Papers consist of manuscripts and printed materials. Manuscripts include a typescript memoir by Gagarin about Simferopol in 1917-18, two brief essays by Gagarin on the rivers Neva and Volga, and a typed copy of a letter from a soldier in World War I to a nurse. Printed materials include scattered issues of and clippings from "Russkoe Slovo" one issue of "Sei︠a︡teĺ" two issues of "Chasovoĭ" three issues of "Russkiĭ Invalid" and twenty-one issues of "Osvedomitel ́Leĭb-Egereĭ" and a copy of "Epizody proshlogo. Rasskazy iz zhizni avtora i izbrannye stikhotvorenii︠a︡" (Buenos Aires, 1972), a collection of poems and brief memoiristic essays, manuscripts of some which are among Gagarin's papers.

The collection includes copies of official communiques sent and received by the Russian Imperial Embassy in London for the period 1886-1890 and 1919-1922; copies of reports forwarded by E.V. Sablin to the Council of Ambassadors in Paris, for the period 1922-1937; correspondence grouped around specific subjects; "case files" containing letters from and on behalf of individual Russian emigres wishing to enter Great Britain or to adjust their immigrant status; and letters received by E.V. Sablin and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna from various persons, together with carbon copies of their replies. The most voluminous correspondence is between E.V. Sablin and V.A. Maklakov, V. Dobuzhinskiĭ, Joseph P. Kennedy, Aleksandr F. Kerenskiĭ, Vladimir V. Nabokov, Fedor I. Shali︠a︡pin, Petr and Gleb Struve, Adri︠a︡na V. Trykova-Williams etc. The remainder of the collection consists of manuscripts of articles and speeches both by Sablin and by others; public statements issued by Sablin in mimeograph form; miscellaneous mimeo material; clippings from both the Russian emigre press and British and French newspapers of articles by and about Sablin; as well as miscellaneous clippings, books, booklets, leaflets, performance programs, newsletters, Russian language newspapers published in England, photographs and several drawings and watercolor sketches.

Most of the collection dates from 1918-1940, and concerns the Civil War in Siberia and the emigration in China. There is a long manuscript by Golovachev on the Civil War. Other manuscripts include memoirs by F. Porotikov on Admiral Kolchak, and one by V. Russii︠a︡n, a former tsarist police official, attempting to prove that Stalin was a police agent. Photographs include an inscribed portrait of Lev Tolstoĭ. Subject files concern various Siberian and Far Eastern institutions and organizations, and deal with both the Civil War and the emigration. Printed materials include books, pamphlets, newspapers, and clippings, again mostly on Siberian or Far Eastern affairs, or on the law.