One letter, manuscripts, and printed materials of Aleksei Fedorovich Girs and of his wife, Liubov' Aleksandrovna Girs. The letter, dated 1914, when Girs was governor of Minsk, is addressed to N. A. Maklakov. Aleksei Gir's memoirs cover such topics as his service in Estland; Petr Stolypin; the "Jewish question;" Tsar Nicholas II; and independent Estonia, where he lived in 1918-1924. There are also two reports by Girs from the time of his service in Minsk. ́Liubov Girs is represented chiefly by diaries from 1901-1918, particularly on Odessa in 1905-1906; Stolypin's murder in 1911; and Nizhny Novgorod in 1917. Among the printed materials are announcements of Gir's accession to the Minsk governorship in 1914-1915.

The papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, documents, subject files, photographs, and printed materials. Correspondence in the collection includes 1 item from Ivan Bunin, 2 from Vladimir Davydov, and many from G. A. Alekseev. Mendeleev's extensive memoirs, "Svet i teni v moei zhizni," discuss his childhood and youth, government service, World War I, the 1917 Revolution and the Civil War, and life in the emigration up to 1933. Subject files in this collection concern the Prague Russian Archive, the Union of the Russian Nobility, the Russian Imperial family in the emigration, and other topics. Printed materials include an almost complete set of the weekly "Parizhskii Vestnik" (1942-1944).