Proposal for Institutional Placement / Scholarly Partnership

The Anna Venidiktovna Voinova Archive

A Research Collection Documenting Three Decades of Soviet-Era Russian Orthographic Scholarship

Prepared by Ilya Rozhdestvensky, grandson of Anna Venidiktovna Voinova · Hyannis, Massachusetts, USA · August 2026

A Personal Note

My name is Ilya Rozhdestvensky. Anna Venidiktovna Voinova was my grandmother.

As a child, I watched her work on this dictionary for what felt like my entire childhood — surrounded by binders, index cards, and hand-ruled tables, endlessly cross-referencing citations from Pushkin and Paustovsky against her own classification of participles and adjectives. I did not understand then what she was building, only that it seemed to matter enormously to her, and that it never seemed to end.

She died in the early 1990s — 1992, as best I can recall, though I can no longer be certain of the exact year.

We immigrated to the United States in the late 1990s. Somehow, through that move and through every family change since, this archive came with us — more than 30 binders and roughly a thousand individual research envelopes, carried across an ocean and stored for decades since. Over the years we made a few attempts to digitize it, but the material was too large, too handwritten, and the technology of the time was not equal to the task.

Only recently, with a high-speed CZUR scanner and the help of AI tools capable of reading, sorting, and cataloguing material at this scale, have we finally been able to process this archive properly and present it in full to people who might understand its value better than we do. What follows is the result of that effort — a good-faith attempt to show you what she built, and why we believe it deserves a permanent home.

— Ilya Rozhdestvensky

Grandson of Anna Venidiktovna Voinova

Executive Summary

This is a proposal to place the research archive of Anna Venidiktovna Voinova (1900–1992) — a Moscow linguist and pedagogue who spent more than thirty years studying one of the most persistently difficult problems in Russian orthography: when to write one н or two нн in participles and the adjectives derived from them — with an institution equipped to preserve, study, and make it accessible.

The archive is unusual in both depth and completeness. It preserves not just Voinova's conclusions but the entire research process behind them: roughly 1,000 individual lexical card envelopes recording citation evidence word by word, statistical tables, numbered comparative word-lists, a full unpublished dictionary manuscript, and — running alongside all of it — more than two decades of correspondence with Soviet publishers, the USSR State Committee for Publishing (Госкомиздат), the Institute of the Russian Language, and figures including Viktor Vinogradov, A. A. Reformatsky, and the novelist Yuri Bondarev.

The central irony of the collection is also its most compelling feature: the book-length dictionary Voinova spent her career building was never published, rejected repeatedly between 1967 and 1987 — usually not for lack of quality, but because of standing contracts for competing works. And yet three of her articles distilling that same research did reach print in «Русский язык в школе,» the leading Soviet methodical journal for Russian-language teachers — meaning the archive documents both a significant scholarly achievement and a well-documented case study in the institutional life of Soviet-era academic publishing.

As of August 2026 the collection comprises more than 85 catalogued items across eight document series (manuscripts, articles, drafts and supporting documentation, correspondence, the editorial/research-evidence archive, biographical documents, methodology, and institutional records), summarized in the table below and listed in full, item by item, later in this document.

The physical collection — over 30 binders and roughly 1,000 individual card envelopes, currently held in Hyannis, Massachusetts — is partially digitized and fully described in a structured, cross-linked finding aid. This document summarizes the collection's scope and significance, presents a sample of its contents, and provides a complete item-level inventory of everything catalogued to date.

About Anna Venidiktovna Voinova

Anna Venidiktovna Voinova was born on 24 December 1900 in Mikhailovka, Sengileyevsky Uyezd, Simbirsk Province (present-day Ulyanovsk Oblast). Her father died during the Russo-Japanese War; her mother was a teacher of Russian language and literature. Voinova was educated at the First Women's Gymnasium in Syzran — the archive preserves a printed programme from a school musical evening there dated 29 November 1915, in which a piano performance by «А. Войнова» is listed, very likely her own earliest documented public appearance.

She moved to Moscow in 1921 and spent her working life within the Moscow Conservatory educational system, teaching at the Central Music School and its affiliated Uchilishche. Alongside this career in music pedagogy, she pursued original research into Russian orthography — specifically the participle/adjective distinction governing the н/нн suffix — for over three decades, corresponding with, and at points collaborating alongside, some of the leading Soviet linguists of the era.

The archive documents her repeated attempts, from at least 1967 through 1987, to secure publication for a full reference dictionary built on this research, as well as a formal joint proposal (with a co-author, D. F. Ivanova) to revise the relevant sections of the official 1956 Soviet orthographic code itself — evidence that her ambitions extended beyond a personal reference work into influencing Soviet language policy directly.

Biographical documents in the collection (series B) — a personnel record, a professional character reference, and a set of institutional certificates and testimonials spanning 1925 to 1972 — corroborate this career and provide independent, third-party confirmation of her professional standing, separate from her own research writing.

1900
Born, Mikhailovka, Simbirsk Province
1915
Gymnasium musical evening, Syzran
1921
Moves to Moscow
1962
Earliest theoretical manuscript
1967–1987
24-year publication campaign
1982
Article published in «Русский язык в школе»
1992
Anna Voinova passes away
2026
Archive digitized and offered for institutional placement

The Collection

The scholarly research archive documents the dictionary project across eight related document series, from the raw lexical evidence through to finished, published articles.

Scope at a glance

Series	Description	Count / Scope	Digitized?
M	Principal manuscript: «Словарь одного и двух Н в русском языке», plus earlier theoretical drafts and the master lexical corpus	7 items, incl. 3 undigitized drafts	Partial
A	Scholarly articles — published and unpublished — on participle/adjective orthography and related topics	18 items, incl. 3 confirmed print publications	Yes
D	Drafts, supporting documentation, numbered word-lists («Списки»), statistical summaries, editorial working papers	38 items	Yes
C	Institutional and publishing correspondence — rejections, endorsements, formal petitions, peer reviews, 1950–1988	8 items (2 large batches, 80–87 pages each)	Yes
E	The research apparatus itself: lexical card envelopes with grammar and literary-citation cards — the raw evidence behind every dictionary entry	~1,000 envelopes total; ~65 headwords digitized so far	~20%
B	Biographical documents: employment records, character references, certificates and institutional testimonials, 1925–1972	3 items	Yes
METH	Methodological classification systems and statistical tables underlying the dictionary's structure	3 items	Yes
R / REF	Institutional commission minutes, official recommendations, an outside dissertation citing Voinova's work, and a master reference/abbreviation key	6 items	Yes

Note on digitization status: this is a snapshot of a collection still being processed. Over 30 binders and roughly 1,000 individual lexical card envelopes exist in total; a meaningful portion — mostly handwritten material — remains packed and has not yet been scanned. What is described here reflects the material digitized and catalogued to date, not the full physical holdings.

Highlights

A complete unpublished dictionary manuscript («Словарь одного и двух Н в русском языке»), with theoretical chapters, a full alphabetical word-list, and a master word-count summary putting the finished work at 4,619 word-forms across two parts.
A formally co-authored proposal to revise §§62–63 of the official 1956 Soviet orthographic code — not a personal reference work, but a submission aimed at changing the underlying rule.
Three confirmed print publications in «Русский язык в школе,» including the 1982 article distilling her core methodology.
A 24-year documented publication campaign: petitions to Goskomizdat, correspondence with multiple publishing houses, peer reviews (both supportive and critical), and an explicit paper trail showing the dictionary was repeatedly deferred because of a standing contract for a competing work — not on the merits.
Written endorsements connected to major Soviet cultural and linguistic figures, including a 1982 letter of support from the Union of Writers RSFSR signed by novelist Yuri Bondarev, and references throughout the correspondence to engagement with Viktor Vinogradov and A. A. Reformatsky.
The complete research apparatus behind the dictionary: roughly 1,000 individual lexical card envelopes (one per headword), each preserving a grammar/definition card and multiple literary citation cards with author, title, year, and page — a rare survival of the working evidence behind a major unpublished reference work, not just its conclusions.
Independent institutional validation: official commission minutes, ministry-level recommendations, and at least one outside doctoral dissertation (Osenmuk, 1979) citing Voinova's work — evidence the research had recognized standing within the field, beyond her own advocacy for it.

Physical Collection

Before digitization, the collection exists as it has for decades: bound in string-tied cardboard folders and cloth-spine binders, organized by hand, and stored in stacked totes. The images below show the collection largely as it was found, prior to the current digitization effort, and are included to give a reviewer a sense of the physical scale and condition of the material.

One storage tote containing a portion of the bound research binders — hand-labeled spines, string ties, and decades of handling are visible. This is a fraction of the total 30+ binders in the collection.

A card-catalog drawer from the lexical evidence archive, showing the density and organization of the underlying research material — this is the physical source for the digitized items in Series E.

These images illustrate why digitization has proceeded in stages: each binder and card group must be physically handled, photographed page by page or card by card, and then catalogued individually — a slow process for a collection of this scale, but one that preserves the material intact and in its original order throughout.

Sample Documents

A small selection from the collection, illustrating its range — from the research evidence itself, through the institutional record of the publication campaign, to proof of eventual print publication.

Voinova's article as printed, «Русский язык в школе», no. 2, 1982, pp. 86–87. — Proof of publication
Despite decades of rejection for the book-length dictionary, Voinova's core methodology did reach print. Below: the opening of «Суффиксы «нн» и «н» в причастиях и отпричастных прилагательных», «Русский язык в школе», no. 2, 1982, pp. 86–89.

Union of Writers RSFSR letter of support, 11 November 1982, signed Yu. Bondarev. — Institutional endorsement
A 1982 letter to the director of the «Русский язык» publishing house from the Union of Writers of the RSFSR, signed by novelist Yuri Bondarev, formally supporting Voinova's application — one of several such endorsements in the correspondence archive.

Specimen entry for гранёный, with citations from Pushkin's “Eugene Onegin,” Paustovsky, and Yevtushenko. — The finished product, in miniature
A complete, publication-ready specimen dictionary entry for the word гранёный (“faceted/cut”), showing the full citation apparatus — dictionary-source codes and literary quotations from Pushkin, Paustovsky, and Yevtushenko — that each of the dictionary's roughly 4,600 word-forms would have carried.

A lexical citation card from the word-envelope corpus («-ованный» causative family, batch 1). — The research apparatus
One card from the roughly 1,000-envelope lexical card corpus — the raw evidence-gathering process behind every dictionary entry, preserved essentially intact.

Master comparative ledger, handwritten working table (unsorted, ~55+ pages digitized to date). — The master comparative ledger
A page from the master comparative ledger — a handwritten working table cross-referencing participle and adjective forms across the alphabet, one of the largest single research documents in the archive.

The Core Article

Of everything in the collection, the single document that best explains Voinova's whole research programme in her own words — the “bird's-eye view” of the Н/НН problem — is the 1982 published article: «Суффиксы «нн» и «н» в причастиях и отпричастных прилагательных» (“The Suffixes -нн- and -н- in Participles and Deverbal Adjectives”), Русский язык в школе, № 2, 1982, pp. 86–89 [archive ID A-016]. It is the only place in the archive where Voinova lays out, start to finish and in print, the full classification framework — semantic, syntactic, genetic, morphemic, aspectual, phonetic, and orthographic criteria — that everything else in the collection (the lexical cards, the numbered word-lists, the dictionary manuscript itself) was built to support.

What follows is a transcription of the article as printed, prepared directly from the page scans. It runs to nearly the full four printed pages. A small number of individual example words in dense passages carry minor transcription uncertainty given the age and photographic quality of the source; the original scans are retained and available for verification against any published or reprinted version of the text.

Original text (Russian)

СУФФИКСЫ «НН» И «Н» В ПРИЧАСТИЯХ И ОТПРИЧАСТНЫХ ПРИЛАГАТЕЛЬНЫХ

Войнова А. В., Москва — Русский язык в школе, № 2, 1982, с. 86—89

The transcription above covers the article's opening statement of the problem, its full six-part classification framework (semantic, syntactic, genetic, morphemic, aspectual, orthoepic, and orthographic criteria), its worked examples, and its key quantitative finding — that “paired” participle/adjective forms (257 pairs, 514 words) outnumber “unpaired” single forms (173) in the corpus she built from Ushakov's dictionary onward. The final page of the printed article (p. 90) continues into the unpaired-forms count and a summary table; both are preserved in the original scan.

Full Collection Inventory

The list below covers every digitized and catalogued item in the scholarly archive to date, organized by series, with the working title (or, where no formal title survives, a descriptive title assigned during cataloguing) and approximate date. This inventory reflects material digitized and catalogued as of August 2026; it does not include the roughly 800 remaining lexical card envelopes or additional binders still awaiting digitization. A live, cross-linked version of this catalogue — with full metadata, scans, and relationship mapping between items — is maintained in a structured digital archive and can be shared or exported on request.

86 items

ID	Title	Description	Date
A-001	Orthography Reform and the Problem of Н / НН	This article analyses the proposed Soviet orthographic reform and its consequences for the spelling of one and two Н in Russian adjectives and participles. Voinova argues that the proposed simplifications would…	undated
A-002	Methodology for the Dictionary	Explains the research methodology used to construct the lexical corpus supporting the future dictionary. Describes classification principles, source selection and grammatical analysis.	undated
A-003	Compound Adjectives with a Participial Second Component	Technical linguistic analysis examining the spelling of one and two Н in compound adjectives containing participial second elements.	undated
A-004	Literary Evidence Supporting the Dictionary	Collects literary examples demonstrating authentic usage of one and two Н in Russian texts.	undated
A-005	Compound Adjectives (Title Page / Duplicate)	Currently catalogued as a provisional document until its relationship with A-003 has been confirmed.	undated
A-006	Participles and Adjectival Forms Ending in Н / НН	Examines the semantic distinction between participles and adjectival forms ending in one and two Н. Includes an accompanying scholarly review recommending publication after revision.	undated
A-007	Orthographic Proposals for the Spelling of НН / Н in Verbal-Nominal Forms	Comprehensive analysis of Soviet orthographic reform proposals concerning the spelling of one and two Н in participles and adjectival forms. The paper reviews discussions from 1956–1966, evaluates competing orthographic…	undated
A-008	Причастия и отпричастные прилагательные, их различение и правописание	This unpublished research article presents one of Anna Voinova's earliest theoretical studies on the orthography of Russian participles and participial adjectives. It argues that participles and adjectives form a…	1962
A-009	Not Simplification, but Complication		1965
A-010	Annotated Drafts of 'On the Spelling of the Suffixes Н/НН in Compound Adjectives'		1964–1965
A-011	Proposal for a Dictionary-Reference Book on the Orthography of Participles and Participial Adjectives		1967-07-05
A-012	Response to the Orthographic Commission on the Spelling of Н and НН		1966–1967
A-013	Theoretical Foundations of Participle Orthography		c. 1966–1967
A-014	Предложения по усовершенствованию орфографии глагольно-именных форм с суффиксами НН–Н		c. 1964–1966
A-015	Proposed Amendments to the Orthographic Rules for Verbal–Nominal Forms with the Suffixes Н–НН		1964–1965 (estimated)
A-016	Суффиксы -нн- и -н- в причастиях и отпричастных прилагательных (PUBLISHED)		1982-03 (issue: март-апрель, № 2, 1982)
A-017	О правописании лексикализованных сочетаний типа «штопаный-перештопанный» (PUBLISHED)		Likely 1986 (issue: № 3, 1986 — cover confirmed elsewhere in this batch)
A-018	К изучению правописания сложных и составных числительных (PUBLISHED)	Exact issue/year not identified — the pages sampled didn't include a masthead. If it matters, worth checking against the covers found elsewhere in this batch (issues spotted: 1930 "Учпедгиз," № 2 1982, № 3 1986, and one…	Unconfirmed — not the same topic or era as her НН/Н work
B-001	Professional Character Reference (Характеристика) for Anna Venidiktovna Voinova	Official professional reference describing Anna Venidiktovna Voinova's long teaching career, scholarly qualifications, methodological work, publications, educational philosophy, and professional reputation. The document…	Circa 1960s (exact year not specified)
B-002	Personnel Record of Anna Venidiktovna Voinova	Personnel record containing autobiographical information about Anna Venidiktovna Voinova. The document records her date and place of birth, family background, education, early teaching career, musical training, move to…	Unknown (circa 1960s–1970s)
B-003	Collection of Professional Certificates and Institutional Testimonials	The documents originate from multiple institutions and organizations between the 1920s and the early 1970s. They have been preserved together as a biographical reference file documenting Voinova's professional…	1925–1972
C-001	Memorandum to Vladimir Ivanovich Concerning the History of the Dictionary Project	A detailed memorandum addressed to Vladimir Ivanovich describing the history of the dictionary project from its beginning in 1966 through numerous unsuccessful publication attempts. Voinova recounts her participation in…	undated
C-002	Letter to Vladimir Ivanovich Concerning Publication of the Dictionary	A four-page letter addressed to Vladimir Ivanovich describing the history, structure, methodology, and scholarly significance of Voinova's dictionary of one and two Н. The author explains previous publication attempts,…	10 April 1987
C-003	Letter Requesting Assistance with Publication of the Orthographic Dictionary	The scanned copy includes attached handwritten routing and editorial notes that appear to have been added after the original letter was prepared. These annotations are preserved as part of the archival record.	1986-05-24
C-004	Petition to the Chairman of Goskomizdat USSR for Publication of the Orthographic Dictionary	The letter contains quantitative information on the planned dictionary, references endorsements from academic authorities including V. V. Vinogradov and I. F. Protchenko, and records several unsuccessful attempts to…	1986-03-09
C-005	1982 Proposal Letter to 'Russkiy Yazyk' Publishing House (to Vladimir Ivanovich)		1982-12-06
C-006	Editorial Rejection and Peer Review of Article Submitted to "Russian Language at School"	The file preserves both the official editorial response and the complete referee's report, providing a rare record of the publication and review process within Soviet academic publishing.	1967-12-19
C-007	Correspondence Batch — The Dictionary Publication Campaign, 1964-1988		1964/1966-1988 (multiple documents)
C-008	Correspondence & Personal Petitions Batch 2, 1950-1987		1950-1987 (multiple documents)
D-001	List No. 1 – Paired Forms		c. 1965–1980
D-002	Dictionary Entry Drafts (Copied Typescripts)		c. 1980–1982
D-003	Working Binder for List No. 1		c. 1980–1982
D-004	Early Research Binder No. 1		c. 1930s–1960s
D-006	List No. 2 – Non-Prefixed Participles and Related Adjectival Forms		c. 1964–1967
D-007	List No. 3 – Deverbal Adjectives with Single Н (Without Parallel Participial Forms)		c. 1964–1967
D-008	Early Working Binder for the 220 Paired Forms Project		c. 1962–1965
D-009	Publishing Proposal for the Orthographic Dictionary	Prepared as a complete submission package for editorial review by the publishing house "Russian Language". The document includes a detailed explanation of the dictionary's organization, theoretical foundations, and…	1986-07-24
D-010	Publishing Proposal for the Orthographic Dictionary (Expanded Proposal)		1982-12-06
D-011	Official Endorsement of the Orthographic Dictionary Project	The document is an official extract from the commission's meeting minutes (Protocol No. 11, 30 June 1972). It records discussion by several commission members and concludes with a formal resolution recommending the…	1972-06-30
D-012	Scholarly Review of Voinova's Article on the Spelling of -Н- and -НН- Suffixes	Signed by E. V. Samosyuk, Head of the Department of Russian Language at the Novosibirsk State Pedagogical Institute. The document is marked "Копия" (Copy), indicating it is a retained copy of the original review.	1981
D-013	Editorial Rejection and Peer Review of Article Submitted to "Russian Language at School"	The file preserves both the official editorial response and the complete referee's report, providing a rare record of the publication and review process within Soviet academic publishing.	1967-12-19
D-014	Editorial Rejection and Peer Review of Article Submitted to "Russian Language at School"	The file preserves both the official editorial response and the complete referee's report, providing a rare record of the publication and review process within Soviet academic publishing.	1967-12-19
D-015	Scholarly Review Recommending Publication of Voinova's Article		Unknown (circa early 1980s)
D-016	Scholarly Review, Editorial Notes, and Supporting Documentation for the 1982 Article	Although the documents originate from different sources, they all relate to the preparation, evaluation, and publication of Voinova's 1982 research on the orthography of participles and participial adjectives and have…	1982
D-017	Compound Verbal-Nominal Forms with the НН/Н Alternation in the Second Component		1965
D-018	List No. 4 — Table of Contents: Participles and Adjectives Ending in -ованный / -еванный		c. 1964–1967
D-019	Master Table of Compound Words with НН/Н in the Second Component (Prefixed and Non-Prefixed) — 328 Entries		c. 1965–1967
D-020	Master Comparative Ledger — Participle/Adjective Dictionary Table (Unsorted)		c. 1962–1970s (undated; dictionary columns range 1930s–1970)
D-021	List No. 2 — Table of Contents and 'не'-adjective Section		c. 1962–1967
D-022	List No. 6 — Prefixed Forms, Multi-Subsection (Л-drop/Accent/Vowel, -ованный, -ированный, «не»-adjectives)		Undated (typescript, likely 1960s–70s per series)
D-023	Plan for the Orthographic Dictionary-Handbook (Typescript)		Undated typescript
D-024	Classification of Verbal-Nominal Forms by Grammatical Category (Typescript)		Undated typescript
D-025	Typed Side-by-Side Participle/Adjective Comparison Table (p.15)		Undated typescript
D-026	Typed Alphabetical Index, Entries 39–90 (with cross-reference note)		Undated typescript
D-027	Cursive Draft Notebook (Uncatalogued)		Undated
D-028	Typed Participle/Adjective Pair Table — НН/Н Dictionary Comparison		Undated typescript
D-029	'Недо-' Prefixed Forms Comparison Table		Undated
D-030	Adverb / Adjective Comparison Table		Undated typescript
D-031	Short-Form (Predicate) Participle/Adjective Н/НН Comparison, with Project Totals		Undated
D-032	Typed Single-Н Pairs List (Full/Short Form), with Cross-References to Other Scans		Undated typescript
D-033	1982 Submission Cover Notes to Izdatel'stvo Russkiy Yazyk		1982-12-10
D-034	Списки № 5 and № 6/8 — Cover Pages and Tables ('-ированный/-изированный' and '-ованный' families)		Undated
D-035	СЛОВНИК — Master Word-Count Summary for the Slovar'-Spravochnik		Undated
D-036	Doc2 Batch — Reference Copy (Largely Duplicate Material)		Undated
D-037	Theoretical Essay — Distinguishing Participle from Adjective Forms; Compound-Word Inventory	Not yet cross-checked page-by-page against M-001's existing digitized chapter for overlap or continuity. Given the first-person voice and citation-heavy methodological style, this may be an earlier or alternate draft of…	Undated
D-038	Предложения по усовершенствованию орфографии — Proposal to Revise §§62-63 of the 1956 Свод (co-authored with D.F. Ivanova)		Undated (references the 1956 Свод orthographic code)
D-039	Specimen Dictionary Entries and Citation Cards		Undated
E-001	Working Index of Dictionary Envelopes and Word Cards		Unknown
E-002	Lexical Card Samples from 2026_07_27_17_53_00 Scan Session		Undated (individual dictionary entry cards)
E-003	Lexical Card Corpus — '-ованный' Causative Family (Batch 1)		Undated (individual dictionary entry cards)
M-000	Participles and Deverbal Adjectives: Their Distinction and Orthography	This manuscript is the earliest known comprehensive theoretical work in the Voinova Archive and represents the intellectual foundation of Anna Voinova's lifelong research programme on the orthography of Russian…	1962
M-001	Dictionary of One and Two Н in Russian	The principal unpublished manuscript representing more than three decades of linguistic research into the spelling and grammatical function of one and two Н in Russian. It synthesises Voinova's published work into a…	undated
M-002	Proposal for the Dictionary-Reference Book on the Orthography of Verbal-Nominal Forms with Н / НН	A comprehensive proposal describing the conception and methodology of Voinova's planned dictionary-reference book on the spelling of one and two Н in participial and adjectival forms. The document explains the…	6 December 1982
M-003	Participles and Participial Adjectives		1962
M-004	Structural Plan for the Orthographic Dictionary	This document functions as a project blueprint rather than a draft of dictionary entries. The numerous handwritten numerical revisions indicate that it remained an active planning document throughout the development of…	Unknown (circa late 1970s–early 1980s)
M-005	Master Lexical Corpus — ~220 Comparative Dictionary Entries		c. 1964–1967
M-006	Superseded Entry — see D-017		1965
METH-001	Master Classification of Verbal-Nominal Forms		c. 1964–1967
METH-002	Statistical Classification Tables for the Dictionary of Participles and Deverbal Adjectives		c. 1964–1967
METH-3	Revised Statistical Classification Tables for the Dictionary of Participles and Deverbal Adjectives		c. 1966–1968
P-001	Presentation to the Commission for the Improvement of Russian Orthography		1966-11-28
R-001	Extract from the Minutes of the Meeting of the Language and Literature Commission	Official extract from the minutes of the Language and Literature Commission meeting held on 30 June 1972. Anna Venidiktovna Voinova presented her reference dictionary on the difficult cases of spelling one and two Н.…	30 June 1972
R-002	Official Recommendation Supporting Publication of the Dictionary of Н / НН	Official recommendation issued by the Scientific-Methodological Cabinet of the USSR Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialised Education in support of publishing Anna Voinova's dictionary of difficult cases involving…	29 November 1982
R-003	Annotated Dissertation Abstract by Liliya P. Osenmuk		1979
R-005	Working Lexical File of Paired Participial and Adjectival Forms		c. 1965–1967
REF-001	Dictionary Sources, Abbreviations and Reference Key		c. 1964–1967

What We Are Seeking

The goal is to place this collection with an institution able to provide permanent preservation, professional archival processing, and scholarly access — ideally one with an active interest in Russian historical linguistics, orthographic reform history, or the institutional history of Soviet-era academic publishing. Two types of partner seem like a natural fit and are being approached in parallel:

The Russian Academy of Sciences and its affiliated institutes (in particular the Institute of the Russian Language), given the collection's direct relevance to the history of the 1956 orthographic code and its subsequent revision debates — several documents in the archive engage directly with that Institute's own commissions and personnel.
US universities with active Slavic Studies, Russian linguistics, or Slavic manuscript special collections programs, particularly those in a position to receive a physical donation given the collection's current location in Massachusetts.

We are open to a range of outcomes — outright donation, a research partnership involving joint cataloguing or transcription, or an initial scholarly evaluation prior to any formal arrangement — and happy to discuss what would work best for a given institution.

Contact

Ilya Rozhdestvensky

Hyannis, Massachusetts, USA

Get in touch

A complete item-level finding aid, additional sample images, and higher-resolution scans of any document referenced here are available on request.