World Treasures: Important Russian, European, Asian & American Works
November 18th & 19th, 2014
auction closed
Day One - Lots 1-565
Day Two - Lots 566-993


 
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LOT 565
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Lot 565
AN INTERESTING AND EXTENSIVE RUSSIAN FAMILY ARCHIVE, CIRCA 1890-1945, COMPRISING OVER 800 INDIVIDUAL DOCUMENTS & PHOTOGRAPHS RELATED TO A VARIETY OF HISTORICAL TOPICS INCLUDING FIRST-HAND MATERIAL FROM THE BEILIS CASE, EARLY MARXIST MATERIAL RELATED TO GE Consisting of 13 folders with both hand-written and typed letters and correspondence, as well as vintage photographs, including signed examples and newspaper clippings and other related material. The overall scope of the archive can be roughly divided into four segments. The largest being related to the notorious Beilis Affair regarding Menahem Mendel Beilis (1874-1934), the Russian Jew accused and tried of ritual murder of a Christian boy, Andrei Yushinskii, in Kiev in 1913, which in turn sparked international criticism of the anti-Semitic policies of the Russian Empire. This archive includes first-hand material from one of Beilis’ legal defenders, D. N. Grigorovich-Barsky (1871-1958), from which this material has come down through his family, and comprising primarily of over 100 hand-written pages in Barsky’s hand, for example, “The most sensational court case of a poor and unknown to anyone in the entire world, Jew, Mandel Beilis or for that matter unknown to anyone in the city of Kiev. We may as well put all the Jews on trial ….” Beilis was eventually found not guilty, “which greatly upset the Russian people.” In a letter to Konstantin Ivanovich (last name is not given) Barsky writes: “After all, all people are equal when they stand in front of the court.…Moreover, why does his nationality matter? All of the laws of the Emperor Alexander II promised equality but when it comes to Beili’s case, all these promises were forgotten.… ” A number of notables are also mentioned in Barsky’s correspondence including V.D. Nabokov, at the time a correspondent and a supporter of Beilis.  Nabokov was also a Russian criminologist, journalist, and progressive statesman during the last years of the Russian Empire. He is also the father of renowned Russian-American writer, Vladimir Nabokov. Chaplinskii is also mentioned, who was a member of tsar’s (Nicholas II) secret police.


Estimate:  $500 - 750   € 350 - 525
Price Realized: $2,875.00

The archive also includes a good deal of material related to the “UNION DES AVOCATS RUSSE EN FRANCE” consisting of over 200 typed and hand-written correspondence both in Russian and French between various attorneys living in France, most addressed to D

Also included in the archive are about 100 letters addressed specifically to Frida Abramovna, dated roughly from the early 1920’s through the 1940's. Last dated 1951. Most of them came from Moscow and most are from the Deutsch family. In many of the letters Frida’s friends talk about the political situation in Russia in the 1920's and 1930's. As an example, in one of the letters it is written: “… I am glad to be still alive to witness the biggest revolution in the world: existential, cultural, and industrial. … I don’t take any sides. What saddens me is not the fact that we can’t avoid moving toward new, but impossibility to return to the old.…I think Marx and Engels would be in awe seeing what is happening in our country.” In another letter: “…Why do the Bolsheviks have to fight with the Mensheviks. Why do we have to fight against each other?…Why can’t we just live the way it is?”


In summary, the archive consists of over 800 individual pieces of paper including letters, photographs, and clippings comprising approximately 160 individual hand-written letters (totaling approximately 407 pages), approximately 70 typed pages (totaling approximately 235 pages), a mix of approximately 30 hand-written and typed letters (totaling about 75 pages), plus 66 vintage photographs, and 21 vintage newspaper clippings.


All items are sold “AS IS” and there will be no returns based on condition. The items sold are often of considerable age and will exhibit wear, usage and damage often not listed in the catalog entry. The absence of condition remarks in the catalog entry DOES NOT mean the item is in perfect condition. Prospective buyers are in ALL CASES responsible for determining the physical condition of lots. No employee or agent of Jackson's International Auctioneers and Appraisers is authorized to make on our behalf or on that of the consignor any representation or warranty, oral or written, with respect to any property. Therefore, if a prospective bidder has not examined the property to their satisfaction before the sale, or his/her agent has not inspected the property, Jackson's recommends that they not bid on the property. All dimensions are approximate. The condition of frames is not guaranteed.