RICERCA ITALIANA     

Russian Archives in Italy (first half of the 20th century): map of the collections, on-line encyclopaedia of Russian emigration, publication and editing of unpublished texts

Università degli Studi di Salerno

Abstract

The project's main aim is to map Russian presence in Italy through a wide reaching an systematic study of public and private archives situated in the four regions specified by the Research Units (Lazio, Veneto, Lombardy and Tuscany). The material collected, where necessary, will be integrated with material in other foreign archives: Russian, French, British and American.
The choice of historical period (the first half of the twentieth century) is based on the research team's personal fields of interest and on the importance of Russian culture outside Russia/the Soviet Union in that particular period. Due to its size and due to the very high number of intellectual emigrants, pre- and post- revolutionary Russian emigration was, in fact, a remarkable phenomenon for twentieth century western culture.
Russian emigration in the first half of the twentieth century interacted with Italian culture in different ways. This is an aspect that has hitherto been neglected both by Russian scholars for obvious geographical and political reasons, and by Italian scholars for linguistic reasons.
The aims of the project are thus to:
- establish the number of emigrants and the political and cultural activities of the Russian colony in Italy from the beginning of the twentieth century to the outbreak of the second world war;
- enrich the historical and cultural description of Russian emigration in Italy as an overall phenomenon, viewed from within and in its relations with contemporary Italian society, by focusing on less well known and hitherto neglected aspects;
- specify the role played by Russian intellectuals and artists in Italy in the first half of the twentieth century and their contacts with Italian culture, newspapers and publishers, which were so important for the reception of Russian culture in Italy;
- trace the presence of exponents of Russian political parties and movements and their contacts with Italian politicians and intellectuals. One distinct aspect to be investigated by the research concerns the often contradictory relations between emigration and the Soviet State and the cases of collaboration and espionage among some Russian emigrants in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s;
- enter the files and data collected on Russian emigrants in the "Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Russian Emigration to Italy", based on an already existing database, which has to be implemented and linked to Italian and foreign websites, making it possible to divulge information and provide access on a scale reflecting the importance of the material collected. Around 300 files on Russians will be added to the Dictionary, i.e. the fifty existing files will be enlarged in the light of the new material collected and 250 new files will be created.
The project envisages a conspicuous programme of inventorying archival collections and of filing Russians living in Italy and a detailed analysis of the materials collected in order to reconstruct a significant chapter of Italian cultural history through the publication of important unpublished documents, especially letters between important figures in Russian emigrant culture and Italian culture. Overall, the project will considerably increase our knowledge and understanding of this subject: firstly as regards the documentation on the presence and activity of temporary and permanent Russian emigrants in Italy from the beginning of the twentieth century to the second world war, secondly as regards the analysis and study of this period in the light of the new material and thirdly as regards the storing and international divulging of the data collected. <<<

Principal Investigator

Antonella D'AMELIA Università degli Studi di SALERNO

Research Objectives

The main aims of the research are to:

1. begin and partially complete the mapping - to be widened in future research - of archives that contain data on the presence of Russian emigrants in Italy in the first half of the twentieth century (concerning both temporary and permanent emigration). The primary task of this programme, which seeks to identify archival collections of relevance to Russian studies in the Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany and Lazio, is to inventory and describe several minor collections (the Beloborodoff, Grigorovich and Semenov-Gummerus archives in Rome) and, above all, the two main sources for Russian emigration in Italia: the Ivanov Archive in Rome and the Signorelli Archive in Venice. These two major collections of documents have been studied in some sections but a full inventory of their contents has yet to be drawn up and made available to the international scientific community which has long awaited such an initiative. The other collections have yet to be explored;

2. implement the "Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Russian Emigration to Italy", based on an already existing database prepared by the Pisa Research Unit which, however, needs to be substantially enlarged with the regular entering of new data and the creation of links to Italian and foreign websites, making it possible to divulge information and provide access on a scale reflecting the importance of the material collected. Around 300 files on Russians who lived or operated in Italy in the first half of the twentieth century will be added to the Dictionary; the fifty existing files will be enlarged in the light of the new material collected and 250 new files will be created;

3. reconstruct unknown or scarcely known episodes relating to Russian emigration culture and the way it intersected with Italian culture in the first half of the twentieth century; this aspect has been neglected in studies on culture in the early twentieth century both by Russian scholars for obvious geographical and political reasons, and by Italian scholars for linguistic reasons. Such a reconstruction will also involve the publication and criticism of a series of important unpublished documents, especially the correspondence between important figures in Russian emigrant culture and Italian culture. In some cases this will involve going other countries (Russia, America, Israel and France) to study the complementary parts of the letters held in the Italian collections. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The scientific basis of the research are a series of studies on Russian emigration in general and several more specific studies on Russian emigration to Italy (cf. bibliography). This store of information on individual emigrants and on emigration in general, however, has examined only single aspects of the subject, producing important interdisciplinary contributions relating to political and social history, the history of international relations, archival research and philology, literature and the history of art, the history of religious confessions etc.. On the other hand, a wide-reaching enquiry into the presence of Russian intellectuals, politicians and artists in Italy in the first part of the twentieth century has not yet been carried out systematically; nor has a detailed study of their contribution to Italian culture and Italian political, religious and intellectual life been conducted.
While the presence in Italy of such figures as Vjaceslav Ivanov, Maksim Gor'kij, Aleksandr Bogdanov, Aleksandr Amfiteatrov and Olga Resnevich Signorelli are well known to the scientific community and while parts of their archives have been published, we still do not have a complete picture of the presence of Russian intellectuals in Italy in the early twentieth century. The National State Archives, the Municipal and Provincial Archives, the National Libraries and bodies like the Historical Archive of Venice's Biennium have only been investigated sporadically. In fact in none of these archives have specific enquiries into Russian culture and the presence of Russian intellectuals in the period 1900-1940 been carried out. Most of the documentation existing in Italy in public and private archives on the subject under study has only marginally been consulted by literary historians; above all it has never been inventoried in a systematic way and on a scientific basis.
The situation regarding studies on the archival sources which each research Unit will examine is summarised in the section that describes each Unit's scientific basis. <<<