Below are some selected highlights from the University of Illinois Slavic Collection. This list is in no way exhaustive of our special collections, but rather illustrates the breadth and quality of materials we offer.
The International and Area Studies Library holds many archival guides; below are a few guides to regional archives within Russia. When browsing the reference collection in-person, check the 027 call numbers for archival guides.
Among comparable academic libraries, the University of Illinois has the fifth largest Croatian library collection in the United States, comprised of over 18,000 titles that are about Croatia, published in Croatia, or written in Croatian. Our holdings of Croatian periodicals are a particular strength of the collection. Some of our uniquely extensive or rare Croatian periodicals from the 19th century and early 20th century include:
Our collection also features periodicals of the Croatian diaspora. Below are a few of the most complete or rare diaspora periodicals we hold:
Our Glagolitic manuscripts are another highlight of our Croatian collection, including a recently acquired facsimile of Misal Kneza Novaka, available to view in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
The University of Illinois collection houses quite a few Ukrainian women's periodicals largely published in the first half of the 20th century in the territories of present-day Ukraine and North America, many of which are rare in North American libraries. Below is a selection and not a complete list of what is available.
Ukrainian women’s periodicals of Galicia, Bukovyna, and Kyiv
Chernivtsi:
Kolomyia:
Kyiv:
L’viv:
Ukrainian women’s periodicals of North America
Monographs, collected works, and reference works
Monographs
Collected works
Reference works
The works in our collection of samizdat were purchased from Masha and Jacques Sayag Collection of Samizdat in Paris. Some of these works were specifically forbidden to be published in the USSR (such as Ginzburg’s Krutoi Marshrut (Journey into the Whirlwind) or Raskol’nikov’s “Otkrytoe pis’mo Stalinu (Open letter to Stalin),”) and some were never submitted for formal publication because the authors did not want to support the ideological monopoly of the state (such as Aleinikov’s poems or the excerpts from Sintaksis). All of them give us a better picture of the intellectual and material culture of the Soviet Union: which ideas were considered too decadent or dissonant for the public, and the lengths to which people would go to ensure their ideas saw the light of day.
All of these works can be viewed by request in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.