Partial Register of the Boris N. Volkov Papers, 1915-1963

Processed by Anatol Shmelev; machine-readable finding aid created by Xiuzhi Zhou

Hoover Institution Archives

Stanford University

Stanford, California 94305-6010

Phone: (650) 723-3563

Fax: (650) 725-3445

Email: archives@hoover.stanford.edu

Partial Register of the Boris N. Volkov Papers, 1915-1963

Hoover Institution Archives

Stanford University

Stanford, California

Contact Information

Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Phone: (650) 723-3563
Fax: (650) 725-3445
Email: archives@hoover.stanford.edu

Funding:: Detailed processing and preservation microfilming for these materials were made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by matching funds from the Hoover Institution and Museum of Russian Culture. The grant also provides depositing a microfilm copy in the Hoover Institution Archives. The original materials and copyright to them (with some exceptions) are the property of the Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco. A transfer table indicating corresponding box and reel numbers is available at the Hoover Institution Archives.
Processed by:: Anatol Shmelev
Date Completed:: 1999
Encoded by:: Xiuzhi Zhou

Descriptive Summary

Title: Boris N. Volkov Papers,

Date (inclusive): 1915-1963

Collection number: 36008

Creator: Volkov, Boris N., 1894-1954

Collection Size: 1 manuscript box, 23 microfilm reels 3.86 linear feet)

Repository: Hoover Institution Archives

Stanford, California 94305-6010

Abstract: Speeches and writings, correspondence, clippings, other printed matter, and photographs, relating to Russian literature, the Russian Civil War in Siberia and Mongolia, the career of the White Russian commander Baron Ungern-Shternberg, Russian émigré affairs, and anti-communist movements in the United States. Includes a translation by Elena Varneck and a fictionalized autobiographical account of the Russian Civil War.

Language: Russian and English.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection open for research.

The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.

Publication Rights

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Boris N. Volkov Papers, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Archives.

Acquisition Information

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1936.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number of boxes listed in this finding aid.

Access Points

Mongolia--History.

Siberia (Russia)--History--Revolution, 1917-1921.

Soviet Union.

Russia (Federation)

Soviet Union--History--Revolution, 1917-1921.

Ungern-Shternberg, Roman Fedorovich, baron, 1887-1921.

Russian literature.

Russians--United States.

Anti-communist movements--United States.

Communism.

United States--Politics and government.

Russia (Territory under White armies, 1918-1920) Armiia.

Mongolia.

Biography

Russian poet and novelist; White Russian agent in Mongolia, 1918- 1920; subsequently émigré in the United States.

Biographical Note

1894 May 30 [N.S.]	Born, Ekaterinoslav, Russia
1915	Medic, Russian army
1917	Completed university course, Legal Faculty, Moscow University
1918-1920	Agent of Provisional Siberian and All-Russian governments (Omsk) in Mongolia
1923	Emigrated to United States
1933	Author, V pyli chuzhikh dorog
1945	Translator, United Nations
1954 June 9	Died, San Francisco

Scope and Content

This collection consists mainly of the writings of the émigré poet and writer Boris Volkov. During the First World War, Volkov was a medic with the Russian army on its Western and Caucasian fronts. During the Civil War, he was active in the counterrevolutionary uprising in Irkutsk in 1918, and thereafter was an agent of the Omsk government in Mongolia, where he reported on the political and military situation, particularly with regard to the activities of Ataman G. M. Semenov and General Baron R. F. Ungern-Shternberg.

Among his writings, the most significant piece is the unpublished novel "Conscript to Paradise." The novel itself is based in part on his own experiences and in part on the diary of his wife, nee Elena Petrovna Witte, the daughter of the Russian Councilor to the Mongolian government, but the completed draft is significantly abridged from the original version. The original draft is in the form of a large volume of fragments, which may include typescript fragments of Witte's diary (or Volkov's reworked versions of it). The fragments indicate that the author had in mind a much larger autobiographical novel that would have encompassed his adventures in Siberia, the Transbaikal region of the Far East, and Mongolia during the 1917-1921 period. This material has been left largely in the order received.

Other elements of the collection include Volkov's poetry and smaller prose works, some also of an autobiographical nature, as well as evidence reflecting his anti-Communist views and work in America in the 1930s-1950s. The subject file and printed matter series contains brochures and clippings on this and other subjects.

Left unfilmed due to the general accessibility of materials are a large number of boxes containing clippings and printed matter (in Russian and English, from periodicals such as the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, Reader's Digest, American Mercury, Look, etc.) relating to diverse subjects, the most significant of which are Communism and anti-Communism in the United States (including large amounts of materials on McCarthy, espionage trials and Communist propaganda and subversion, as well as dossiers on various public figures representing these movements), international affairs (especially the spread of Communism), and domestic affairs in the USSR and its satellites and in the United States. This material covers the period from the 1930s to 1953.

Detailed processing and preservation microfilming for these materials were made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by matching funds from the Hoover Institution and Museum of Russian Culture. The grant also provides depositing a microfilm copy in the Hoover Institution Archives. The original materials and copyright to them (with some exceptions) are the property of the Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco. A transfer table indicating corresponding box and reel numbers is available at the Hoover Institution Archives.

The Hoover Institution assumes all responsibility for notifying users that they must comply with the copyright law of the United States (Title 17 United States Code) and Hoover Rules for the Use and Reproduction of Archival Materials.

Series Description

BIOGRAPHICAL FILE, 1915-1953.

Physical Description: Box 1

Scope and Content Note

Articles about Volkov, autobiographical notes, correspondence, commercial, employment and service records, arranged alphabetically by physical form

CORRESPONDENCE, 1922-1954.

Physical Description: Boxes 1-2

Scope and Content Note

Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent

SPEECHES AND WRITINGS, 1913-1950.

Physical Description: Boxes 2-16

Scope and Content Note

Articles, drafts of unpublished autobiographical novel, poetry, letters to the editor and reviews, arranged chronologically by title

SUBJECT FILE, 1913-1953.

Physical Description: Boxes 17-20

Scope and Content Note

Mainly clippings, with some correspondence and writings by others, arranged alphabetically by subject

PRINTED MATTER, 1932-1953.

Physical Description: Box 20

Scope and Content Note

Unsorted brochures on various topics (mainly communism and anti-communism, as well as China and Mongolia), including some rare émigré editions

PHOTOGRAPHS, C. 1915-1950.

Physical Description: Box 21

Scope and Content Note

Ten photographs include one of Volkov, taken during the First World War, three of Russian translators and interpreters working for the United Nations, and the rest of unidentified people and places

OVERSIZE FILE, 1921-1963.

Physical Description: Box 21

Scope and Content Note

Scrapbooks containing biographical material and writings, as well as oversize writings, arranged alphabetically by physical form

Container List

Biographical File, 1915-1953.

Additional Note

See also SPEECHES AND WRITINGS/"A Descendant of Genghis Khan" and OVERSIZE FILE/Scrapbooks

Box 1., Folder 1

Addresses

Folder 2

Articles about or mentioning Volkov. Includes correspondence with Ripley's Believe It Or Not, 1929 December 19, regarding Volkov's entry, and correspondence regarding celebrations in honor of Volkov, 1931

Folder 3

Autobiographical notes

Folder 4

Commercial records, 1920-1923. Includes materials generated by Volkov as an agent of J.R. Gilchrist & Co.: correspondence with Tientsin Chemical works, K. G. Baturin and Co., Gen. D. L. Khorvat and others, as well as financial documents

Correspondence

Folder 5

Unidentified family members (?), 1922-1938 and undated

Folder 6

Volkov, Alexander, 1952-1953

Folder 7

Witte, Boris, 1928 and undated

Folder 8

Description of invention by Volkov - "Etiquette stand"

Folder 9

Employment documents

Folder 10

Identity documents

Folder 11

Inventory of archive

Folder 12

Letter of recommendation for Volkov

Obshchestvo druzei russkoi svobody. See SUBJECT FILE

Folder 13

Service records

Subject file - Family

Folder 14

Volkov (Townley), Bessie Baldwin

Folder 15

Volkov (Witte), Elena Petrovna

Folder 16

Miscellany

Correspondence, 1922-1954

Box 1., Folder 17

General, 1931-1951

Folder 18

Unidentified, undated and 1948

Folder 19

Butenko, Vasilii, 1951

Daniels, Camilla. Includes related correspondence with others. Consists largely of letters and postcards relating to the translation of Volkov's unpublished novel, "Conscript To Paradise." See also SPEECHES AND WRITINGS

Incoming

Folder 20

Undated

Folder 21

1932-1935

Folder 22

1936-1943

Box 2., Folder 1

Outgoing, 1933-1943 (and undated)

Folder 2

Eudin, X. J., 1950

Folder 3

Izdatel'stvo imeni Chekhova, 1952

Folder 4

Kaun, Alexander, n.d.

Folder 5

Konstantinov, P., n.d.

Folder 6

Lubelski, Sergei, 1950

Folder 7

Lutts, G., 1930

Folder 8

Mel'gunov, S. (?), 1951

Folder 9

Novoe Russkoe Slovo, 1951

Folder 10

Panteleieff, Maxim, 1951

Folder 11

Postnikova, Taisiia Anatol'evna, 1953 and undated

Folder 12

Rubtsova, T., n.d.

Folder 13

Sakovitch, 1925

Folder 14

Serebrennikov, I. I., 1929-1930

Folder 15

Serebrennikova, Aleksandra Nikolaevna, 1929-1933

Folder 16

Shapiro, Nadia L., 1927-1954

Folder 17

Shmelev, Ivan S., 1950

Folder 18

Solonevich, Boris, n.d. (fragment). Includes two attached wallet-size photos of Solonevich

Folder 19

Tenney, Jack B., Senator, 1948

Folder 20

Vasil'ev, P., 1931

Folder 21

Vernadsky, G., 1931

Folder 22

Miscellany. Consists mostly of fragments of letters

Speeches And Writings, 1913-1950.

Additional Note