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The contents of the collection include: correspondence, manuscripts, minutes of "Zagranichnai︠a︡ Delegat︠s︡i︠a︡" meetings from the 1920s, and financial records both from the Party organization in Russia (1908-1915) and from its Estonian and Finnish affiliates (1922). The collection's subject files are particularly rich in materials on S.R. groups in foreign countries and on Party infiltrators ("provokatory"), including E.F. Azef. The collection also contains photographs of several prominent S.R.s, including Ekaterina Breshko-Breshkovskai︠a︡; printed materials, including the first five issues of "Sot︠s︡ialist Revoli︠u︡t︠s︡ioner (1927-1932); and seals from the offices of the "Zagranichnai︠a︡ Delegat︠s︡i︠a︡." Correspondents which figure prominently in the collection are: Nikolaĭ D. Avksentév, Viktor M. Chernov, Ili︠́a︡ I. Fondaminskiĭ, Osip S. Minor and Vladimir M. Zenzinov; there is one letter by Azef. Much of the pre-1920 correspondence is addressed to Mark A. Natanson; after 1922 a large number of the letters are addressed to Sergeĭ P. Rostnikov.

Correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, documents, subject files and printed materials of Sergei Grigor'evich Svatikov (1878/1880?-1942), Russian lawyer, historian, publicist, and public figure. The correspondence includes letters from Mark Aldanov, Vladimir Burtsev, Ivan Efremov, Georgii Grebenshchikov, Grigorii Lozinskii, Sergei Mel'gunov, Nikolai Rubakin, George Vernadsky and Mark Vishniak. There is a notebook that belonged to Vera Zasulich. Among the photographs are pictures of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Sergei Mel'gunov, and Aleksander Wielopolski. The manuscripts include several by Svatikov as well as many notes, lists and bibliographical compendia relating to his oeuvre. The subject files cover such areas as the Russian Reading Hall in Heidelberg, the Turgenev Library in Paris, and the Russkii akademicheskii soiuz (Groupe academique russe), also in Paris. The printed materials include clippings, materials from the Institute d'ʹetudes slaves, and a number of books by Svatikov.

Shneerov's typescript memoirs concern his life up to 1921. The longest manuscript is entitled"V pogone za sineĭ ptit︠s︡eĭ" (472 p.), and covers the period from his childhood to his arrival in the United States in 1921; it goes into particular detail on his years as an active revolutionary (1902-1908), and on 1917-1920. Two shorter manuscripts appear to be largely translated excerpts from the longer work: "When I was young" (80 p.), and "My last arrest and state prison of Kursk" (49 p.). Shneerov joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the first years of the 20th century. He was first arrested and exiled in 1903, but escaped and went to Western Europe (Switzerland, Austria, France, England). He came back to Russia in 1905, and continued revolutionary activities until arrested and exiled again to Siberia in 1908. In 1912-1916, he lived in the Far East, in Harbin, Japan, and Shanghai; he lived in San Francisco in 1916-1917, returning to Russia after the February 1917 Revolution. In 1917 he was a minor government official in Tambov, and in 1918 was sent by the government to the Far East on a mission to obtain supplies. He spent 1918 in Vladivostok, Manchuria, and China, and 1918-1920 in Japan. In his memoirs, besides his own experiences, he also discusses minor and major revolutionaries whom he knew, such as Osip Minor, Grigoriĭ Gershuni, and Evno Azef. The Hoover Institution also has copies of these memoirs.