The
encyclopedias cited below offer extensive entries on topics and persons
that range from the prominent and obvious to the virtually unknown. Within
their pages are many biographical sketches, discussions of events and
extended definitions of historical terms. These works are essential research
tools that can often make sense of the brief textual allusions and cryptic
remarks that occur in the literature of Russian history.
Encyclopedia Resources
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Early Modern Russian Writers: Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. From the series: Dictionary of Literary Biography. Edited by Marcus C. Levitt. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Incorporated, 1995. Located in Davis Library Reference: PS21. D5185 1978 vol. 150. This work contains extensive essays with further recommend readings on early modern Russian authors of note. It is well worth remembering that writing was at best a supplementary income source and that these writers were almost always persuing other official occupations within the imperial system. This makes this resource of much broader use than one might initially assume.
- An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Edited by James S. Olson. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994. Located in Davis Library Reference: DK33 .E837 1994. As the Russian empire expanded into parts of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and across Siberia, increasing numbers of non-Russian peoples were brought into the imperial fold. This work provides a series of relatively brief entries on the histories of these peoples and their relationships with the Russian state. There are references to further readings in English along with a series of useful appendixes.
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The Modern Encyclopedia of Religions in Russia and Eurasia. 7 vols. Edited by Paul D. Steeves. Gulf Breeze, Florida: Academic International Press, 1988-. Located in Davis Library Reference: BL940. S65 M63 1988. Table of Contents are available at: http://www.ai-press.com/MERRSU.html. Academic International Press has consistently published the most comprehensive and authoritative encyclopedias devoted to Russian topics. It has sought out subject specialists willing to contribute original scholarship as well as translations of excerpts from standard Russian reference works. While it is impossible to cover everything, the volumes of these three encyclopedias seem to come very close.
- The Modern Encyclopedia of East Slavic, Baltic and Eurasian Literatures (Formerly The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet Literature). 10 vols. Edited by Harry B. Weber. Gulf Breeze, Florida: Academic International Press, 1977-. Located in Davis Library Reference: PG2940. M6. Table of Contents are available on the web at: http://www.ai-press.com/MEESBEL.html.
- The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History. 60 vols. Edited by Joseph L. Wieczynski and others. Gulf Breeze, Florida: Academic International Press, 1976-. Located in Davis Library Reference: DK14. M6. Table of Contents are available on the web at: http://www.ai-press.com/MERSH.html.
Handbooks
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Longley, David. The Longman Companion to Imperial Russia, 1689-1917. Harlow, England: Longman, 2000. Located in Davis Library Reference: DK113. L66 2000. This is a very handy, almanac-like, general reference work that contains a glossary of useful terms, chronologies of events and reigns, brief biographies, units of weight and measure, and lists of office holders. In short, it is a very useful ready reference guide to the Imperial period.