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Russian Studies

Subscribed databases

Historical and current news (mostly in Russian)

Current Digest of the Russian Press
Founded in 1949, the Current Digest presents a selection of Russian-language press materials, translated into English for use in teaching and research. First published as The Current Digest of the Soviet Press (1949-1991), followed by The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press (1992-2010), and now The Current Digest of the Russian Press.
Izvestiia Digital Archive
Izvestiia was founded in March 1917 and during the Soviet period was the official news organ of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Today, it is among the longest-running Russian newspapers. The database contains Federal and Moscow editions (marked with "m" after each issue number) of Izvestiia. Coverage begins in 1917.
Pravda Digital Archive
Pravda ("Truth") originated in 1912 as a daily workers' newspaper and became the official voice of Soviet communism and the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1918 and 1991. Today, Pravda remains the official organ of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, an important political faction in contemporary Russian politics. Date range: 1912-2023
Soviet Cinema Online: Periodicals and Newspapers, 1918-1942
Coverage includes: Art-ėkran (1923); Bi͡ulletenʹ Sekretariata T͡Sentralʹnogo soveta Obshchestva druzeĭ sovetskoĭ kinematografii (1927); Ėkran Kino-gazety (1925); Foto-kino:ezhemesi͡achnyĭ illi͡ustrirovannyĭ zhurnal (1922); Iskusstvo kino (1936); Kadr:gazeta rabochikh i sluzhashchikh kino-fabriki Sovkino (19uu); Kino:dvukhnedelʹnik O-va kinodei͡ateleĭ (1922); Kino:ezhenedelʹnai͡a gazeta (1925); Kino:ezhenedelʹnai͡a gazeta : Leningradskoe prilozhenie (1925); Kino-fot (1922); Kino-front (1926); Kino-front (1930); Kino-gazeta:ezhenedelʹnoe illi͡ustrirovannoe izdanie : besplatnoe prilozhenie k "Kino-gazete." (1924); Kino-gazeta:ezhenedelʹnoe illi͡ustrirovannoe izdanie : Leningradskoe prilozhenie (1924); Kino-gazeta:ezhenedi͡elʹnoe illi͡ustrirovannoe izdanīe, posvi͡ashchennoe zhizni i interesam kinematografa (1918); Kino i kulʹtura:obshchestvenno-politicheskiĭ nauchnyĭ i proizvodstvenno-tekhnicheskiĭ zhurnal; Kino i zhiznʹ (1929); Kinomekhanik-stakhanovet͡s:izdanie redakt͡sii gazety "Kino" na vsesoi͡uznom soveshchanii selʹskikh kinomekhanikov-stakhanovt͡sev (1940); Kino na budivnyt͡stvi fabryky no. 6:odnodenna gazeta vyïzdnoï redakt͡siï gazety "Kino." (1931); Kino-nedeli͡a:promyshlennostʹ, tekhnika, iskusstvo (1924); Kino:Nizheg. prilozhenie k Kino-gazete (1925); Kino-repertuar:instruktivno-metodicheskie pisʹma sektora iskusstv (1932); Kino-zhiznʹ:ezhenedelʹnoe izdanie, posvi͡ashchennoe kinematografii (1922); Kino-zhurnal A.R.K. (1925); Proletarskoe kino (1925); Proletarskoe kino (1931); Proletkino (1923); Proletkino Povolzhʹi͡a:zhurnal povolzhskogo oblastnogo otd. t-va "Proletkino". (1923); Repertuarnye pisʹma po kino (1934); Repertuarnyĭ bi͡ulletenʹ Khudozhestvennogo otdela GPP (1926); Repertuarnyĭ bi͡ulletenʹ po kino (1934); Repertuarnyĭ bi͡ulletenʹ:teatr, kino, muzyka, ėstrada (1936); Rot-filʹm:gazeta i͡acheĭki VKP (b), fabkoma i upravlenii͡a obʺedinennykh fabrik "Mezhrabpomfilʹm." (1933); Sovetskiĭ ėkran (1925); Sovetskoe kino (1933); Sovetskoe kino:ezhemesi͡achnyĭ organ Khudozhestvennogo soveta po delam kino (1925); Vestnik fotografii i kinematografii (1923); Za bolʹshevistskiĭ filʹm:organ i͡ach. VKP(b), fabkoma i i͡ach. VLKSM Obʺedin. mosk. f-ki "Soi͡uzkino." (1932); Zritelʹ:zhurnal zhizni i iskusstva (1922)

Journal articles, English-language news, and indexes to scholarship

ABSEES
Produced by the University of Pittsburgh. Subjects include anthropology, culture and the arts, economics, education, and geography. Sources indexed include journals, books, dissertations, online resources, and selected government publications published in the U.S. and Canada.

European bibliography of Slavic and East European studies (EBSEES), 1991-2007
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This database contains the data of two former EBSEES databases, one for 1991-2000, the other for 2001-2006. The new unified database with about 85,500 titles has been developed by the Berlin State Library in cooperation with the Maison des Sciences de l´Homme, Paris. For the years 1975-1990 EBSEES is available in printed form only. Work on adding records to EBSEES ended in 2007, and no further editing will take place after December 2007.

JSTOR
Project MUSE
Historical Abstracts
Anthropology Plus
This product combines the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Anthropological Index and Harvard University's Anthropological Literature databases
PAIS
Dictionary of Literary Biography
Dissertations & Theses Full Text
Ethnic NewsWatch
For historical content, date filter for years "1959-1989".
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports
Readex collections can load very slowly

Even more databases!

The library has many more databases available than the ones listed above. View a complete list, or search by title, keyword, content type, or subject area.

Freely available digital texts and digital humanities projects

Dissertations from the Russian State Library, Moscow
Russian State Library
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More than 500 dissertations are available with free, open-access. Access to the entire database of more than 550,000 dissertations is through subscription only.
Electronic texts of Russian historical sources
History Faculty, Moscow State University
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A project of the History Faculty of Moscow State University and part of its Library of Electronic Resources (Biblioteka elektronnykh resursov). Texts are categorized by era (Drevnii Vostok, Srednie veka, Russia up to the 18th century, etc.).
Far from Moscow
UCLA
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“Far from Moscow” is a resource designed to promote, catalog, and consider new music from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, together with the Baltic nations (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia). In total, that’s ten time zones!
Harvard project on the Soviet social system online
Harvard University
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The Harvard project on the Soviet social system online provides access to digitized materials selected from the Harvard project on the Soviet social system (HPSSS). The digital collection consists chiefly of summary transcripts of 705 interviews conducted with refugees from the USSR during the early years of the Cold War. A unique source for the study of Soviet society between 1917 and the mid-1940s, the HPSSS includes vast amounts of one-of-a-kind data on political, economic, social and cultural conditions. The HPSSS’s value is compounded by the fact that it was compiled in English and organized according to a rigorous social science framework, making it accessible to a broad range of students and scholars.
International Dostoevsky bibliography, 1985-2007
University of Chicago
Mapping Petersburg
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
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Setting is an essential component of literature, particularly narrative, but it has normally been conceptualized as space, and viewed in symbolic and generalizing terms. Even when considering literary models of real cities, the mythopoetic and purely spatial aspects tend to dominate, obscuring questions about the physical environment and its translation into textual form. The developing field of literary geography is beginning to examine the role of real place, as opposed to symbolic space, in literature. Understanding the representation of real geographies in literary works has the potential to explain our response to our physical surroundings and the way the landscape in which we live shapes our culture.
Prokudin-Gorskii photographic record recreated: the empire that was Russia
Library of Congress
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The photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world—the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia's diverse population.
Russian beyond Russia digital library
University of North Carolina
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A digital library documenting the Russia diaspora, based on the Andre Savine collection of more than 60,000 printed items and archival collections totaling more than 30,000 pages.
Russian posters collection, 1919-1989 and undated
Duke University
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This collection of 20th-century Russian posters spans almost the entire history of the Soviet Union (1917-1991). It can be divided into three main series: general political posters; Twenty-Second Communist Party Congress posters; and perestroika era posters.
Russian rooms
Dickinson
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The Dickinson College Russian Department has launched a new multimedia project, Russian Rooms, which combines photography, text, and audio in an evolving archive with diverse pedagogical applications. The project’s primary aim is to provide a snapshot of contemporary Russian society by building up a series of photographs of Russians and their favorite rooms.