The Post-Soviet Nationalities Collection


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Columbia holds outstanding―and growing―collections of published materials in the indigenous languages of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the minority peoples of the Russian Federation.  Built initially under the guidance of the late Edward Allworth, the collection today consists of almost 28,000 monographs as well as extensive periodical literature and numerous newspapers on microfilm, in sixty of the Indo-European, Uralic-Altaic, Transcaucasian, and Palæo-Siberian languages of the former Soviet Union―from Abazin (42 titles), to Yakut (217 titles).   Professor Allworth felt that research into the artistic, cultural, linguistic, social and political affairs and accomplishments of these peoples required access to original sources in indigenous languages. 

Edward Allworth, 1920-2016

To locate older titles in a particular language in CLIO, in the search dialogue box, type: offsite plus the three or four-digit langauge code from the list below.

Language Name CLIO Prefix Title Count
Abazin ABAZ 42
Abkhaz ABKH 195
Adigey ADIG 167
Altai ALTA 103
Avar AVAR 64
Azerbaijani (Azeri) AZER 3,471
Balkar BALK 154
Bashkir BASH 760
Buriat BURI 110
Chechen CHEC 121
Cherkess CIRC 63
Chukchi CHUK 6
Chuvash CHUV 457
Crimean Tatar CRIM 90
Dargwa DARG 53
Dido DIDO 1
Dungan DUNG 14
Even EVEN 4
Evenki EVNK 7
Gagauz GAGA 17
Georgian GEOR 3,130
Gilyak GILY 2
Ingush INGU 55
Kabardian KABA 250
Kalmyk KALM 158
Kamchadal ITEL 2
Karachai KARC 76
Karaim KARM 2
Karakalpak KARK 154
Kazakh KAZA 3,547
Language Name CLIO Prefix Title Count
Khakass KHAK 43
Khanty KHAN 9
Komi KOMI 207
Kumyk KUMY 63
Kurdish* KURD 1,646
Kyrgyz KIRG 1,932
Lak LAK 36
Lezgian LEZG 69
Mansi MANS 4
Mari (Cheremis) MARI 312
Mongolian* MONG 562
Mordvin MORD 140
Nanai NANA 5
Nenets NENE 1
Nogai NOGA 52
Olcha OLCH 1
Ossetic OSSE 395
Rutul RUTU 1
Shor SHOR 2
Tabasaran TABA 13
Tajik TAJI 1,984
Turkmen TURK 1,380
Tuvan TUVA 160
Udmurt (Votyak) UDMU 136
Uighur UIGH 189
Uzbek UZBE 4,078
Volga Tatar VOLG 1,037
Yakut YAKU 217
Yukaghir YUKA 2

*An asterisk following the language name indicates that there are substantial holdings in this language at CUL that are separate from the Post-Soviet Nationalities Collection. The non-SNC holdings represent material in the given languages that were published outside the borders of the former Soviet Union.

Quantitatively the largest of the sub-collections are: Azerbaijani (3,471), Bashkir (760), Chuvash (457), Georgian (3,130), Kazak (3,547), Kyrgyz (1,932), Tajik (1,984), Volga Tatar (1,037), Turkmen (1,380), and Uzbek (4,078).  The Post-Soviet Nationalities Collection is housed offsite in a special climate-controlled storage facility at our shared (with Princeton and The New York Public Library) ReCAP (Research Collections and Preservation Consortium) facility.  It is accessible to scholars nationwide via the expedited BorrowDirect Network (The Ivies, Duke, M.I.T., Johns Hopkins, Stanford and the University of Chicago) and traditional Inter-Library Loan arrangements.

For more information about the Collection, please contact the Librarian for Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies: Robert H. Davis, Jr., 308 Lehman Library, 420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027 Rhd2106@columbia.edu