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Manuscripts collected by David J. Dallin consists of autobiographical essays in English and Russian by Soviet displaced persons, discussing their lives in the USSR and why they chose not to return there. There are also essays in English telling the stories of Soviet displaced persons from the point of view of another unidentified narrator. Also included is a letter dated 2 Aug. 1943 from Povilas Zadeikis, a representative of Lithuania in the United States in 1934 – 1957.

The papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, documents, and printed materials. Correspondence includes 3 letters from Mikhaĭl Karpovich, and letters from Khmelńit︠s︡kai︠a︡'s son Sergeĭ, a writer in the Soviet Union. Among the manuscripts is Khmelńit︠s︡kai︠a︡'s autobiography, which discusses her childhood in Odessa and her education; and her translation of the letters of William Frey, a Russian immigrant in Kansas in the 1870s.

A major part of the collection is von Meck's autobiography (660 p.), covering up to the latter part of World War II, when she left Russia for the West. This autobiography primarily discusses her life in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s; her father was executed and she herself was imprisoned in Soviet concentration camps. There are five brief essays discussing railroads in Russia and the USSR, and a photograph of her grandmother, Anna Merkling. Also icluded is von Meck's translation of 681 letters written by P.I. Tchaikovsky to his family during the period March 1861 to September 1893.

Polivanov's memoirs concern higher education in the Soviet Union. An untitled essay concerns Yaroslavl ́University, founded in 1919 and replaced by the Yaroslavl ́Pedagogical Institute in 1924. The main theme of the essay is the growth of government pressure on the University and on academic freedom in general. There is also a discussion of the All-Union Congress of Workers in Higher Education and Academic Institutions (Sʺezd Rabotnikov Vyssheĭ Shkoly i Nauchnykh Uchrezhdeniĭ), Moscow, 1923. The second essay is entitled "Vospominanii︠a︡ o Krymskom Pedagogicheskom Institute." In 1927 Polivanov became academic secretary of that Institute, in Simferopol;́ in 1933-39 he was director of its library, and he taught Latin in 1939-41. The main themes he deals with are government pressure, conflicts between old and new staff and academic values, experiments in programs, and the purges. He continues the story up to the German occupation. Both essays are in manuscript and typescript form. Publications based on the Mikhail Pavlovich POLIVANOV Memoirs: Polivanov M.P. "Nauka v plenu u bolshevikov..." lAroslavskaia starina, vyp. 3, 1996: pp. 57-62.