General Advice
When searching for primary sources on your topic, it is best to begin with a search for secondary sources. Look in the bibliographies of the secondary sources to see which primary sources were consulted in the writing of the secondary source.
Library Search Suggestions
Search Library Search to locate collections of primary sources. Create searches by combining relevant keywords with terms like "sources" or "documents."
Example searches:
"Russian history AND sources"
"Russian history AND documents"
Also try:
"Personal narratives"
"Correspondence"
"Diaries"
When you find a relevant source, click on the subject heading in Library Search to find more items on the subject.
Here are some example subject headings for primary sources in Russian history:
Russia -- History -- Sources
Soviet Union - History - Revolution, 1917-1921 - Sources
Russia -- History -- Nicholas II, 1894-1917 -- Sources
Russian History Websites and Primary Source Collections
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EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History: Russian Primary SourcesSelected Transcriptions, Facsimiles and Translations.
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Medieval and Early Modern Russia and UkraineResources in English. Choose the "Primary Sources" link on the left side of the page.
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Primary Sources - Russia and Eastern EuropeA research guide to primary and secondary sources for European history from the University of Washington Libraries.
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Wilson Center Digital ArchiveConstructed and maintained by the The Wilson Center Digital Archive is a resource where students, researchers, journalists, and others can access once-secret documents from governments and organizations all over the world. Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program, the Digital Archive contains declassified historical materials from archives around the world, much of it in English translation.
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Russia, 1905-1915, in Color Photos: Prokudin-Gorskii Collection"The Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection features color photographic surveys of the vast Russian Empire made between ca. 1905 and 1915. Frequent subjects among the 2,607 distinct images include people, religious architecture, historic sites, industry and agriculture, public works construction, scenes along water and railway transportation routes, and views of villages and cities." (Library of Congress)
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World Digital LibraryThis collection contains cultural heritage materials gathered during the World Digital Library (WDL) project, including thousands of items contributed by partner organizations worldwide as well as content from Library of Congress collections.
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Wartime PressOriginal books, booklets, magazines, manuals, newspapers, and documents relating to WWII, from many sides of the conflict. Includes US, British, Polish, German, Czech, Italian, Japanese, and Russian documents.
Books Containing Primary Sources
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A Documentary History of Communism in Russia
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Call Number: Electronic bookISBN: 0874516161Publication Date: 1993-04-01An extensive revision of the valued but unobtainable 1960 edition. Nearly 300 key documents are now readily available in translation. -
Russian women, 1698-1917: experience and expression, an anthology of sources
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Call Number: Electronic bookISBN: 0253215234 -
1812; eyewitness accounts of Napoleon's defeat in Russia.
Call Number: Northwestern Upper Level 940.27 B756 -
George, Nicholas and Wilhelm : three royal cousins and the road to World War I
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Call Number: Northwestern Upper Level 940.3112 C246g 2010ISBN: 9781400043637Based on sources including correspondence. -
The Spiritual Regulation of Peter the Great
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Call Number: Northwestern Upper Level 344.47 R92ISBN: 0295952377
