and maps. Edited by G. M. Kryzhanovskii. Moscow–Leningrad, 1937–1938. The first volume contains calculations of the fuel resources (coal, oil, natural gas, peat, slate and firewood) and the second volume — those of the water, wind and sun energies.
  •  Akademiia nauk S. S. S. R. Otdelenie matematicheskikh i estestvennykh nauk ("The Academy of sciences of the U. S. S. R. The Section of mathematical and natural sciences"). Matematika i estestvoznanie v S. S. S. R. Ocherki razvitiia matematicheskikh i estestvennykh nauk za dvadtsat' let ("Mathematics and natural sciences in the U. S. S. R. Outlines of their development for the twenty years"). Moscow–Leningrad, 1938. This publication, comprising about one thousand pages in a single volume, with many illustrations, is a symposium of fifty-four reviews of the achievements of Russian scientists during 1918–1938 in as many fields of mathematical and natural sciences.

In the field of physiology a copy of the famous book by Professor Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849–1937), the leading physiologist of the world, a Russian, one of the Nobel prize winners in 1904, was acquired by the Division during the year, namely,

  •  Pavlov, I. P. Dvadtsatiletnii opyt ob"ektivnogo izucheniia vysshei nervnoi deiatal'nosti (povedeniia) zhivotnykh. Uslovnye refleksy. Sbornik statei, dokladov, lektsii i rechei ("Twenty years of experience in the objective study of the highest nervous activity (behavior) of animals. Conditioned reflexes. Collection of articles, reports, lectures and speeches"). The sixth edition, revised and augmented. Moscow–Leningrad, 1938. This publication contains accounts of physiological researches and experiments on the behaviorism which led the author to his famous doctrine of the conditioned reflexes.

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES

About fourteen hundred new author entries were written in longhand and filed in the Division's catalog of temporary entries during the year; about two thousand titles were classified; about seventy-seven hundred books were plated and labeled; about forty-nine hundred were marked with call numbers; 5,541 pieces of printed material, condensed into 1,385 volumes, were prepared for binding and about ninety-two hundred volumes were arranged on the shelves.

About eighteen hundred printed cards were received during the year from the Classification Division and filed in the Slavic Division's catalog of printed card entries. For its Union Catalog of the Russian holdings in American libraries the Division received and filed thereinto about thirty-seven hundred cards.

The Division lent about thirteen hundred volumes during the year, either through the interlibrary loan system or on borrowing privileges.

Over two thousand readers and visitors were accommodated in the Division during the year and some nine hundred written inquiries were answered in its official correspondence. Several translations from Russian into English were made by the Chief of the Division for members of the United States Congress and officers of the Executive Departments of the United States Government.

1 Cf. Report of the Librarian of Congress. 1907. P. 20. It is erroneously stated on p. 458 of Report of the Librarian of Congress, 1938, that the Slavic Division has been "built upon eighty thousand volumes comprising the private library of Major-General Gennadius Vasilievich Yudin." For, in the first place, the Yudin Collection, which was officially estimated upon its delivery here as comprising about eighty thousand items in total, contained in that total, according to the same estimate, about twelve thousand non-Russian items; upon the organization of the Slavic Division in 1917 the said non-Russian part of the Yudin Collection was left in the care of the Catalog Division and the Main Reading Room and shelved on decks 33 and 41 in enclosures, with other special collections, for gradual cataloging and distribution in the general classification. In the second place, Mr. Yudin, the former owner of the collection, had never acquired the rank of Major-General; as a matter of fact, there are no records of his military service, if any, in our sources. Back to text

2 The said library has been developed from the former Library of the Rumiantsev Museum and is now one of the largest libraries in the world  Back to text

3 A set of the Kolokol was acquired by the Division in 1936. Cf. Report of the Librarian of Congress, 1936. P. 219. Back to text

4 Kobzar, in Ukraine, is an itinerant singer of folk-songs and player on kobza, an Ukrainian string instrument. Back to text

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