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Research Guides

Collection Guidelines: Slavic Studies: Subject Definition

Collecting guidelines for Slavic Languages and Literatures, Baltic Studies, and Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies (REECAS).

About This Guide

These guidelines pertain to the acquisition of materials from and about Russia, the Baltic Region, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia for inclusion in the collections of the University of Washington Libraries, Seattle.

This interdisciplinary collection supports the teaching and research of faculty in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Baltic Studies Program, and the interdisciplinary Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies Program (REECAS) of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.  It also supports research by graduate and upper divisional undergraduate students in any UW department or program (Anthropology, Art History, Geography, History, Music, Political Science, Sociology, etc.) for whom Russia, the Baltics, Eastern Europe or Central Asia are a primary object of research interest.

For more information about the UW Libraries' Slavic collecting priorities not addressed in these pages, contact UW's Slavic, Baltic and East European studies librarian, Michael Biggins.

Subject Definition

The term Slavic and East European studies is used at the UW Libraries to refer to learning, teaching and research in any discipline as it applies to Russia, the former Soviet Union, the Baltic countries, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe (the Balkans), the Caucasus, and former Soviet Central Asia.  Although sometimes referred to as Slavic studies for brevity's sake, Slavic is a specific ethnonym applicable only to national groups united by the use of a Slavic language (e.g., Russians, but not Estonians or Uzbeks; Poles, but not Lithuanians, Hungarians or Georgians), so it is both technically and politically more correct to use the terms Slavic and East European studies or Slavic, Baltic and East European studies.  The acronym REECAS (Russian, East European and Central Asian studies) is still more inclusive by bringing in all post-Soviet space.

Slavic and East European studies at UW involves some 40 full-time core faculty members spread across fifteen departments, as well as an additional 15 affiliated faculty.

Subject Classification

Slavic and East European materials are located throughout the UW Libraries system in all subject classifications.  The following table shows the call number ranges of the most significant concentrations of material:

B 4200-4279 Philosophy in Russia
BR 930-938 Church and state in Russia and the USSR
BX 200-756   Eastern Orthodox church history
DAW History of Central Europe overall
DB 901-999   History of Hungary
DB 2000-3150   History of Czech Republic and Slovakia
DJK       History of Eastern Europe overall
DK 1-264    History of the Russian Empire
DK 265-293       History of the Soviet Union
DK 502    History of the Baltics overall
DK 503 History of Estonia
DK 504 History of Latvia
DK 505 History of Lithuania
DK 507 History of Belarus
DK 508 History of Ukraine
DK 510-651    History of Russian Federation (1991- )
DK 670-679       History of Republic of Georgia
DK 680-689    History of Armenia
DK 690-699 History of Azerbaijan
DK 845-860    History of Central Asia overall
DK 901-910 History of Kazakhstan
DK 911-920 History of Kyrgyzstan
DK 921-930 History of Tajikistan
DK 931-940    History of Turkmenistan
DK 941-950 History of Uzbekistan
DK 4010-4800 History of Poland
DR 51-98 History of Bulgaria
DR 201-296 History of Romania
DR 1202-1313 History of Yugoslavia (1918-1995)
DR 1352-1485    History of Slovenia
DR 1502-1645 History of Croatia
DR 1652-1785 History of Bosnia
DR 1802-1928 History of Montenegro
DR 1932-2125 History of Serbia
DR 2152-2285 History of Macedonia
GR 138 Slavic folklore  (general)
GR 202-203    Russian folklore
GR 204 Baltic folklore
GR 250-260 Balkan and South Slavic folklore
HC 330-340.19 Russian economic conditions
HC 340.3 Polish economic conditions and policy
HN 530 Russian social conditions
HN 537-539 Polish social conditions
HV 8224-8227    Russian and Soviet secret police
JN 6695-6699 Russian politics and government
JN 6750-6797 Polish politics and government
L (various ranges)   Russian and East European educational systems
M (various ranges) Baltic choral music; Russian music history
N 6996-6999 Russian art history
NA 1181-1199 Russian architecture
ND 681-699 Russian painting
PC 601-872    Romanian language and literature
PG 801-1146 Bulgarian language and literature
PG 1151-1199 Macedonian language and literature
PG 1201-1749 Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian language and literature
PG 1801-1962 Slovene language and literature
PG 2001-2826 Russian language and linguistics
PG 2830-2847 Belarusian language and literature
PG 2900-3698 Russian literature and criticism
PG 3801-3987 Ukrainian language and literature
PG 4001-5146    Czech language and literature
PG 5201-5546 Slovak language and literature
PG 6001-7446 Polish language and literature
PG 8501-8772 Lithuanian language and literature
PG 8801-9146 Latvian language and literature
PH 601-671    Estonian language and literature
PH 2001-3445 Hungarian language and literature
PK 8000-8832 Armenian language and literature
PK 9101-9169 Georgian language and literature
PN 1993.5 East European film history
PN 2720-2729    Russian theater history
Z 2483-2519 Slavic and East European bibliographies