Spending time in Special Collections is always an exciting adventure for me. Just this week alone I was rewarded for just a few hours of cataloging and research with several treasures. A seemingly nondescript paperback, “Belogvardeiskii terror protiv SSSR,” reported…
Nikolas Issaïev (Nikolai Isaev) is a relatively unknown Russian illustrator and theater artist despite his many exhibitions in the 1920s and into the 1960s, as well as his prolific illustration work and associations with other Russian émigré artists in France,…
The most accurate observation about Russia that I came across recently was by Eliot Borenstein of New York University: “Russia after the dismantling of the Soviet Union has the dubious honor of being perhaps the only country in the world…
Miami University’s history is rich in interesting characters, legends, and traditions. Few will argue that André de Saint-Rat wasn’t one of them. His teaching methods acquired mythological qualities over the years and some still remember standing outside of his classroom…
One of my favorite things about cataloging Special Collections materials is finding little treasures left in the book by its owner. Often they have nothing to do with the subject matter and seem to be placed there for safe keeping…
The National Alliance of Russian Solidarists (Natsional’no/Narodno Trudovoi Soiuz rossiiskikh solidaristov), or NTS, is one of the least known anti-bolshevik organizations behind one of the most influential movements. Formed as a youth group in Belgrade in 1930, it sustained many…
