The collection is composed almost exclusively of manuscripts submitted to Gering for publication in "Voennai︠a︡ Byl"́. These are mostly short memoirs of battles and campaigns, of life in military school, or of peacetime garrison life, by former tsarist officers. These naturally relate chiefly to the last few decades of the tsarist regime, and to the period of the Revolution and Civil War. Some contributions are more scholarly in tone; these include articles on the earlier history of the Russian army and of individual regiments, etc. Few of the manuscripts are more than 40 pages long; most are 1-20 pages. Not all of these manuscripts were published in "Voennai︠a︡ Byl"́; those that were not formed part of Gering's "archive" and have been arranged separately.

The manuscripts, all of which are by Smolin, include his memoirs"Davnominuvshee--Vospominanii︠a︡ starogo ofit︠s︡era." These memoirs describe Smolin's childhood in I︠A︡kut︠s︡k, his military training, and his service in the Finli︠a︡ndskiĭ Polk, the Russo-Japanese War, the 1905 Revolution and World War I. The other, more minor manuscripts primarily deal with military themes. The printed materials consist of two articles by Smolin that appeared in the emigre press.

Manuscripts by Voronkov. One manuscript is a short (6 p.), handwritten, autobiographical essay, in which Voronkov mentions his military education, his service in the Russian Imperial Army, his management of a military factory in WWI, and his emigration after the Civil War. The other manuscript"Svi︠a︡tai︠a︡ Ruś" consists of 80 poems written by Voronkov primarily about Imperial Russia, Russian Orthodoxy and the Romanov family. The collection also includes a copy of a Russian emigre newspaper published in Argentina ("Nasha Strana" 15 Feb. 1966) that contains an article about Voronkov's poems.