Databases
SOME GENERAL POINTS
Consider what sort of information you are seeking to decide which database will give you the best focused results.
For scholarly analysis of historical events and persons, use Historical Abstracts and JSTOR
For present-day events and popular (or governmental) opinion, look at the Current Digest of the Russian Press or Global Newsstream
For reporting going back to the early 20th century, browse newspaper titles in Russian in CRL. Ask a librarian how to make requests!
For reviews and criticism of Russian films, use Screen Studies Collection
>>Note that JSTOR does not include most articles published in the last 5 years<<.
See more descriptions below.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowKey database for world history research. Abstracts of articles from journals focused on history or closely related fields, plus citations to books and dissertations.
- Gender Studies Database This link opens in a new windowKey database for WGSS research. Includes both scholarly and popular publications focused on gender.
- Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new windowAlternative publications, both scholarly and popular, with many focusing on issues of gender and sexuality.
- LGBT Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowIndex of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender literature emphasizing history, culture, social issues, interests, and concerns of the LGBT community, with materials including periodicals, books, conference proceedings, newspapers, dissertations and web documents, as well as an LGBT Thesaurus.
- Current Digest of the Russian Press This link opens in a new windowOnline access to the Current Digest of the Russian Press, a weekly collection of English-translated Russian press materials, with archives going back to 1949.
- Artstor This link opens in a new windowOver 500,000 digital images of creative works from all historical periods and world cultures, including architecture, painting, prints, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and more.
- Smithsonian Global Sound This link opens in a new windowA streaming music database of the world's musical and aural traditions, Smithsonian Global Sound includes 80+ recordings from Russia, ranging from ancient Slavonic chants to contemporary pop music.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowThe Modern Language Association database of journal articles, books, dissertations, covering scholarship on literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, etc., with coverage from 1926 to the present.
- Screen Studies Collection This link opens in a new windowReviews, essays, criticism of international cinema.
- Humanities International Index This link opens in a new windowEssays reviews, and creative work in poetry, fiction, and visual arts.
Web Resources
- Seventeen Moments in Soviet HistorySoviet primary source archive- explore by year or theme
- Harvard Project on the Soviet Social SystemsInterviews with Soviet Refugees
- MosFilmFilms in Russian; check YouTube for options with English subtitles
- Russian LGBT Periodical PressA guide to LGBT publications from the 90s to today. Some of the periodicals have issues archived online, others could be requested through WorldCat.
- Mary Zirin's Bibliography of Pre-Revolutionary Writings by WomenSearchable bibliography of pre-revolutionary women writers
- Association for Women in Slavic Studies BibliographiesLists recent publications relating broadly to gender in the Slavic world- find the Russia/Soviet Union section.
- Hoover Institution Soviet Poster CollectionDigital archive of posters- you can search by keyword, and then filter by Russian language to find materials from Russia.
- Soviet Era Books for Children and YouthDigitized collection of Soviet children's books- the illustrations could be interesting as primary sources even for those who can't read the text.
- KrokodilRussian language satirical journal
Related Guides
Books in CBBcat
Suggested Subjects:
- Russia -- Civilization
- Women -- Russia
- Women -- Soviet Union
- Women -- Soviet Union -- Social conditions
- Arts, Russian
- Music -- Russia -- History and criticism
- Feminism and art -- Russia (Federation)
- Popular culture -- Soviet Union
- Soviet Union -- Description and travel
- Soviet Union -- Social Life and Customs, 1917-1970
- Political Prisoners -- Soviet Union -- Biography
- Political Prisoners -- Soviet Union -- Correspondence
- Russia (Federation) -- Social conditions
For all resources, keep in mind:
- variation over time of name of the country, or parts of it (Russia, Soviet Union, USSR, Russian Federation, Commonwealth of Independent States) and some local place-names, such as St.Petersburg/Leningrad
- variations in transliteration from Cyrillic to Roman alphabets, e.g.: Dostoyevsky / Dostoevsky / Dostoevskii / Dostoievski - and more!
- For a comprehensive chart of methods of transliteration, see this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Russian
BOOKS
Natasha's Dance by Call Number: DK32 .F54 2002ISBN: 0805057838Publication Date: 2002Beginning in the eighteenth century with the building of St. Petersburg-a "window on the West"-and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself-its character, spiritual essence, and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works-by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall-with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons, and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.- Gender in Russian History and Culture byCall Number: DK32 .G39 2001ISBN: 0333720784Publication Date: 2001This volume charts the changing aspects of gender in Russia's cultural and social history from the late seventeenth century to the Stalinist era and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture by Call Number: DK32 .C33 2012ISBN: 9780521175586Publication Date: 2012-04-05This volume brings together leading authorities writing on Russian cultural identity, its Western and Asian connections, popular culture and the unique Russian contributions to the arts.
Russia's wars of emergence, 1460-1730 DK51 .S65 2007
The Nikonian chronicle DK70.A2 N5313 1984 v.1 - 5 PRIMARY SOURCE
Sophia, Regent of Russia, 1657-1704 / Lindsey Hughes DK125 .H84 1990
Reforms of Peter the Great: Progress through Coercion in Russia / Evgenii V. Anisimov DK133 .A5513 1993
Life on the Russian Country Estate: a social and cultural history / Priscilla Roosevelt DK142 .R66 1995
Memoirs of Princess Dashkova (Ekaterina Romanovna) DK169.D3 A3 1995 PRIMARY SOURCE
Love & Conquest: personal correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin DK170 .A2 2004 PRIMARY SOURCE
Russia, Women, Culture / edited by Helena Goscilo and Beth Holmgren DK189.2 .R87 1996
Bolshevik women / Barbara Evans Clements HX313.7 .C64 1997
Narodniki Women: Russian women who sacrificed themselves for the dream of freedom / by Margaret Maxwell DK219.3 .M39 1990
Celebrating Women: : gender, festival culture, and Bolshevik ideology, 1910-1939 / Choi Chatterjee Bates, Bowdoin and EBOOK
Gender, Equality and difference during and after state socialism / edited by Rebecca Kay HQ1662 .G26 2007
Documents of Soviet History / edited by Rex A. Wade DK265 .A5185 1991 PRIMARY SOURCE
Six Red Months in Russia / Louise Bryant (chh on individual women & on women soldiers) DK265.7 .B77 1970 PRIMARY SOURCE
The Baku Commune, 1917-1918; class and nationality in the Russian Revolution / Ronald Grigor Suny DK265.8.B3 S85
Midwives of the Revolution: female Bolsheviks and women workers in 1917 / Jane McDermid and Anna Hillyar DK265.9.W57 M38 1999
History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to Its Legacy / Peter Kenez DK266 .K43 2016
Secondhand Time / Svetlana Alexievich DK510.76 .A44913 2016 PRIMARY SOURCE
Is journalism worth dying for?: final dispatches / Anna Politkovskaya DK510.763 .P65413 2011 PRIMARY SOURCE
Russia's Fate through Russian Eyes: voices of the new generation (much on women in the index) DK510.763 .R872 2001
St. Petersburg: madness, murder, and art on the banks of the Neva / Jonathan Miles DK561 .M55 2018
Petersburg / Andrei Bely PG3453.B84 P513 1978
Peeling potatoes, painting pictures : women artists in post-Soviet Russia, Estonia, and Latvia : the first decade / Renee Baigell and Matthew Baigell at Bates & Bowdoin
Ivan Shishkin / Irina Shuvalova EBook
Stravinsky in context EBook
Historical recordings by Igor Stravinsky Audio Stream
Librarian
Librarian.
Karen Gillum
kjgillum@colby.edu
GENERAL LINKS
CBBcat: search for books in the catalogs for Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin
WorldCat: extend your search to libraries worldwide
| Directions on signing up for ILL |
►For a list of Colby's databases, Click here
►For 1-minute Videos on how to search CBBcat, WorldCat, and databases, how to submit ILL requests, and more ... Click here
More Memoirs
Days of a Russian noblewoman : the memories of Anna Labzina, 1758-1821 / translated and edited by Gary Marker and Rachel May DK127.5.L3 A3 2001 PRIMARY SOURCE
Education of a Princess: a Memoir / by Marie, grand duchess of Russia DK254.M3 A32 1931 PRIMARY SOURCE
Princess in Exile / by Marie, grand duchess of Russia DK254.M3 A35 PRIMARY SOURCE
Romanov Diary: the autobiography of H.I. & R.H. Grand Duchess George DK254.M32 A3 1988 PRIMARY SOURCE
My Reminiscences of the Russian Revolution / by M. Philips Price DK265.7 .P696 1981 PRIMARY SOURCE
One Hundred Red Days: a personal chronicle of the Bolshevik Revolution, 25 November 1917--4 March 1918 / by Edgar Sisson DK265.7 .S59 1977 PRIMARY SOURCE
My Lives in Russia / Markoosha Fischer DK267 .F52 PRIMARY SOURCE
Notebooks of Sologdin / Dimitri Panin (memoir from the actual person who stands behind the character in Solzhenitsyn’s The First Circle) DK268.P26 A3913
Memoirs / Andrei Sakharov DK275.S25 A3 PRIMARY SOURCE
Winter Dreams: an American in Moscow / Jay Martin DK276 .M35 PRIMARY SOURCE
Russian Diary: a journalist's final account of life, corruption, and death in Putin's Russia / Anna Politkovskaya DK510.763 .R87 2007 PRIMARY SOURCE
More Letters
Mrs. Duberly's War: journal and letters from the Crimea, 1854-6 / Frances Isabella Duberly DK214 .D813 2007 PRIMARY SOURCE
Witness to Revolution: : letters from Russia, 1916-1919 / by Edward T. Heald DK265.7 .H4 PRIMARY SOURCE
More Biography
Ivan the Terrible / Andrei Pavlov and Maureen Perrie DK106 .P38 2003
Bride of the Revolution: Krupskaya and Lenin / by Robert H. McNeal DK254.K77 M3 1972
Revolutionary Women in Russia, 1870-1917 : a study in collective biography / Anna Hillyar and Jane McDermid DK219.3 .H55 2000
Stalin's Daughter: the extraordinary and tumultuous life of Svetlana Alliluyeva / Rosemary Sullivan DK275.A4 S85 2015
At his Side: the last years of Isaac Babel / A.N. Pirozhkova PG3476.B2 Z778 1996
More Daily Life & Culture
Daily Life in the Soviet Union / Katherine B. Eaton DK266.4 .E17 2004
Mass Culture in Soviet Russia: tales, poems, songs, movies, plays, and folklore, 1917-1953 DK266.4 .M38 1995 PRIMARY SOURCE
Main Street U.S.S.R. / Irving R. Levine DK276 .L4
Aspects of Soviet Culture: voices of Glasnostʹ, 1960-1990 / Jelena Milojković-Djurić (literature & music) DK276 .M53 1991 PRIMARY SOURCE
Life in Stalin's Soviet Union (ch. on Gender and Sexuality) DK267 .L54 2019
Lifestyle in Siberia and the Russian North / edited by Joachim Otto Habeck DK757.3 .L54 2019
Russian Culture / Margaret Mead et al. DK268.3 .M43 2001
"Russian Camera Obscura: Ten Sketches of Russian Peasant Life (1916 - 1918)"
More on Literature
Petersburg / Andrei Bely PG3453.B84 P513 1978
Red Cavalry / Isaac Babel PG3476.B2 K613 2003
Forty-Seven Love Poems / Anna Akhmatova at Bowdoin
A History of women's writing in Russia PG2997 .H56 2002
Carnival culture and the Soviet modernist novel / Craig Brandist at Bates