Ya. M. Lisovoy’s collection destiny: historical and library aspects

Abstract

The study of the unique bibliophile heritage of writers, historians, philosophers, scientists and artists who happened to be far from Russia is important from the point of view of understanding how the best representatives of Russian emigration sought to preserve the collections that they managed to bring out of Russia and multiply over the years of living abroad. Fortunately, many collections were returned to their homeland, but many rare priceless materials remained abroad forever. The problem of book collections existence, which for one reason or another and at different times fell into the category of “prohibited”, acquired special significance at the end of 1980s – the beginning of 1990s, after the abolition of all censorship restrictions in the country, and, as a result, the opening of library special collections and archives. The purpose of the article is – on the basis of a brief source review of emigrants’ collections which entered the leading libraries of Russia from abroad, and the collection gathered by the White Guard emigrant officer and politician, historian, publicist, bibliographer Ya. M. Lisovoy – to illustrate the need to move from the analytical stage of research activity in this subject field to the synthetic one aimed at accumulating research intentions on a general cultural scale. The fate of the collection in the period from 1915 to 1992 is traced, its structure is presented, and the analysis of Ya. M. Lisovoy publishing activity is undertaken.