The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, subject files and printed material. The correspondence is primarily from the 1920s and includes letters from G. E. Lv́ov and S. P. Mel'gunov and one or two items each from M. A. Aldanov, I. A. Bunin, N. V. Chaikovskii, A. L. Tolstaiia, V. F. Zeeler and others. The manuscripts are primarily in the form of notes in Polner's hand and include Polner's diary from the years 1919-1925. The documents belong to Tikhon Polner's brother, Sergei, and deal with the latter's expulsion from the USSR in 1921. There is extensive material in the subject files on the writings of Lev Tolstoĭ, including typescript copies of several Tolstoi manuscripts and clippings of the reviews of Polner's book on Tolstoi. Also included is a photograph of A. I. Herzen from the 1850s.

Correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, documents, subject files and printed materials of Sergei Grigor'evich Svatikov (1878/1880?-1942), Russian lawyer, historian, publicist, and public figure. The correspondence includes letters from Mark Aldanov, Vladimir Burtsev, Ivan Efremov, Georgii Grebenshchikov, Grigorii Lozinskii, Sergei Mel'gunov, Nikolai Rubakin, George Vernadsky and Mark Vishniak. There is a notebook that belonged to Vera Zasulich. Among the photographs are pictures of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Sergei Mel'gunov, and Aleksander Wielopolski. The manuscripts include several by Svatikov as well as many notes, lists and bibliographical compendia relating to his oeuvre. The subject files cover such areas as the Russian Reading Hall in Heidelberg, the Turgenev Library in Paris, and the Russkii akademicheskii soiuz (Groupe academique russe), also in Paris. The printed materials include clippings, materials from the Institute d'ʹetudes slaves, and a number of books by Svatikov.

The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, subject files, photographs and printed materials, primarily booklets and clippings. The correspondents include Ivan and Vera Bunin, Mark Slonim and Petr Struve. Also included are photocopies of letters by Ivan A. Goncharov. By far the largest part of the collection is in the form of memoirs written by Valeriĭ P. Semenov-Ti︠a︡nʹ-Shanskiĭ, in which he dwells in detail on his ancestors, on the social and political life in Russian during the second half of the 19th century and on his public life in the emigration. The subject files deal primarily with Russian emigre organizations in Finland.

Vladimir Feofilovich Zeeler (Владимир Феофилович Зеелер; 1874-1954) was a Russian lawyer, state official and political activist; the Interior Minister in the South Russian Government; a pivotal figure of the Russian emigration; and a journalist, editor, memoirist and philanthropist. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs of many prominent cultural figures in the Russian emigration. A sizable part of the collection also concerns the painter Il'ia Repin (1844-1930).

Most of the collection consists of letters to Golśteĭn; there are some as well to her second husband, Vladimir A. Gol'shtein. The materials reflect Gol'shtein ties to Russian liberalism and populism and also to both French and Russian art and literature. There are groups of cataloged letters from Renʹe Arcos (15), Mykhailo Drahomaniv (52), Andrʹe Fontainas (31), Renʹe Ghil (32), Viacheslav Ivanov (17), Petr Lavrov (49), Vladimir Vernadskii (20), and Maksimilian Voloshin (29). There are also items by Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Henri Martin Barzun, Henri Bergson, Ivan Bunin, Sergei Diagilev, Paul Fort, Vladislav Khodasevich, Aristide Maillol, and Odilon Redon. Manuscripts are chiefly by Golśhteĭn, and include her memoirs on Drahomaniv. There are also poems by Voloshin and by Konstantin Bal'mont. Subject files deal with such topics as the Russian famine of 1891-92 and the Russian Liberation Committee at the time of the Civil War. There is a copy of Gol'shtein's book, "Serf Life in Russia."

Photocopies of letters written to Trotskiĭ. Included are three items from Ivan Bunin and two from Vera Bunina. There is also a photocopy of a letter from Petr Chaĭkovskiĭ to an unknown person. The originals of these items are in the library of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, subject files and printed material of Russian émigré writer, journalist, and Kadet Party leader Ariadna Vladimirovna Tyrkova-Williams. The collection also contains material by her husband, Harold Williams, and her son, Arkadiĭ Borman.

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).

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, drawings, sheet-music and printed material of Teffi (Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Lokhvitskaia, married name Buchinskaia; 1872-1952. Тэффи, Надежда Александровна Лохвицкая, в замужестве Бучинская), a Russian émigré writer.

Correspondence, manuscripts, lectures, lecture notes, and subject files of Russian-American historian Mikhail Mikhailovich Karpovich (1888-1959). Karpovich was an employee of the embassy of the Russian Provisional Government in Washington, D.C., Professor Emeritus of Russian History and Literature at Harvard University, and founding editor of Novyĭ zhurnal.