HIST 481: Russian Revolution
FINDING A TOPIC WITH PRIMARY SOURCES: It’s easiest to find a primary source
that interests you, before choosing a specific topic.
1. Check the documents section of our Wood text.
2. Look for document anthologies (books) in the library. To find these, try a CATTRAX subject
search:
Soviet Union -- History – Sources
Soviet Union -- History – Sources—Exhibitions
Soviet Union—History—Revolution, 1917-1921
Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 -- Sources;
Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 -- Foreign public opinion;
Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 -- Personal narratives
Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 – Public opinion
OR a word search: Soviet Sources, Russian Revolution Sources.
Please do not check these books out! Read or Xerox and return to the shelves ASAP.
3. Use my primary source collections I’ve placed in the History Department conference room (to
the right of the computer, below Encyclopedia Britannica). Take and Xerox or read, but please
return to the shelf in the conference room ASAP. I mean it.
4. Do a keyword, subject, or author search in Cattrax/Summit/Worldcat (in that order) on your
topic.
5. Find a secondary source on your topic and scour the footnotes and bibliography.
6. Consult bibliographies or other finding aids.
A good one, in our library:
The Russian Revolution, 1905-1921: A Bibliographic Guide to Works in English, comp.
Murray Frame
Some dictionaries/encyclopedias:
Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Former Soviet Union
Encyclopedia of Russian History
Dictionary of the Russian Revolution
Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914-1921, eds. Edward Acton, Vladimir
Iu. Cherniaev, William G. Rosenberg
The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution, ed. Harold Shukman
7. Browse internet collections of primary sources. Try the following, and/or do a net search
yourself (Google Books has some primary source collections, too):
Revelations from the Russian Archives:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/intro.html
Modern History Sourcebook (scroll on the left: Russian Revolution):
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/
Russian Revolution Links
http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/russ/rusrev.html
Sam Houston University Russian History
http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/365Read.html
Durham University Russian History
http://www.dur.ac.uk/a.k.harrington/Russhist.HTML
History of the Soviet Union e-Courses
http://www.uea.ac.uk/his/webcours/russia/welcome/
Alexander Palace Time Machine
http://alexanderpalace.org/palace/mainpage.html
Marxists Internet Archive: Soviet Union
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/
First World War
http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/1917.htm
Archives of Writings of the Bolshevik Party and Government
http://www.marxists.org/subject/bolsheviks/index.htm
Archives of Writings of the Comintern and International Communism
http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/index.htm
Photo Sourcebook of the Revolution
http://www.nevsky88.com/SaintPetersburg/Revolution/
Seton Hall University Documents in Russian History
http://artsci.shu.edu/reesp/documents/Sources--main.htm
Seventeen Moments in Soviet History
http://www.soviethistory.org/
8. Ask a reference librarian! Mari Knirck is a specialist in history.
9. Ask me! But only after you’ve tried the above, please.