Russian Studies

Library Catalogs

To locate books, periodical titles, government publications, and other materials on your topic, search by author, title, keyword, or subject in CONSORT, the shared catalog of the libraries of The College of Wooster, Denison University, Kenyon College, and Ohio Wesleyan University. If the title you are looking for is not held in CONSORT, then go to the OhioLINK central catalog, the shared catalog of Ohio academic libraries. If the title is not held in OhioLINK, you may go want to go to the Oberlin College catalog, RLG Union Catalog, the catalog of the Research Libraries Group, or World Cat, an international database of member libraries, all of which are listed under “Books, etc. ” on the libraries’ web page.

Databases and Indexes

To locate articles you will want to search the following databases or printed indexes and abstracts to which we subscribe. The following databases and printed sources will be helpful in finding information for Russian Studies topics. Be sure to take advantage of the help features in each of the databases to refine your searches. Most databases also have additional helpful information, such as dates of coverage of the database, subjects covered in the database, and a list of journal titles that are indexed by that database.

This list is arranged in the following order: Databases Helpful for Russian Studies (includes topics in Russian Studies), Related databases (covers Russian Studies within its scope but is focused on another discipline, such as history or literature), General databases (more broadly based which may cover Russian Studies topics). The list also includes titles of paper indexes that are not covered electronically. The call number is given.

Academic Search Complete (1984-present): is the world's largest scholarly, multi-discipline, full-text database designed specifically for academic institutions. This resource indexes about 4000 periodicals and has full text for over 3460 scholarly publications. Many of them are peer-reviewed. This scholarly collection provides full text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study- including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. [Information taken from web site]
Foreign Language Videos (OhioLINK Digital Media Center): currently includes the ViewPoints Project of the Five Colleges of Ohio Consortium, Inc.--a collection of foreign language video clips in which native speakers elaborate on a wide variety of topics about their culture, family, daily life, and more. Video clips are accompanied by contents notes, the country of the speaker, and additional grammar and vocabulary notes. The Russian language is included in the list of choices.
FRANCIS (1984-present): covers a wide range of multilingual, multidisciplinary information in the humanities (63%), social sciences (33%), and economics (4%). It includes indexing for close to 3700 journals. FRANCIS is strong in religion, the history of art, and literature, with particular emphasis on current trends in European and world literature.
MLA International Bibliography(1926-present): indexes the sources pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore in over 3,000 journals and series and in relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats. Updated quarterly.
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies (1986-present): includes social sciences and humanities topics published in the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe — books, manuscripts, dissertations, and articles from more than 10,000 periodicals. The periodical titles that are indexed can be found in the Titles List on the web site. It is possible to read the articles in the original language if the computer you are using has the Language Kit installed. (Computers in Andrews Lobby and McCoy lab have this capability.)

Related Databases

Arts and Humanities Citation Index (ISI)
Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) (1971-present): is an online, interdisciplinary database that indexes western-language books, chapters in books, and journal articles on all parts of Asia. The search interface offers keyword search, browse by journal title, browse by subject, and browse by country options.
Ethnic NewsWatch (1985-present): is a full-text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority, and press. The search interface is offered in both English and Spanish.
Historical Abstracts (1955 – present): indexes and provides abstract summaries to sources on the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life). Over 2,000 journals published throughout the world are covered in the database. In addition to including the key historical journals from virtually every major country, Historical Abstracts includes a targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities that are of special interest to researchers and students of history. In addition to articles, each year Historical Abstracts includes approximately 3,000 citations to useful historical books reviewed by the journals in the field and citations to abstracts of dissertations completed worldwide of particular interest for historical research. [Information digested from the ABC-CLIO FAQ and database description pages.]
JStor: is an historical searchable database that includes back issues of periodicals in many fields, such as Slavic studies, history, language, and political science fields. The database provides an historical coverage usually from the beginning of a periodical title to within two to five years of the current date. The periodical Slavic Review is included in Arts & Science II. Full-text is available.

General Databases

ArticleFirst (1990-present): indexes nearly 12,500 journals in science, technology, medicine, social science, business, the humanities, and popular culture. Updated daily.
LexisNexis Academic: is a broad-based database that provides indexing and full text access to sources in the general categories of news, business, legal research, medicine, and reference. Russian Studies topics are covered particularly in the news and reference sections.
Nineteenth Century Masterfile: indexes by keyword or titles from articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers published in the 19th century and very early 20th century. The indexing originated in a variety of historical print indexes, including the following: Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906), Stead's Index to Periodicals (1890-1906), Richardson's Index to Periodical Articles in Religion (1890-1899), Cumulative Index to a Selected List of Periodicals (1896-1899), New York Times Index (1863-1905), New York Daily Tribune Index (1875-1906), and Palmer's Index to the Times (London) (1890) [Information from Which Database to Use?]
PAIS International (1972-present): indexes articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, Internet sources, and statistical directories about subjects of interest to the public. Abstracts are included for most records from 1985 to the present. Each year, PAIS indexers review more than 8000 books and issues of more than 1600 periodicals. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed. PAIS international includes publications from over 120 countries throughout the world. In addition to English, some of the indexed materials are published in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Updated monthly. [Information is digested from the OhioLINK web site for this database.]
The print edition of PAIS International [WOO IndexRef Z7163 .P9]: has had several title changes. The library has complete coverage from 1938-present; this title includes many educational topics within its scope of covering subjects of interest to the public.
Periodicals Index Online (1770-1995): indexes journal articles in the humanities and social sciences in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western language journals – back file years only. Currently indexes over 4,000journals.

Journal and Newspaper Resources

Journal titles can be located in CONSORT by doing an author (corporate), subject, title, or word search. For example, doing a subject search "Russia--Periodicals" will give you a list of periodicals to which we subscribe that are related to Russia. They may be in paper, electronic, or micro format. If you have a citation for an article in a specific periodical, a title search in CONSORT will tell you if we have the periodical.

Some journal titles helpful in Russian Studies that we subscribe to are listed below. Call numbers are found in CONSORT.

Current Digest of the Post Soviet Press,
East European Politics and Societies: EEPS
Novyi Mir
Political History & Culture of Russia,
Russian Life,
Russian Politics and Law,
Russian Review
Russian Studies in Literature
Slavic and East European Journal
Slavonic and East European Review

The Libraries has a subscription to the following newspapers that will be useful for Russian Studies as follows.

Izvestiia
Moscow News Weekly
The Prague Post

Four newspapers of interest to Russian Studies are The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and the Washington Post. Back issues are on microfilm at the library. We have a complete run of the New York Times. Indexes to the last four mentioned are in the Index Reference section of the Reference room.

Reference Sources

Russian Studies encyclopedias and dictionaries can be found by going into CONSORT and doing a subject search, e.g., Russian language-dictionaries. Generally, the classifications DJK, DK, and PG include titles about Russian and Eastern Europe. Some titles of interest are listed below.

Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe WOO Reference DJK6 .E53 2000: from the Congress of Vienna to the fall of communism / edited by Richard Frucht . New York : Garland Pub., 2000.
Great Soviet encyclopedia WOO Reference AE5 .B58: [A. M. Prokhorov, editor, in chief] Publisher New York, Macmillan [c1973-1983. 31 vols. and index.
The modern encyclopedia of East Slavic, Baltic, and Eurasian literatures WOO Reference PG2940 .M6: Gulf Breeze, FL : Academic International Press, 1977-<1996> 10 vols. and index.
The newly independent states of Eurasia WOO Reference DK17 .B34 1997: handbook of former Soviet republics / by Stephen K. Batalden and Sandra L. Batalden. Phoenix, Ariz. : Oryx, 1997. 2nd ed.
Random House Russian-English dictionary of idioms WOO Reference PG2460 .L83 1995: Sophia Lubensky. New York : Random House, c1995. 1st ed.
Reference guide to Russian literature WOO Reference PG2940 .R44 1998: editor, Neil Cornwell; associate editor, Nicole Christian. London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, c1998.
Slavic studies WOO Reference Z2483 .S554 1993: a guide to bibliographies, encyclopedias, and handbooks / compiled and edited by Murlin Croucher. Wilmington , Scholarly Resources, 1993. 2 vols.

Selected Internet Resources

Resources for Current Events

Transitions Online: Covers Eastern Europe and Russia
Johnson's Russian List: Covers the Russian press and from American and European press on Russia. Indexed; back issues available.
Russian Weekly: CDI Russia Weekly includes weekly reports on current events in Russia. Indexed; back issues available.
Moscow Times: Moscow’s daily English language newspaper. Indexed; back issues available.

Important General Resources

Russian Link Collection: Excellent list compiled by the Slavic Research Center, University of Hokkaido of Russian and Slavic Internet resources in all fields.
Russian History on the Web: A guide to Internet resources on Russian history compiled by Marshall Poe, Harvard University.
Center for Russian & East European Studies: Extensive list of internet resources compiled by Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh on news, culture, history, economics, film, literature, etc.
Sher's Russian Index: Benjamin Sher’s Russian list from A-Z on subjects such as art, literature, culture, newspapers, theaters, travel, etc.

Other Helpful Resources

Slavic and East European Resources: Internet resources on Slavic issues in areas of arts, society and culture, economics, news and media, government, education, etc.
Internet resources on Russia and the CIS: Internet resources are compiled by the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London. Topics include politics and government, elections, news and media (in both Russian and in English), economics and statistics, language and literature, academic sites in Russia, Europe, and America, library and archives, culture and society, history.
The British Library- Russian internet resources: List of Russian and other Slavic resources under broad categories, such as government and politics, compiled by the British Library.
The Definitive Guide to Russia: Guide to a variety of Russian subjects (culture, politics, society) and current events.
Slavic & East European Collections Selected Internet Resources: Resources compiled by the Slavic and East European Collections, Yale University Library. Some headings are reading Cyrillic on the web, academic departments and programs, libraries with major collections, journals, databases, and indexes, literature, news resources, additional resources by country, etc.
Library of Congress--Europe and Russia: Resources compiled by the Library of Congress on Europe and Russia.
Library of Congress--Europe and Russia: Resources compiled by the Library of Congress on Europe and Russia.
Russian Studies 401 Independent Study: Library Research and Resources: Resources compiled by Barbara Bell and Margaret Powell

Resources Available Elsewhere

There are many educational sources electronically available through the government. Most of them are listed in CONSORT; many of the records include a web address for electronic access.

When sources you have identified are not available in the Libraries, you can usually obtain them from another library. Request books on Interlibrary Loan directly from CONSORT or OhioLINK. For books in libraries outside of Ohio use the ILLiad book form found on the Libraries' home page. Journal articles not available at Wooster can be ordered by using the ILLiad article form.

Need Help?

Elys Kettling Law
Reference and Instruction Librarian
330/263-2443

Compiled by Barbara L. Bell