This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
The Sergei A. Zenkovskii Papers reflect professional activities of a prominent Russian scholar in exile. They consist of correspondence, writings, personal documents, bibliographic cards, and other research material related to the scholarship on Russia in the United States.
Material is arranged into 15 series.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Name of Collection; Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
accn number: Source of acquisition--Jane Zenkovsky. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--2003.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Papers processed tc 2014.
2014-03-14 File created.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Serge A. Zenkovskii (1907-1990), was born in Kiev to a prominent Russian noble family on June 16, 1907. After the revolution, his family fled from Russia to Constantinople. They eventually settled in Prague where Serge's father continued working as a representative of the Russian Zemstva. In 1927, Serge A. Zenkovskii moved to Paris and learned his degree in East European and Modern History from the University of Paris.
In 1939, Serge decided to move to the United States and obtained an American visa. Soon after he went to Prague to say goodbye to his parents but had to stay in Prague because of the Hitler's occupation. During the turbulent years of World War II, Serge lived in Prague where he learned his doctoral degree in Early Russian history. In 1949, he and his parents finally managed to leave for the United States. By the middle of 1950s, Serge extensively published and taught in several American Universities - Indiana, Stetson, Colorado, and Vanderbilt. In the early 1960s, he completely devoted himself to a study of Medieval Russia and prepared among other things the five-hundred-page book on Russian Old Believers (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1970).
In 1977, he retired from teaching and for the next decade worked on a new edition of The Nikonian Chronicle. At the time of his death (1990), his publications numbered over two hundred.