Eighteenth Century Russian Publications in the Library of Congress: A Catalog

Prepared by Tatiana Fessenko,
Reference Department,
Slavic and Central European Division
Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1961.

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.20080317001ei.2 (page-turner)
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.20080317001ei.1 (searchable pdf)

Tatiana Fessenko (1915-1995) was a cataloger at the Library of Congress for several decades, retiring in the early 1980s. A native of Kiev with an educational background in Russian language and literature, Ms. Fessenko was particularly interested in the Library's Yudin Collection, acquired in 1906. It was she who cataloged most of the 18th and early 19th century materials from the 80,000 volume Yudin Collection, in many cases doing extensive bibliographical and biographical detective work to discover the authors of pseudonymous and anonymous works, and the original titles of works originally published in French, German, or English.

The printed catalog cards of the 18th century publications -- because of the size and importance of this collection -- were published in book form in 1961. The catalog contains entries for 1,316 bibliographic units. A number of 18th century Russian publications remained uncataloged at the time the book was published; these titles have since been cataloged, and entries for them appear in the Library's online catalog. Nevertheless, the 1961 book catalog remains very useful for researchers interested in Russian publications from the 1700s, and is presented here in complete digital form. The Library of Congress' collection of 18th century Russian imprints is most likely the largest in the United States and compares with similar collections at major libraries in Russia.