Russian School

Russian School Records, 1953-2000 (5 Boxes)

©2010 Norwich University Archives

About the Russian School

After thirty-two years at Norwich University, the Russian School closed in the fall of 2000. The school was founded in 1958 at Windham College in Putney, VT, and moved to Norwich University in 1968. Norwich offered a six-week intensive undergraduate program in Russian language and culture, as well as graduate courses in literature, culture and theory. In addition to five hours of classroom instruction each day, the school included a full theater production, a festival production, a film series, a study cafe, and a lecture series. During the cold war era, enrollment swelled to more than 300 students. The Russian School at Norwich University was once the second-oldest and third-largest language school in the nation.

About the Collection

The collection contains administrative records of the Russian School created or compiled by Marianna Poltoratzky, Nicolas Pervushin and others. A list of materials within the collection can be found in the content listing below.

Search Terms

The following subjects are represented in this collection. If you are researching these topics, try using these terms in the library catalog:

• Poltoratzky, Marianna A., 1906-
• Pervushin, N. V. (Nikolaĭ Vsevolodovich), 1899-
• Norwich University — History — 20th century.
• Norwich University. — Russian School.
• Russian language — Study and teaching.
• Language schools — Vermont.

Access Restrictions

Most of the materials within the collection are open for research; however, the privacy of information contained in some records is protected by the Federal Educational Records and Privacy Act or other legislative or regulatory privacy provisions. The following types of records are restricted to protect the privacy rights of individuals about whom the information was collected.

• Student academic records
• Disciplinary and counseling records
• Student financial aid records
• Faculty/Staff personnel files
• Promotion, tenure and grievance files
• Medical case files
• Legal counsel case files

Forty-eight hours notice is required to access these records.

Preferred Citation

Many items in the University Archives are one-of-a-kind resources that are not likely to be available anywhere but here. For this reason, forming citations for archival sources is a little different than for books and periodicals. If you need to cite anything from this collection, follow the format below:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Russian School Records, Box and/or Folder and/or Item Identification; Norwich University Archives, Kreitzberg Library, Northfield, VT.

Here’s an example from the collection:

Memorandum to Russian School faculty, students, guests on guest policy, 6 June 1983. Russian School Records, Box 5, Policies, 1983-2000 file, Norwich University Archives, Kreitzberg Library, Northfield, VT.

Additional Information

Size: 5 Boxes (5 linear feet)

Collection Location: Archives B4.2. Forty-eight hours notice is required to access these records.

Language(s) of Material: English and Russian

Repository: Norwich University Archives, Kreitzberg Library, 158 Harmon Dr., Northfield, VT 05663 USA, Phone: 802.485.2947, Fax: 802.485.2173, archives@norwich.edu

Content Listing

Box 1: Marianna A. Poltoratzky

• Windham College, 1960-
• Paper on Turgenev’s “Dvor’anskoe gnezdo”
• Russian grammar and class schedules
• Class schedule on ancient Russian literature
• Class schedule on Russian folklore
• Seminar on Tolstoy’s War and Peace
• Class schedules on Soviet economics and literature
• First meeting of the faculty of the NU Russian School, 30 July 1968
• Class schedules and programs, various courses
• Poetry of Ivan Elagin
• Class on the origin and development of the Russian language
• Russian summer school, 1967 (Putney)-1968 (Northfield)
• Comprehensive examination for M.A. degree, 1967-1968
• Class on the development of constructive criticism of Russian literature (6 files)
• Class on poet Ann Atmatova and on writer Zamianin
• Examination for Professor Radocheky’s advanced Russian class, summer 1969
• Class on Russian folklore

Box 1: Nicolas Vsevolodovich Pervushin

• Conferences, 1953-1992
• Class on ancient Russian literature, including Slovo O Polku Igoreve (3 files)
• Class on Russian linguistics
• Developing trends and debates on Communism
• Russian grammar
• Methodology of Russian literature
• Radio liberty
• Russian School administration and events, 1983-1992
• Class on Turgenev (3 files)
• Soviet society, trends and developments, 1955-1970
• Articles by Pervushin and brief biography

Box 2: Nicolas Vsevolodovich Pervushin

• Russian culture
• Correspondence
• Modern Russian literature
• History of Russian literature
• History of Russia
• Personal materials and notes
• Russia v. USSR
• Soviet literature, 1956-1970
• Russian language
• Boris Zaitsev
• Methods of teaching the Russian language
• Ancient Russia
• Mythology
• Ancient skiffs
• Lecture notes
• Theory of Russian literature
• History of Russian culture (2 files)
• Russian folklore
• Russian history, Alexander and Alexander II
• Russian history, Lenin, revolution of 1917, civil war
• Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, including letters from his last relative (9 files)

Box 3: Nicolas Vsevolodovich Pervushin

• Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (6 files)
• History of Russia, 9th-11th centuries
• History of Russia, 11th-15th centuries
• Vassilij Terkin
• Ancient Russian history
• History of Russia
• Silver age of poetry
• Lermontov
• Russian poetry (4 files)
• Pushkin
• Anna Akhmatova
• Sbornik Statei by Pervushin (3 volumes)

Box 4: Administrative Records

• Russian School, 1981-1999 (18 files)
• Activities and events
• Advisory committee (2 files)
• Alumni, 1969-2000
• Application/admission materials
• Catalogs, 1966-2000 (2 files)
• Courses (2 files)
• Fees
• Graduate teaching methods
• “Horror in Northfield,” by Agaphia Kristalnaya
• Job descriptions
• Letters of support
• Library and language learning center proposal, 1990
• M.A. degree candidates
• M.A. degree comprehensive exams
• M.A. degree reading lists
• News clips

Box 5: Administrative Records

• Newsletters
• Placement tests
• Reports and memos, 1967-1990 (2 files)
• Symposia
• Theater
• Theses:
  • Baranov, N.M. Fantastical elements in the works of M. Bulgakov
  • Lebed, V. K. Voprosu ob Izuchenii
  • Popovich. Russian scientific language
  • Sievers, E. Color and semantics: emancipating Evgeny Zamyatin
  • Simons. Soviet membership in the U.C.C.
• Working papers, 1973-1977
• Writing
• Examples of books used in the Russian School (20 volumes)

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