DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPERS
Scope and Content Note
The Alexei Antsiferoff Papers contain professional, research, and personal material reflecting Antsiferoff’s involvement and leadership in the Russian émigré intellectual communities of Paris and Prague in the 1920s and 1930s. The Antsiferoff Papers will be of particular interest to scholars studying the history of Russian agricultural economics, especially the cooperative movement. Antsiferoff’s participation in several large-scale émigré scholarly initiatives – such as the establishment of Russian programs of higher education and various academic organizations – but in many émigré societies, groups and committees, reflects the dynamism of Russian Paris and Prague in these decades. Notable also is Antsiferoff’s voluminous correspondence with a variety of scholars. Antsiferoff, whose wife was a piano teacher, was himself an amateur musician, and his papers contain his own musical compositions, arrangements and transcriptions.
Organization and Arrangement
The Alexei Antsiferoff Papers are organized into eight series:
1. Correspondence (1920s-1930s)
Sub-Series 1: Alexei Antsiferoff Professional and Personal Correspondence
Sub-Series 2: Ekaterina Antsiferoff Correspondence
2. Financial Records (1920-1934)
3. Personal Documents (1920s-1930s)
4. Émigré Organizations and Societies (1920s-1930s)
5. Professional and Research Materials (1919-1936)
Sub-Series 1: Moskovskii Narodnyi Bank (1920-1930)
Sub-Series 2: Carnegie Endowment for Peace (1921-1930)
Sub-Series 3: Russkii institut sel’skokhoziaistvennoi kooperstsii v Prage (1919-1931)
Sub-Series 4: Antsiferoff Course, Lecture, Conference Materials (1920-1936)
6. Monographs: Materials, Drafts, Manuscripts (1914-1925)
Sub-Series 1: Russkoe sel’skoe khoziaistvo vo vremia voiny (1915-1925)
Sub-Series 2: Russkoe sel’skoe khoziaistvo i velikaia voina (1925)
Sub-Series 3: Russkaia kooperatsiia vo vremia voiny (1914-1923)
7. Printed Materials (1896-1953)
8. Music (1871-1936)
Sub-Series 1: Antsiferoff’s Compositions, Arrangements, Transcriptions (1926-1936)
Sub-Series 2: Printed Musical Scores (1871-1930)
Series 1: CORRESPONDENCE (1920s-1930s)
Sub-Series 1: Alexei Antsiferoff Professional and Personal Correspondence contains letters and postcards to and from Alexei Antsiferoff from his colleagues in the emigration.
Sub-Series 2: Ekaterina Antsiferoff Correspondence contains the letters to Ekaterina Antsiferoff, Alexei’s wife. Included here are letters from Antsiferoff.
Correspondence can also be found in Series 4, ÉMIGRÉ ORGANIZATIONS, GROUPS AND SOCIETIES and Series 5, PROFESSIONAL AND RESEARCH MATERIALS.
Series 2, FINANCIAL RECORDS (1920-1934), includes receipts, bills, and other financial documents related to Antisferoff’s personal and professional activity in the emigration, notably from the Banque Internationale de Commerce (Paris), the Živostenská Banka v Praze (Prague) and Banka Československých Legií (Prague).
Financial records can also be found in Series 5, PROFESSIONAL AND RESEARCH MATERIALS, especially Sub-Series 1: Moscow Narodny Bank and Sub-Series 2: Carnegie Endowment for Peace.
Series 3, PERSONAL DOCUMENTS & PHOTOGRAPHS (1920s-1930s), contains Antsiferoff’s hand-written notes and records, mostly lists and calculation; content not identifiable. Also contains a diary (n.d.), datebook for 1924, and blank notebooks and datebooks.
Series 4, ÉMIGRÉ ORGANIZATIONS, GROUPS AND SOCIETIES (1920s-1930s), contains circulars, event announcements, foundational documents, protocols of meetings, subscription applications, donation requests, invitations, and correspondence from various cultural, religious, national and academic organizations Antsiferoff took part in Paris and Prague. They include: Institute d’ Études Slaves, Partia Narodnoi Svobody, the Russkaia Akademicheskaia Gruppa, and various musical groups. Materials related to the circle “Kruzhok ‘K poznaniiu Rossii’” also include manuscripts of essays by members such as B.S. Izhboldin, V.N. Novikova, N.N. Zvorykin and S.M. Stepanov. Materials related to the Russian Orthodox Church in Paris, particularly those connected to Antsiferoff’s participation on the parish council of the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky (Paris), is included here.
Series 5, PROFESSIONAL AND RESEARCH MATERIALS (1919-1936), contains notes, drafts, clippings, lecture notes, correspondence and other materials related to some of Anstiferoff’s larger scholarly and professional initiatives. These include:
Sub-Series 1: Moskovskii Narodnyi Bank (1920-1930)
See also Series 1, CORRESPONDENCE, with Vil’chinskii
Sub-Series 2: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1921-1930) Contains especially correspondence with M. Florinsky.
See also Series 4, ÉMIGRÉ ORGANIZATIONS, GROUPS AND SOCIETIES, Russkaia Akademicheskaia Gruppa.
Sub-Series 3: Russkii institut sel’skokhoziaistvennoi kooperstsii v Prague (1919-1931)
Sub-Series 4: Antsiferoff Course, Lecture, Conference Materials (1920-1936)
Series 6, MONOGRAPHS, MATERIALS, DRAFTS, MANUSCRIPTS (1914-1925), contains the research materials, drafts, editorial comments, and correspondence related to three of Antisferoff’s book projects.
Sub-Series 1: Russkoe sel’skoe khoziaistvo vo vremia voiny (1915-1925)
Sub-Series 2: Russkoe sel’skoe khoziaistvo I velikaia voina (1925)
Sub-Series 3: Russkaia kooperatsiia vo vremia voiny (1914-1923)
Sub-Series 4: Various publication, drafts, editorial comments
Series 7, PRINTED MATERIALS (1896-1953) contain various journals, articles, newspaper clippings, and pamphlets collected by Antsiferoff.
Series 8, MUSIC (1871-1936) includes two sub-series:
Sub-Series 1: Printed musical scores, various composers (1871-1930)
And Flat Box Sub-Series 1
Sub-Series 2: Antsiferoff’s own Compositions, Arrangements, Transcription (1926-1936)
And Flat Box Sub-Series 2, which also contains works of other composers