Ariadna Vladimirovna Tyrkova-Williams Papers, 1897-1961

Summary Information

Abstract

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, subject files and printed material of Russian émigré writer, journalist, and Kadet Party leader Ariadna Vladimirovna Tyrkova-Williams. The collection also contains material by her husband, Harold Williams, and her son, Arkadiĭ Borman.

At a Glance

Call No.:
BA#0466
Bib ID:
4078328 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Tyrkova-Williams, Ariadna, 1869-1962
Repository:
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Physical Description:
14 Linear Feet (33 manuscript boxes)
Language(s):
Russian , English .
Access:
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.

Permission of Katherine Lickwar required.

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 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.

Description

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, subject files and printed material of Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams (1869-1962). The correspondence, spanning the period 1919-1960, consists of letters written by Tyrkova-Williams, primarily to her husband, Harold williams and her son, Arkadiĭ Borman, and letters received by her. There are one or a few letters each from Leonid Andreev, Boris Bugaev (Andrey Bely), Ivan Bunin, Zinaida Gippius, Jan Masaryk, H.G. Wells, and there are numerous letters from Samuel Hoare (Viscount Templewood), Anton Kartashev, Ekaterina Kuskova, Pavel Mili︠u︡kov, Sofii︠a︡ Panina, Mikhail Rostovt︠s︡ev, Boris Vysheslavt︠s︡ev, and from her husband. The manuscripts are chiefly the writings of Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams (memoirs, short articles, notes) and Harold Williams (novel, short articles). The photographs are primarily portraits of military and literary figures, and include a mid-19th century photograph of the poet Petr Vi︠a︡zemskiĭ. The subject files contain extensive material, dating from 1919-1921, on the Russian Liberation Committee located in London. Among the printed materials are many clippings, including of articles written by Tyrkova-Williams and Harold Williams.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in five series. Selected material cataloged; remainder arranged.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

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.

Permission of Katherine Lickwar required.

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 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.

Related Materials

Russkii Natsional'nyi Komitet Records, 1917-1960: Records of the Paris-based Russian National Committee, of which Tyrkova-Williams was a founder.

Pavel Nikolaevich Miliukov papers, 1879-1970: Miliukov was Tyrkova-Williams' colleague in journalism and the Kadet Party, and a frequent correspondent.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Existence and Location of Copies

Also available on microfilm: Correspondence with Maksim Gor'kii. On a reel of Gor'kii correspondence compiled from various BAR collections, BAR MN#: 89 - 2027. 1 reel (positive), 2 reels (negative). Call Number: Gorkii.

Also available on microfilm: Correspondence with Harold Williams (Box 8). BAR MN #2005-1036: Correspondence of 1917-1924. One reel (positive), one reel (negative). BAR MN #2005-1040: Correspondence of 1922-1923. One reel (positive), one reel (negative) BAR MN #2005-1037: Correspondence of 1924-1928. One reel (positive), one reel (negative). Some pages may be filmed out of sequence. Donor's permission required to access.

Also available on microfilm: Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams to Harold Williams: letters and telegrams (Box 11). BAR MN #2005-1039. One reel (positive), one reel (negative). Some pages may be filmed out of sequence. Donor's permission required to access.

Also available on microfilm: A. Tyrkova-Williams correspondence with various persons (Box 10). BAR MN #2005-1040. One reel (positive), one reel (negative). Some pages may be filmed out of sequence. Donor's permission required to access.

Also available on microfilm: Manuscripts by Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams (Box 18). BAR MN #2005-1037: Manuscripts, short articles. One reel (positive), one reel (negative). BAR MN #2005-1038: Reprints and drafts of short stories and articles. One reel (positive), one reel (negative). BAR MN #2005-1039: Short stories. One reel (positive), one reel (negative). Some pages may be filmed out of sequence. Donor's permission required to access.

Also available on microfilm: Harold Williams' "Ekaterinodar" manuscript (Box 22). BAR MN #2005-1039. One reel (positive), one reel (negative). Some pages may be out of sequence. Donor's permission required to access.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Papers: Source of acquisition--Arkadiĭ Borman. Method of acquisition--Deposit; Date of acquisition--1965.

Papers: Method of acquisition--Purchase; Date of acquisition--1968.

Papers: Method of acquisition--Purchase; Date of acquisition--1969.

Bibliography

Publications based on the Tyrkova-Williams Papers: Wes, Marinus A. Michael Rostovtzeff, Historian in Exile. Historia, Einzelschriften 65. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1990.

Andreev, Leonid. S.O.S; Pod redaktsiei i so vstupitel'noi stat'ei Richarda Devisa i Bena KHellmana. Moscow: Atheneum, 1994.(Letter from Leonid Andreev to K..D. Nabokov, 30 Aug. 1919).

Smith, G.S. "Document: D.S. Mirsky: Four Letters to Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams (1926), with an Unknown Review by Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams (l924). The Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 71, no. 3 (July 1993) pp. 482-489.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Papers Accessioned 1965.

Papers Accessioned 1968.

Papers Accessioned 1969.

Papers Accessioned 02/--/82.

Revision Description

2020-04-15 PDF finding aid converted to EAD by CLB and KSD.

Biographical note

Ariadna Vladimirovna Tyrkova-Williams (Ариадна Владимировна Тыркова; 1869-1962), was a Russian émigré writer, journalist, and leader of the Russian Kadet Party (Konstitut︠s︡ionno-demokraticheskai︠a︡ partii︠a︡).

Ariadna Tyrkova was born in 1869 in St. Petersburg. She was a daughter of Vladimir Alekseevich Tyrkov, a justice of the peace, and Sofiia Karlovna Gaili. One of seven children, Tyrkova spent her early childhood on the family estate, "Vergezha," in Novgorod Province. While she was a secondary school student in St. Petersburg, her older brother was implicated in a plot to assassinate the tsar and was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in Siberia. Expelled from the Obolenskaia gimnazia, Tyrkova finished her studies attending the "Vysshie зhenskie (Bestuzhevskie) kursy."

In 1890 Ariadna Tyrkova married Alfred Nikolaevich Borman, an engineer. They had two children, Arkadii and Sofiia, and after seven years of marriage they were divorced. It was after the divorce that Tyrkova began to earn her living as a writer and journalist.

In 1903 Tyrkova was arrested on the Russo-Finnish border for possession of the outlawed liberal journal Osvobozhdenie. Condemned to a prison term, she fled to Germany, residing chiefly in Stuttgart with the family of Petr Struve. In 1905 Tyrkova returned to St. Petersburg and to her career as a journalist, writing first for the newspaper Rus', and after 1911 for Russkaia molva. She became actively involved in the newly formed Kadet Party, served as a member of its Central Committee and headed its delegates to the Petrograd City Council.

It was at this time that she met and married the British journalist Harold Williams, a native of New Zealand. In 1918 she left with him for London where she helped to establish the London based Russian Liberation Committee and later the Paris centered Russian National Committee. She returned to the South of Russia briefly in 1919 accompanying her husband on assignment, but by the end of 1920 Harold and Ariadna Williams were permanently settled in London. Harold Williams was appointed foreign editor of the Times and Tyrkova-Williams resumed her writing career. She contributed articles to Vozrozhdenie, wrote an account of the first year of the Russian Revolution entitled From Liberty to Brest-Litovsk (London, 1919), collaborated with her husband on the novel Hosts of Darkness (London, 1921), and worked on the first of two volumes of The Life of Pushkin.

After the death of Harold Williams in November 1928, Tyrkova-Williams devoted her time to writing her husband's biography, which was published in 1935 under the title A Cheerful Giver. Obliged once again to earn her living as a writer, she contributed articles to the English press and wrote regularly for the Riga Russian language periodical Segodnia.

Tyrkova-Williams spent the war years in France with her son Arkadii and his family; it was at this time that she began writing her memoirs. In 1951 she emigrated together with her son's family to the United States, residing first in New York and then in Washington D.C., where she died in 1962 at the age of ninety-two.

Arkadii Borman, Aug. 31, 1891 – May 20, 1974

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

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Genre/Form
Articles CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Clippings (Information Artifacts) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Letters (correspondence) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Manuscripts (documents) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Memoirs CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Notes (documents) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Name
Aleksandrova, Vera, 1895-1966 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Alekseev , Mikhail Vasilʹevich, 1857-1918 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Amfiteatrov, Aleksandr, 1852-1938 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Andreyev, Leonid, 1871-1919 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Arsenʹev, Nikolaĭ Sergeevich, 1888-1977 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Astor, John Jacob, 1864-1912 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Astor, Waldorf Astor, Viscount, 1879-1952 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Astrov, N. I. (Nikolaĭ Ivanovich), -1934 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bakhmetev, B. A. (Boris Aleksandrovich) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Barrie, J. M (James Matthew), 1860-1937 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bell, G. K. A. (George Kennedy Allen), 1883-1958 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bely, Andrey, 1880-1934 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Borman, Arkadiĭ, 1891-1974 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bulgakov, Sergeĭ Nikolaevich, 1871-1944 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bunin, Ivan Alekseevich, 1870-1953 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Burt︠s︡ev, V. L. (Vladimir Lʹvovich), 1862-1942 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Cecil of Chelwood, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount, 1864-1958 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Chernov, V. M. (Viktor Mikhaĭlovich), 1873-1952 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Denikin, Anton Ivanovich, 1872-1947 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Dioneo, 1865-1935 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Dobuzhinskiĭ, Mstislav Valerianovich, 1875-1957 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Dolgorukov, P. D., kni︠a︡zʹ (Petr Dmitrīevich), 1866-1951 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Dolgorukov, Pavel Dmitrīevich, kni︠a︡zʹ, 1866-1927 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Evlogiĭ, Metropolitan of Western Europe, 1868-1946 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Fedorov, Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich, 1858-1949 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Gessen, I. V. (Iosif Vladimirovich), 1866-1943 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Gippius, Z. N. (Zinaida Nikolaevna), 1869-1945 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Gorky, Maksim, 1868-1936 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Grigorʹev, Boris, 1886-1939 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Guchkov, Aleksandr Ivanovich, 1862-1936 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Gulʹ, Roman, 1896-1986 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Hu, Shi, 1891-1962 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Ilʹin, V. N. (Vladimir N.) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Ioann, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States, 1902-1989 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Ivanov, Vsevolod Vi︠a︡cheslavovich, 1895-1963 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Jabotinsky, Vladimir, 1880-1940 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Karpovich, Michael, 1888-1959 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Karrik, Valerian Vilʹi︠a︡movich, 1869-1942 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Kartashev, A. V. (Anton Vladimirovich), 1875-1960 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Khodasevich, V. F. (Vladislav Felit͡sianovich), 1886-1939 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Kolchak, Aleksandr Vasiliyevich, 1873-1920 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Kornilov, Lavr Georgievich, 1870-1918 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Krasnov, P. N. (Petr Nikolaevich), 1869-1947 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Kuskova, Ekaterina CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Kutepov, Aleksandr Pavlovich, 1882-1930 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Lansere, E. (Evgeniĭ), 1875-1946 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Lukash, Ivan, 1892-1940 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Lʹvov, Georgiĭ Evgenʹevich, kni︠a︡zʹ, 1861-1925 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Maklakov, V. A. (Vasiliĭ Alekseevich), 1870-1957 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Masaryk, Jan, 1886-1948 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Melʹgunov, S. P. (Sergeĭ Petrovich), 1879-1956 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Merezhkovsky, Dmitry Sergeyevich, 1865-1941 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Mili︠u︡kov, P. N. (Pavel Nikolaevich), 1859-1943 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Miller, Evgeniĭ Karlovich, 1867-1939 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Mirsky , D. S., Prince, 1890-1939 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Nabokov, K. D. (Konstantin Dmitrievich), 1872-1927 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Nabokov, Vladimir , 1869-1922 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Narokov, Nikolaĭ CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Nicolaevsky, Boris I., 1887-1966 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Nolʹde, B. Ė., Baron (Boris Ėmmanuilovich), 1876-1948 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Obolenskiĭ, V. A., kni︠a︡zʹ (Vladimir Andreevich), 1869-1950 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Olʹdenburg, S. S. (Sergeĭ Sergeevich) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Paget , Muriel, 1876-1938 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Panina, Sofii͡a Vladimirovna, grafini͡a, 1871-1956 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Philosophoff, Dmitriĭ Vladimirovich, 1872-1940 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Remizov, Alekseĭ, 1877-1957 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Rostovtzeff, Michael Ivanovitch, 1870-1952 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Russkīĭ nat︠s︡īonalʹnyĭ komitet (France) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Savinkov, B. V. (Boris Viktorovich), 1879-1925 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Sazonov, Sergeĭ Dmitrievich, 1861-1927 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Schakovskoy, Zinaïda, princesse, 1906-2001 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Sedykh, Andreĭ, 1902-1994 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Semenov, I︠U︡liĭ Fedorovich, 1877-1947 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Shmelev, I. S. (Ivan Sergeevich), 1873-1950 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Sikorsky, Igor Ivan, 1889-1972 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Stellet︠s︡kīĭ, D. S. CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Struve, Gleb CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Struve, Petr Berngardovich, 1870-1944 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Swinnerton, Frank, 1884-1982 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Templewood, Samuel John Gurney Hoare, Viscount, 1880-1959 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Teslenko, Nikolaĭ V., 1870-1942 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Tkhorzhevskiĭ, Iv. (Ivan) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Tolstoy, Alexandra, 1884-1979 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Tėffi, N. A. (Nadezhda Aleksandrovna), 1872-1952 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
T︠S︡urikov, N. A. CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Ulʹi︠a︡nov, N. (Nikolaĭ), 1904-1985 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Varshavskīĭ, S. I. CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Vernadsky, George, 1887-1973 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Veĭnbaum, M. E. (Mark Efimovich), 1890-1973 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Vishni︠a︡k, M. V. (Mark Venʹi︠a︡minovich), 1883-1977 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Vi︠a︡zemskiĭ, Petr Andreevich, kni︠a︡zʹ, 1792-1878 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Vrangel', Petr Nikolaevich, Baron, 1878-1928 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Vysheslavt︠s︡ev, B. P. (Boris Petrovich), 1877-1954 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Weizmann, Chaim, 1874-1952 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Williams, Harold, 1876-1928 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Zaret︠s︡kiĭ, Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich, 1876-1959 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Zaĭt︠s︡ev, Boris, 1881-1972 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Zaĭt︠s︡ev, K. I. CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Zeeler, Vladimir Feofilovich, 1874-1954 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Subject
Journalists, Russian CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID