European History

Empire in Primary Sources

Guide to researching early modern and modern European History at Boston College.

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

Broad Digital Collections

JSTOR Images This link opens in a new window
ARTstor is a database of more than 1.3 million digital images. It covers many time periods and cultures and represent architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, etc. Users are required to create a personal account to access this database off campus.

EuroDocs
Interface in English. Content in English or original languages.
Links to European historical documents that have been transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. Maintained by Brigham Young University.
Open Access.
Europeana
Interface in English or other, major European languages. Content in multiple languages.
Europe-wide unified search of digitized collections. Images, audio, texts, and more. Funded by the EU. Covers more than 1,000 years of history. Strongest for 1500 to 2000.
Open Access.

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
A digital repository for the nation's research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text. Boston College's status as a partner makes it possible for members of the Boston College community to download any of the out-of-copyright items as PDFs.

International Institute of Social History: Digital Collections
More than 1.5 million documents from across Europe and farther, including diverse publications, visual materials, serials, posters, photographs, drawings, ephemera, postcards, some audio and visual recordings, a few comics and games as well.
Open Access.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Interface in English. Content in English or other languages.
Digitized collections from the Library of Congress, includes manuscripts, books, photos, maps, audio recordings, and more. Strongest between the 17th and 21st centuries. Content dating back to B.C.E.
Open Access.

World Digital Library This link opens in a new window
The World Digital Library is a Library of Congress project sponsored by UNESCO. Items in this digital library, including books, manuscripts, photographs, maps and sound recordings, are individually described and searchable in seven languages. Most countries and regions around the world are represented.

Digital Libraries and Archives from Russia

The National Library of Russia
Mask in English, searching and content predominately in Russian.
Includes a digital library, the Voltaire Library, as well we online exhibits. Includes more than 650,000 scanned copies of books, magazines, newspapers, music publications, graphic materials, maps, plans, atlases, and audio recordings.
Presidential Library (Russia)
Includes several electronic collections.
Russian State Library
Content in Russian.
The Russian State Library comprises the unique domestic and foreign collections in 367 languages of the world. The size of all holdings exceeds 46 million items, and about three million of them are particularly valuable editions and other documents.
more...less...
Collections are divided by categories of publications and are available in the respective reading rooms. In addition, more than 1.3 million documents have been digitized and made part of the E-library of the Russian State Library. Hundreds of thousands of network remote resources purchased by the Library for readers are also available.

Smaller Collections

FEB: Fundamental'naia Elektronnaia Biblioteka
Interface and content in Russian.
A full-text repository of Russian literature, folklore, and literary criticism spanning the 11th-20th century.
Rukopisnye sobraniia
Interface and content in Russian.
A large digital repository of Church Slavic manuscripts and early printed books from various libraries.
Russia Before the 18th Century (Moscow State University)
Interface and content in Russian.
A collection of historical texts compiled by scholars at Moscow State University; all have been made into electronic texts, and some contains images of original documents.

Document Collections and Readers

From Supplication to Revolution: a documentary social history of imperial Russia by Gregory L. Freeze (ed.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks HN526 .F74 1988
Publication Date: 1988
Organized into three chronological sections--the reign of Catherine the Great in the1760s, the reform movements of the 1860s, and the rising tide of revolution in 1905-06, the collection offers a valuable basis for the comparison of social groups with each other and over the period leading up to the cataclysm of 1917.
Imperial Russia: a source book, 1700-1917. by Basil Dmytryshyn (ed.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks DK3 .D55 1974
Publication Date: 1974
Orthodox Christianity in Imperial Russia by Heather J. Coleman (ed.)
Call Number: JSTOR
Publication Date: 2014
From sermons and clerical reports to personal stories of faith, this book of translated primary documents reveals the lived experience of Orthodox Christianity in 19th- and early 20th-century Russia. These documents allow us to hear the voices of educated and uneducated writers, of clergy and laity, nobles and merchants, workers and peasants, men and women, Russians and Ukrainians.
Russian Women, 1698-1917 by Robin Bisha; Jehanne M. Gheith; Christine C. Holden; William G. Wagner (eds.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks HQ1662 .R877 2002 Locate
Publication Date: 2002
This rich anthology of source materials makes available for the first time in any language a multitude of primary sources on the lives of Russian women from the reign of Peter the Great to the Bolshevik revolution. The selections are drawn from a wide variety of documents, published and unpublished, including memoirs, diaries, legal codes, correspondence, short fiction, poetry, ethnographic observations, and folklore.
A Source Book for Russian History from Early Times to 1917 by George Vernadsky; Ralph T. Fisher; Alan D. Ferguson (Editor); Andrew Lossky; Sergei Pushkarev (eds.)
Call Number: Theology and Ministry Library Stacks DK3 .S67 1972
Publication Date: 1972
3 volumes.

Gov. Docs. and State Papers

HeinOnline World Constitutions Illustrated
Hein Online collection of country constitutions, constitutional hierarchies , and texts and journals on constitutional law. Includes English translation of the Constitution of 1833; Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, 1918; and more.

Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC) This link opens in a new window
Includes federal legislative, administrative and judicial materials from the collections of government and academic law libraries. With new materials added regularly, this on-going digitalization project will eventually include full-text of materials in many areas including--under Online Services, Other Coutnries--"Russia (Empire to 1917)" ; "Russia (Soviet Republic, 1917-1991)" ; and "Russia (Federation, 1991- )." Documents include English language translations of limited years.

LOC's Guide to Russian Law Online
The US Library of Congress Guides to the Russian Constitution; Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches; as well as general sources. Focused on contemporary Russia.

Memoirs, Diaries, and More in BC Libraries

For additional volumes in the BC libraries involving memoirs, diaries, autobiographies, letters, journals, see the BC Libraries' catalog.

Fyodor Dostoevsky-In the Beginning (1821-1845) : a Life in Letters, Memoirs, and Criticism by Thomas Marullo (ed., trans.)
Call Number: JSTOR
Publication Date: 2017
"The first part of this volume, "All in the Family," focuses on Dostoevsky's early formation and schooling, i.e., his time in city and country, and his ties to his family, particularly his parents. The second section, "To Petersburg!," features Dostoevsky's early days in Russia's imperial city, his years at the Main Engineering Academy, and the death of his father. The third part, "Darkness before Dawn," deals with the writer's youthful struggles and strivings, culminating in the success of his work, Poor Folk."
Russia's People of Empire by Stephen M. Norris; Willard Sunderland (eds.)
Call Number: JSTOR / O'Neill Stacks DK37 .R79 2012 LOCATE
Publication Date: 2012
For six centuries this diversity was contained within the sprawling territories of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and it persists today in the entwined states and societies of the former USSR. Russia's People of Empire explores this enduring multicultural world through life stories of 31 individuals-.
Russian Peasant Letters by Olga T. Yokoyama
Call Number: JSTOR
Publication Date: 2010
Around 1880, two teenagers left their village on the Kama river, 1000 km east of Moscow. Their father wanted them to earn cash in Siberia and send it home. The result: scores of letters over a period of 16 years (1881-1896). Facsimiles and photographs are included.
The Story of a Life: memoirs of a young Jewish woman in the Russian Empire by Anna Pavolovna Vygodskaia; Eugene M. Avrutin (Edited and Translated by); Robert H. Greene (trans., ed.)
Call Number: JSTOR / O'Neill Stacks DS135 .B383 V94913 2012
Publication Date: 2012
Anna Pavlovna Vygodskaia's autobiography, originally published in 1938, is a rare and fascinating historical account of Jewish childhood and young adult life in Tsarist Russia.

Memoirs and More: Revolution

The Diary of Olga Romanov: royal witness to the Russian Revolution : with excerpts from family letters and memoirs of the period by Olga Romanova; Helen Azar (trans., ed.)
Call Number: O'Neill Stacks DK254.D5379 A93713 2014
Publication Date: 2013
The First English Translation of the Wartime Diaries of the Eldest Daughter of Nicholas II, the Last Tsar of Russia, with Additional Documents of the PeriodIn August 1914, Russia entered World War I, and with it, the imperial family of Tsar Nicholas II was thrust into a conflict they would not survive.
Last Diary of Tsaritsa Alexandra by Tsaritsa Alexandra; Alexandra Raskina (Editor); Vladimir A. Kozlov (Editor); Vladimir M. Khrustalev (Editor); Robert K. Massie (Introduction by)
Call Number: O'Neill Offsite -Sign In to Request Accession:544263
Publication Date: 1997
The last Tsaritsa of Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna, was murdered with her family on the night of 16-17 July 1918 by agents acting on behalf of the revolutionary Bolshevik government.

Burns Box

In our very own special collections library (Burns), you'll find a selection of material on your topic. Consider visiting the library and seeing history in your hands. To do so, you should start by searching for material through BC Libraries' catalog and then ordering it (if you haven't registered, you'll be prompted). For a guide on the process, check out the "Finding Burns Material" page. You might also check out the following recommendations:

The correspondence between Prince A.M. Kurbsky and Tsar Ivan IV, of Russia, 1564-1579 by Andreĭ Mikhaĭlovich Kurbskiĭ kni︠a︡z
Call Number: Burns Library: Advance notice needed
Publication Date: 1564-1579, translation from 1955

West European Travelers to Russia

Antonii Possevini Societatis Iesu, Moscouia, et, alia opera, de statu huius seculi, aduersus Catholicae Ecclesiae hostes by Antonio Possevino 1533 or 1534-1611
Call Number: Burns Reading Room Use Only DK21 .P67 1587 OVERSIZE
Publication Date: 1587
Full title:Antonii Possevini Societatis Iesu, Moscouia, et, alia opera, de statu huius seculi, aduersus Catholicae Ecclesiae hostes : nunc primò in vnum volumen collecta, atq ab ipsomet auctore emendata & aucta : adiecto indice rerum, toto opere memorabilium, locupletissimo : seriem & argumenta operum, vide, lector, pagina quinta
The History of trauayle in the VVest and East Indies : and other countreys lying eyther way towardes the fruitfull and ryche Moluccaes by Pietro Martire d' Anghiera 1457-1526
Call Number: Hathi / Burns Reading Room Use Only E141 .A55 1577
Publication Date: 1577 reprint of 1555 book
Full title: The History of trauayle in the VVest and East Indies : and other countreys lying eyther way towardes the fruitfull and ryche Moluccaes. As Moscouia, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Aegypte, Ethiopia, Guinea, China in Cathayo, and Giapan: VVith a discourse of the Northwest passage. In the hande of our Lorde be all the corners of the earth. Psal. 94.
Travels into divers parts of Europe and Asia : undertaken by the French king's order to discover a new way by land into China by Philippe Avril 1654-1698
Call Number: Early English books online / Burns Reading Room Use Only G490 .A97 JESUITICA
Publication Date: 1693 translation from French
Full title in translation: Travels into divers parts of Europe and Asia : undertaken by the French king's order to discover a new way by land into China. Containing many curious remarks in natural philosophy, geography, hydrography, and history. Together with a description of great Tartary, and of the different people who inhabit there.
The present condition of the Muscovite empire till the year 1699
Call Number: Hathi / Burns Reading Room Use Only DK131 .C78 1699 JESUITICA
Publication Date: 1699
Full title in English: The present condition of the Muscovite empire till the year 1699 : in two letters: the first from a gentleman, who was conversant with the Muscovite ambassador in Holland : the second from a person of quality at Vienna, concerning the lateMuscovite embassy, his present czarish Majesty; the Russian Empire; and the Great-Tartary : with the Life of the present emperour of China.
Travels into Muscovy, Persia, and part of the East-Indies by Cornelis de Bruyn 1652-1727
Call Number: Burns Reading Room Use Only DS7 .B93 OVERSIZE
Publication Date: 1737 translation
English translation from a French translation of the original Dutch.
"Containing, an accurate description of whatever is most remarkable in those countries : and embelished with above 320 copper plates, representing the finest prospects, and most considerable cities in those parts; the different habits of the people; the singular and extraordinary birds, fishes, and plants which are there to be found: as likewise the antiquities of those countries, and particularly the noble ruins of the famous palace of Persepolis, called Chelminar by the Persians : the whole being delineated on the spot, from the respective objects : to which is added, an account of the journey of Mr. Isbrants, ambassador from Muscovy, through Russia and Tartary, to China; together with remarks on the travels of Sir John Chardin, and Mr. Kempfer, and a letter written to the author on that subject. In two volumes"

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

European History

Empire in Primary Sources

What's on This Page

Broad Digital Collections

Digital Libraries and Archives from Russia

Smaller Collections

Document Collections and Readers

Gov. Docs. and State Papers

Memoirs, Diaries, and More in BC Libraries

Memoirs and More: Revolution

Burns Box

West European Travelers to Russia