Fainsod Collection

Comprising around 1700 books, pamphlets, and reports, the Fainsod Collection focuses on Slavic studies, European economics and politics from the 1930s to 1970s, and includes extensive Harvard University research papers on the Soviet Union and international relations.

Europe

Key items in the collection

The collection consists of about 1700 books, pamphlets and reports. They comprise about 400 Slavic monographs, about 700 pamphlets on the economics and politics of Europe from the 1930s to the 1970s, and miscellaneous Harvard departmental reports and academic papers.

Fainsod assembled a very large collection of roneoed and typescript reports, seminar papers, conference papers, essays and theses. The largest group consists of papers relating to the Soviet Union produced by the Russian Research Center at Harvard University between 1950 and 1971, particularly a series of substantial reports of the Soviet Social System Project in 1952–54. Other groupings are international relations and security, China, the politics and economies of developing countries and public administration. A few of the papers have covering letters sent to Fainsod.

About Merle Fainsod

Merle Fainsod (1907–1972) was a distinguished scholar of Russian history and government.

Education and academic career

Fainsod was educated at Washington University in St Louis and Harvard University, where he earned his doctorate in 1936. He taught at Harvard from 1933 until his death. His positions included:

Professor of Government (1946–64)
Director of the Russian Research Center (1959–64)
Carl H. Pforzheimer Professor and Director of Harvard University Library (1964–72)

Public service and scholarship

Fainsod also served on various public bodies and was Price Executive for the Office of Price Administration during 1941–42. His major writings focused on Russian history and government, including:

International Socialism and the World War (1935)
Smolensk Under Soviet Rule (1959)

Background to the collection

Following his death, Fainsod’s papers and books were placed in Harvard University Library. The Australian librarian Andrew Osborn had been on the staff of Harvard University Library for over 30 years and through his intervention the National Library was given first offer on duplicates in the Fainsod Collection. The material selected was purchased from Harvard University Library in 1974.

The books and pamphlets have been integrated in the general collection. Copies of the accession slips are kept with the Registry file. The manuscripts are housed in the Manuscripts collection.

This guide was prepared using these references: