Davis Center Library History

The Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies (DCRES) Library was established in 1948, as a constituent part of the newly-organized, Carnegie Corporation-funded, Russian Research Center.  The main purpose of the RRC Library, as it was then known, was to serve the needs of the faculty of the new multidisciplinary institute for the study of the Soviet Union and to complement the extensive Slavic holdings of the Harvard University Library. The present-minded purpose behind the Carnegie Corporation grant explains why the focus of the collection was (and to some extent remains) contemporary politics, sociology, statistics, economics, and history of Russia, the Soviet Union, and its successor states in Eurasia.  The current name was adopted in July 2002 to more fully represent the core mission of the Center and its library, which is to advance the study of all countries of the region, beginning with — but not restricted to — the current-day Russian Federation.

Over the course of its nearly 60 year history, the library has had only four librarians.  These individuals made the acquisitions and provided the public services that have built today’s collection.  Originally, the library supported the research of the scholars involved in the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System (HPSSS), ordering microfilms and originals of hard-to-get Russian-language journals, newspapers, and books.  From the very beginning, however, the library also supported the Center’s teaching mission, meeting the needs of Harvard faculty and students in Government and Economics departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; graduate students in the Center’s regional studies MA program (also founded in 1948); as well as visiting scholars and New England-based Center associates. 

The library now holds approximately 18,000 volumes and maintains current subscriptions to about 120 newspaper and periodical titles in both Russian and English.  Its special collections, particularly the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System, are an invaluable resource not only to members of the Harvard community, but also to the broader international community of scholars, especially those working on the history of the Cold War, the evolution of area studies, as well as the political and economic issues of contemporary Russia and Eurasia