Leopold Haimson Papers, 1890s-1999
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Collection context
- Creator:
- Haimson, Leopold H.
- Abstract:
- The papers comprise correspondence, documents, institutional files, writings, lectures, memoirs, research notes, photographs, third party materials, printed materials, periodicals, microfilms, audio material, and digital files accrued by historian and professor emeritus of Columbia University, Leopold H. Haimson, during his professional life.
- Extent:
- 88 linear feet 164 document boxes. 4 flat boxes, 2 record storage boxes
- Language:
- English , Russian .
- Scope and content:
-
The bulk of the collection consists of Leopold H.Haimson correspondence (including correspondence with Isaiah Berlin, autograph note from Joseph Brodsky, and correspondence with prominent historians and scholars), writings by Haimson and other authors, manuscripts, research and archival materials from Soviet archives and libraries, printed materials, and institutional documents from the History Department of Columbia University, the Harriman Institute, and the History Department of the University of Chicago. There are also documents, memoirs, microfilms, audio materials, digital files, and photographs.
The collection documents the variety of Leopold Haimson's professional activity as a professor of Russian history, scholar, editor, conductor of various collaborative projects, organizer of and participant in numerous colloquia and conferences, faculty member at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, and one of the key figure in the development of Soviet-American academic relationships in his field.
It ought to be specially noted that Haimson Papers include extensive files on the history of Menshevism - a collection of materials known as the Archive on the History of Menshevism. The establishment of this archive was one of the main goals of the Inter-University Project on the History of the Menshevik Movement. It contains extensive collection of documents and newspapers of the Menshevik Party, Mensheviks' memoirs and case studies, correspondence, records and transcripts of interviews conducted by associates of the Project with survivors of the Party, transcripts of seminar discussions of various of the Project studies, biographical and bibliographical data, periodicals, and editorial materials of the "Sotsialisticheskii vestnik".
There are also research materials on the late imperial Russian social history, including Haimson's extensive collection of microfilms, photocopied newspapers, provincial census reports, rare journals, bibliographic files, and his own data files. The collection also contains Haimson's professional papers, which include correspondence as well as materials from his many trips to Russia, beginning in 1956, and which are a great source of information about the academic life of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, there are institutional materials relating to the history of the Harriman Institute and to Soviet/Russian studies in general. Among other materials, included here are institutional records and correspondence of a broad sort.
Audio materials, oversize items, and digital files were removed from their original location and organized in series based on their format. References are provided.
Some correspondence and printed materials remain with materials to which they relate, and can be found in various series. References are provided.
Microfilms and periodicals and serial publications from the collection are in a process of been cataloged by individual title, as of the February 2009.
Leopold Haimson's rich collection of microfilms contains research materials, such as books and periodicals, and archival documents on Russian social history from various archives and libraries. It also includes microfilms belonging to the Menshevik project, which contain a variety of materials related to the history of the Menshevik movement: periodicals, books, archival materials from Soviet archives and libraries. Upon completion of the cataloging process, microfilms from Leopold Haimson's collection will be available in the Microform Reading Room. For the comprehensive list of microfilms see Appendix 2 in the paper copy of the finding aid.
There is some number of microfilm reels with unidentified materials thus they can not be cataloged. These microfilms are part of the Series X: Research and Reference Materials.
Leopold Haimson's collection of periodical and serial publications contains newspapers, magazines, census reports, bulletins, statistical data mostly of the period of late 19th-beginning of 20th centuries. It also includes periodicals belonging to the Menshevik project, such as Menshevik publications, newspapers, and magazines, which were collected in various available formats as originals, photocopies, and microfilms. Originals and photocopies are cataloged for the SEEC collection (Soviet and East European Collection of printed materials in the Bakhmeteff archive) and will be available in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library upon completion of the cataloging process. Periodicals preserved on microfilms will be available in the Microform Reading Room. For the comprehensive list of periodicals see Appendix 1 in the paper copy of the finding aid.
There are cross-references provided throughout the finding aid. When the cross-reference refers to another item within the same series, the reference includes the specific name or title and box and folder number (this also applies to the references within same subseries and sub-subseries). If the cross-reference is to an item in another series, the reference includes the series number, series name, folder title, and box and folder numbers (this also applies to the references to items in another subseries and sub-subseries).
- Biographical / historical:
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His major publications are: "The Making of Three Russian Revolutionaries: Voices from the Menshevik Past". Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press Paris: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1987; "The Mensheviks : From the Revolution of 1917 to the Second World War". Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974; "Politics of Rural Russia, 1905-1914". Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1979; "Russia's Revolutionary Experience, 1905-1917: Two Essays". New York: Columbia University Press, c2005; "Strikes, Social Conflict, and the First World War : An International Perspective". Milano: Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, 1992; "Strikes,Wars, and Revolutions in an International Perspective: Strike waves in the Late The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries". Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press; Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1989
Leopold Henri Haimson is a historian and professor emeritus of Columbia University, where he worked since 1965 as a professor of Russian history and a member of the Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of Eurasia.
Haimson was born in Brussels, Belgium on April 28, 1927 in a family of immigrants from Russia. He resided there up to the age of 13, when the German invasion in 1940 prompted his family to escape, first to unoccupied France, and eventually to the United States. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history and philosophy from Harvard University in 1945 and his PhD in history and social relations there in 1952. His professional background includes his work as a research associate at Columbia University (1948-1949, 1950-1952), American Museum of Natural History and Center for International Studies (1948-1949, 1951-1952); a visiting research scholar at Princeton University (1952-1953); a lecturer in the Russian Regional Program and the Department of History at Harvard University (1955-1956); an assistant professor and then a professor of Russian History at University of Chicago (1956-1966). From 1960 to 1965, Leopold Haimson served as the director of the Inter-University Project on the History of the Menshevik Movement. In 1964-1965, he was a research associate at Hoover Institute and a visiting scholar at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. He became a professor in the Department of History and the Russian Institute at Columbia University in 1966.
A distinguishing feature of Haimson's career has been his role as the organizer of collaborative research projects that have brought together scholars from different disciplines and different academic cultures, especially those of the United States, France, and Russia. Starting in 1982, in addition to his work for the Inter-University Project on the History of the Menshevik Movement, he was a director of the International Project in Comparative Labor History, based at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris), for almost two decades. He also served as co-chairman of the International Commission for Joint Projects in Modern Russian History. Starting in the 1960s, he became involved in Soviet academic life. His efforts to develop contacts between Soviet and American specialists in Russian history resulted in an extensive scholar exchange program between the Soviet Union and the United States. He helped organize a regular series of workshops in the form of international colloquia devoted to discussions of various historical problems in a comparative perspective that brought together American, European, and Russian scholars. He was also a visiting lecturer at Moscow University, at the Institute of History, and at the European University in St. Petersburg.
Haimson's scholarly interests include political culture, social and quantitative history, the dynamics of strike movements in a comparative perspective, as well as cultural anthropology and the application of its concepts and methodology to studies of the Soviet Union. Since the publication of his influential "The Russian Marxists and the Origins of Bolshevism" in 1955, Leopold Haimson has published many books and articles and edited volumes on Russian political, social, and intellectual life in late imperial and revolutionary Russia in English, French, and Russian.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This collection has no restrictions.
Unique time-based media items have been reformatted and are available onsite via links in the container list. Commercial materials are not routinely digitized.
- Terms of access:
-
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Chair of the Bakhmeteff Committee. The RBML approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Restrictions on quote and publication applied to letters of recommendation.
- Preferred citation:
-
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Leopold Haimson Papers; Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
- Location of this collection:
- Before you visit:
- Researchers interested in viewing materials in the RBML reading room must must book an appointment at least 7 days in advance. To make the most of your visit, be sure to request your desired materials before booking your appointment, as researchers are limited to 5 items per day.
- Contact:
- rbml@library.columbia.edu