Library Research Guides: RUSSIAN: Context & Overviews

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for a quick overview of a topic

to develop vocabulary or keywords for searching

for suggestions for further sources

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Reference Collections

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Search 500+ reference works in all disciplines.
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Search across encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books.

Selected Reference Materials

Historical Dictionary of Russian Literature [e-book] by Jonathan Stone
Over 100 cross-referenced entries on significant people, themes, critical issues, and genres that have formed Russian Literature. Includes a chronology, introductory essay, list of Russian names and titles, and an extensive bibliography. (2012)
Reference guide to Russian literature
Call Number: Clapp Reference PG2940 .R44 1998
A wide-ranging guide to 273 of the main writers of Russian literature and to 293 of their best known works from the Kievan period to the post-communist writing of the Russian Federation, with a bias towards the 19th and 20th centuries and, to some extent, contemporary writers.
Encyclopedia of Russian & Slavic myth and legend
Call Number: Clapp Reference BL930 .D58 1998
Leaders of Russia and the Soviet Union: from the Romanov dynasty to Vladimir Putin by John Paxton
Call Number: Clapp Reference DK40 .P36 2004
Biographies of 30 leaders, including discussion about the family and education of each ruler, important legislation, events, and wars under each leader's rule; and each leader's achievements and impact on Russia or the Soviet Union.
Encyclopedia of Russian History [e-resource]
Provides a comprehensive discussion of Russia's people, politics, economics, religion, and social systems; and is designed to complement the study of comparative politics, world history, geography, literature, arts and culture and world cultures. Entries span the period from the earliest beginnings of the Russian nation to the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.
Encyclopedia of Russian Women's Movements [e-book]
An impressive collection of entries, which include the biographies and careers of individual Russian feminists as well as the groups and movements they engendered. The main focus of the encyclopedia is movements and women since the collapse of the Soviet Union through 2000, but the reader will find many entries for the late 19th through 20th century.
The Routledge Atlas of Russian History by Martin Gilbert
Call Number: Clapp Reference G2111.S1 G52 2004
Surveying more than 2,000 years of Russian history, this remarkable atlas presents maps on an extraordinary range of topics, including rebellion and exile, famine, the anarchists of Russia, the Revolution, Lenin's return to Russia, the early years of Communism, as well as more modern topics.