Ivan Elagin was born Ivan Venediktovich Matveiev in Vladivostok, Russia on December 1, 1918. His father was the Futurist poet Venedikt Mart. His grandfather was N.P. Matveiev, a publisher and journalist. Elagin began his academic career studying Medicine at the Soviet Institute of Higher Learning in Kiev in the 1930’s. In 1941 his studies were interrupted by war and he served as a medic in the military. Following World War II, he lived in several displaced persons camps around Europe and wrote his first volume of poetry,
Po doroge ottuda; stikhi published in Munich. His poems focused on the theme of the estranged and bewildered émigré. In 1950 he immigrated to the United States where he continued his education and his career as a poet and translator. All of his literary work was written under the name Elagin and published in Russian.
Elagin’s education in the U.S. was at Columbia University and then New York University where he completed his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages. In 1970 he accepted an appointment as an Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh and was made full professor in 1978. He also taught at the prestigious summer program in Russian language and culture at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Elagin had married Olga Anstey on June 17, 1938. They had two children: Inna who was born on October 8, 1943 and died of pneumonia in January of 1944 and Helen (Yelena) who was born on January 8, 1945. Elagin and Olga divorced in 1950 after their move to New York. He then married Irena Ivanovna Danngeizer on April 19, 1958. Their son Sergei was born in 1967. Ivan Elagin died of pancreatic cancer on February 8, 1987 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The collection is divided into four series. First are personal papers and letters. The second and largest series of the collection is the correspondence files. These are letters from poets, artists and figures connected to Russian literature and arts. The third series is literary works. These are some original works, translations, the Laguna Beach poetry reading and part of Elagin’s dissertation. In addition there are several audio and video tapes. The final series contains class lecture notes from Elagin’s classes at the University of Pittsburgh and Middlebury College. Elagin’s book collection also came to the Archives and contains 105 books, pamphlets and journal issues that are inscribed by their authors. Topically these books are mostly poetry.
Series I. Personal files and letters
Series II. Letters from authors and poets
Series III. Literary works
Series IV. Instruction materials
No restrictions.
The University of Pittsburgh holds the property rights to the material in this collection, but the copyright may still be held by the original creator/author. Researchers are therefore advised to follow the regulations set forth in the U.S. Copyright Code when publishing, quoting, or reproducing material from this collection without the consent of the creator/author or that go beyond what is allowed by fair use.
The Elagin Papers were acquired by the University Library System from Elagin’s widow, Irene Matveiev, in 1992. The book collection was acquired from his daughter, Helen Matveiev, also in 1992. The book collection consisted of mostly books of poetry from other Russian poets and all are inscribed by the authors. Both collections were deposited in the Special Collections Department in Hillman Library in 1991. The Papers and the book collection were transferred to the University Archives by Charles Aston in 2008.
This collection was processed by Marianne Kasica in 2009 from an inventory created by Karen Rondestvedt. Assistance with the processing of the papers was given by Faye Leibowitz and Hannah Bergman. Michael Lowry assisted with the book collection.
The book collection was separated, cataloged and sent to library remote storage. A list of the books is available at the Archives Reading Room. Two folders, “Orlov, Aleksei” and “TSGALI (Central Government Archive of Literature and the Arts in the USSR)” were found to be empty at the time of processing and were removed from the collection.
Ivan Elagin Papers, UA.90.F85, University Archives, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Series I. Personal Files and letters, 1938-1947
Scope and Content Notes
This series consists of correspondence, clippings and files that are principally about Elagin’s family and personal life.
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| Box | Folder | | Invitations to readings and lectures, undated | 1 | 01-02 |
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| Folder | | Photocopies of personal documents, undated | 3 |
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| Folder | | Photocopies of perquisition minutes of the Kiev NKVD, undated | 4 |
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| Folder | | Letters to Elagin during his illness, undated | 5 |
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| Folder | | Letters to Irena after Elagin’s death, undated | 6 |
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| Folder | | Articles about Elagin after his death, undated | 07-08 |
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| Folder | | Curriculum Vitae, undated | 9 |
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| Folder | | Letters from Olga Anstey to Bella Kaznachey, 1937-1941 | 10 |
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| Folder | | Newspaper clippings, undated | 11-13 |
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| Folder | | Displaced Persons Camp in Schleissheim, Germany, (photograph) 1947 | 14 |
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| Folder | | West Point, undated | 15 |
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| Folder | | Poetry Society of America, undated | 16 |
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| Folder | | Spiritual Needs Committee, undated | 17 |
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Series II. Letters from authors, artists and others, undated
Scope and Content Notes
This is a collection of letters, postcards, essays and drawings from various authors such as Evtushenko, Filipov and Solzhenitsyn and artists such as Hollerbach and Bongart. Many of these people were also émigrés.
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| Box | Folder | | Adamovich, Georgii, undated | 2 | 1 |
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| Folder | | Alekseev, Anatolii, undated | 2 |
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| Folder | | Artemov, Aleksandr, undated | 3 |
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| Folder | | Belavina, Nonna, undated | 4 |
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| Folder | | Bobritskii, Yurii, undated | 5 |
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| Folder | | Berberova, Nina, undated | 6 |
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| Folder | | Berezov, Rodion (Akul’shin), undated | 7 |
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| Folder | | Bobyshev, Dimitrii, undated | 8 |
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| Folder | | Bogachinskaia, Inna, undated | 9 |
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| Folder | | Bodryi, Nikolai (Matveiev, Elagin's father's brother), undated | 10 |
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| Folder | | Bol'shukhin, Yurii, undated | 11 |
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| Folder | | Bongart, Sergei, undated | 12 |
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| Folder | | Brodsky, Joseph (Brodskii, Iosif ), undated | 13 |
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| Folder | | Bunin, Ivan (letters to Olga Anstey) , undated | 14 |
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| Folder | | Burkin, Ivan, undated | 15 |
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| Folder | | Burliuk, David (Includes issues of “Color and Rhyme”), undated | 16-17 |
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| Folder | | Chinnov, Igor, undated | 18 |
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| Folder | | Chirkov, Aleksandr , undated | 19 |
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| Folder | | Duke, Vernon (Vladimir Dukelskii), undated | 20 |
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| Folder | | Eberhart, Richard, undated | 21 |
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| Folder | | Ėtkind, E. G. (Efim Grigorʹevich), undated | 22 |
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| Folder | | Yevtushenko, Yevgeny Aleksandrovich, undated | 23 |
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| Folder | | Fesenko, Tatiana, undated | 24 |
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| Folder | | Filippov, Boris Andreevich, undated | 25 |
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| Folder | | Gendlin, Leonard, undated | 26 |
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| Folder | | Gorbanevskaia, Natalia, undated | 27 |
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| Folder | | Gul, Roman (Goul), undated | 28 |
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| Folder | | Green, Militsa, undated | 29 |
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| Folder | | Guerra, Rene, undated | 30 |
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| Folder | | Hinrichs, Jan Paul, undated | 31 |
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| Folder | | Hollerbach, Serge (Includes drafts of drawings for book), undated | 32 |
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| Folder | | Joffe, Yuri (Ioffe, Yurii), undated | 33 |
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| Folder | | Ivanov, Sergei, undated | 34 |
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| Folder | | Ivask, IUrii, undated | 35 |
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| Folder | | Klenovskii, Dimitrii, undated | 36 |
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| Folder | | Klionsky, Marc, undated | 37 |
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| Folder | | Korzhavin, Naum, undated | 38 |
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| Folder | | Kreps, Mikhail, undated | 39 |
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| Folder | | Ktorova, Alla, undated | 40 |
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| Folder | | Kublanovskiĭ, IUrii, undated | 41 |
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| Folder | | Kuznetsova, Galina, undated | 42 |
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| Folder | | Klimov, Evgenii, undated | 43 |
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| Folder | | Legkaia, Iraida (Pushkarev), undated | 44 |
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| Folder | | Liubin, Evgenii, undated | 45 |
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| Folder | | Losev, Aleksei, undated | 46 |
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| Folder | | Maksimov, Sergei, undated | 47 |
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| Folder | | Maltseva, Nadezhda, undated | 48 |
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| Folder | | Mantulin, Valentin N., undated | 49 |
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| Folder | | Maramzin, Vladimir Rafailovich, undated | 50 |
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| Folder | | Margolins, The (collective letter from Tel-Aviv), undated | 51 |
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| Folder | | Markov, Vladimir (includes his "Nightmare Cantata"), undated | 52 |
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| Folder | | Mechik, Donat, undated | 53 |
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| Folder | | Morrison, R.H., undated | 54 |
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| Folder | | Morshen, Nikolai (Marchenko), undated | 55 |
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| Box | Folder | | Nartsissov, Boris, undated | 3 | 1 |
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| Folder | | Odoevtseva, Irina Vladimirovna, undated | 2 |
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| Folder | | Panin, Gennadii, undated | 3 |
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| Folder | | Rannit, Aleksis, undated | 4 |
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| Folder | | Rachko, Marina , undated | 5 |
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| Folder | | Rzhevskiĭ, Leonid Denisovich, undated | 6 |
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| Folder | | Sapozhnikova, Inna, undated | 7 |
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| Folder | | Savolainen, Luidmila (Savin, Ivan), undated | 8 |
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| Folder | | Sedykh, Andrei, undated | 9 |
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| Folder | | Sechkarev, V., undated | 10 |
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| Folder | | Sinkevich, Valentina, undated | 11 |
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| Folder | | Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich, undated | 12 |
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| Folder | | Stepun, Fedor, undated | 13 |
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| Folder | | Tarasenkov, Dimitrii, undated | 14 |
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| Folder | | Ulianov, Nikolai, undated | 15 |
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| Folder | | Wierzyński, Kazimierz (Vezhinskii), undated | 16 |
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| Folder | | Vitkovskiĭ, Evgeniĭ Vladimirovich, undated | 17 |
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| Folder | | Vladimirova, Liia, undated | 18 |
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| Folder | | Voznesenskaia, Yulya, undated | 19 |
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| Folder | | Wolfe, Bertram D., undated | 20 |
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| Folder | | Yablonskii, Andrei, undated | 21 |
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| Folder | | IUpp, Mikhail, undated | 22 |
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| Folder | | Popovskiĭ, Mark Aleksandrovich, undated | 23 |
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| Folder | | Pomeransev, K. (Pomerantsev), undated | 24 |
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| Folder | | Gorbanevskaia Natalia, undated | 25 |
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| Folder | | Ioann, |c Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States (Dimitri Alexeevich Shakhovskoi, undated | 26 |
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| Folder | | Turasova, Natalia (Tarassow), undated | 27 |
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| Folder | | Betaki, Vasilii , undated | 28 |
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| Folder | | Voznesensky, Andre, undated | 29 |
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Series III. Literary Works, undated
Scope and Content Notes
This is a collection of original and translations of Elagin’s work and his translations of other people’s works. Many of these were collected by Irena Matveiev and made part of this collection of papers. Included here is Boris Pasternak’s "Ya propel kak zver' v zagone" Elagin's translation back to Russian from an English translation done before the Russian original was published in the West. There are also two audiotapes titled "Elagin Program, for Russian SVC" and "Russian: Elagin Poetry, for: Russian, SVC" and three videotapes: "Ivan Elagin Reading His Poetry," "Ivan Elagin Reads His Poetry: Introduced by John Glad," and "Excerpts from John Glad's Interviews."
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| Folder | | Handwritten Draft of Last Poem, undated | 30 |
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| Folder | | Part of Elagin’s dissertation, essay on poetry in translation, undated | 31 |
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| Folder | | Elagin’s translation of Reavy’s poems, undated | 32 |
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| Folder | | Pasternak, Boris, poem and translation, undated | 33 |
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| Folder | | Parody, undated | 34 |
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| Folder | | Scrapbooks of articles, photographs and news clippings including Laguna Beach, undated | 35-36 |
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| Folder | | Laguna Beach show and American film actors, undated | 37 |
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| Box | Folder | | American Poets in Elagin's Translations, undated | 4 | 01-06 |
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| Folder | | Elagin’s poems translated by Helen Matveiev and others, undated | 07-08 |
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| Box | Folder | | Audiotapes, undated | 5 | 01-02 |
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| Folder | | Videotapes, undated | 03-05 |
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| Ivan Elagin Reads His Poetry: Introduced by John Glad, undated ("Ivan Elagin Reads His Poetry: Introduced by John Glad," online pending) |
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| Folder | | CD from Primorye Krai Public Library Literary Evening | 12 |
An event in Vladivostok commemorating Elagin and a reading of his poetry.
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Series IV. Instructional Materials, undated
Scope and Content Notes
This series is comprised primarily of typed index cards containing information about Russian literary figures and Russian literature. The index cards relate to course lectures Elagin presented at the University of Pittsburgh and the Middlebury College Summer Russian Language Program. The Russian literary figures covered in these cards include: Ostrovskii, Gogol, Lermontov, Zhukovskii, Nekrasov, Pushkin, Blok, Esenin, Mayakovskii, Sukhovo-Kobylin, Chekhov and Tolstoy. Some files relate to literary concepts such as criticism, satire and drama. In addition to index cards, the series includes a file of typescript and manuscript sheets relating to Russian literature. These include part of a paper by IU. Mann about Gogol’s “Mervye dushy (i.e. Dead souls), course outlines for Middlebury College Russian literature courses, a copy of a bibliography or library reserve list by Jane Harris on “Approaches to literary criticism and methodology,” and other documents. Most of the materials in these files are in Russian, with a very small number in English.
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| Folder | | Instructional Materials typescript sheets, undated | 6 |
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| Box | Folder | | Ostrovsky, undated | 6 | 1 |
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| Folder | | Lermontov, Zhukocskii, Romanticism, undated | 3 |
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| Box | Folder | | Nekrasov, Evgenii Onegin, undated | 7 | 1 |
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| Folder | | Pushkin, undated | 2 |
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| Folder | | Literature in Movies, undated | 3 |
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| Box | Folder | | Folklore, Autobiography, undated | 8 | 1 |
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| Folder | | Critiques, undated | 2 |
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| Box | Folder | | Satire, undated | 9 | 1 |
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| Folder | | Blok and friends (Esenin and Mayakovskii), undated | 2 |
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| Folder | | Drama, Chekov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Middlebury College, undated | 3 |
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