The Post-Soviet Nationalities Collection
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