The Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in the Northern Caucasus, was established in 1921. In 1993, it officially became the Republic Dagestan within the Russian Federation. Its capital is Makhachkala. Dagestan is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse republics within the Russian Federation. Its major languages are Aghul, Avar, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgian, Lak, Nogai, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tat, and Tsakhur.
The following is a beginning guide to bibliographic tools for researchers of Dagestan. Though not a comprehensive overview, this guide outlines two primary ways researchers can access bibliographic information about Adygean publications:
- Through the National Library of the Republic of Dagestan’s online library catalog
- Through the Russian National Library’s Department of Literature in National Languages imprint catalog
- The letopis’ pechati and national bibliography of Dagestan
Additionally, this guide highlights resources related to the history, culture and language of Dagestan, and its national bibliography and publishing culture. Researchers may also want to consult the following online database for additional coverage: Elektronnyi katalog knig na iazykakh narodov RF i stran SNG on the homepage of the the Russian National Library. This guide also highlights online bibliographical resources published by the National Library of the Republic of Dagestan.
Source: The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Volume 7, page 74); Ethnologue.
LIBRARY CATALOGS
Natsional’naia biblioteka Respubliki Dagestan imeni Rasula Gamzatova
The Katalog Natsional’noi biblioteki Respubliki Dagestan is an online catalog which provides bibliographic information for holdings in the Republic of Dagestan. There is no information provided online about the coverage of this electronic catalog; however, it is assumed to reflect holdings at the National Library of the Republic of Dagestan and possibly other municipal libraries. Users have the options of the following search types: standard, advanced or professional. They can also search by particular institutions or browse by alphabetical listings, GRNTI, UDK, BBK or themes. The advanced option is shown below and gives users the ability to search by key word, theme, author, type of holding, ISSN/ISBN, and the date of a publication.
The results give basic bibliographic information as well as the BBK, rubric and key words for the item. The image below shows a sample result. Please note that due to maintenance issues this website may time out – but this can be corrected by refreshing the page.
Rossiĭskai︠a︡ nat︠s︡ionalʹnai︠a︡ biblioteka. Otdel literatury na nat︠s︡ionalʹnykh i︠a︡zykakh.
The Russian National Library’s Department of Literature in National Languages [also known as the Department of National Literatures] of the Russian Federation, Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Baltic countries has reproduced holdings catalogs in microfiche format. The national languages imprints catalogs in microfiche format diffuse most of the difficulties associated with transliteration in the vernacular languages, spelling, forms of entry, and uncertainties with the entirety of the collection. Researchers can access the entire holdings for a specific language at the Russian National Library through the microfiche set; conveniently exporting selected titles via PDF scans. Because the microfiche are organized by language, and Dagestan is a very multilingual country, we have provided a listing of the microfiche imprint catalogs we have for languages of Dagestan.
Katalog literatury na avarskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.9474 R736k. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 47076751.
Katalog literatury na Azerbaidzhanskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94754 R736k. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 39970396.
Katalog literatury na chechenskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1998. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94752 R736k12. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 47078066.
Katalog literatury na darginskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94752 R736k. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 702846033.
Katalog literatury na kumykskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1998. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94752 R736k4. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 47169701.
Katalog literatury na lezginskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94752 R736k6. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 702846243.
Katalog literatury na lakskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94752 R736k5. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 702846169.
Katalog literatury na Nogaiskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94752 R736k7. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 39971859.
Katalog literatury na tabasaranskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94752 R736k9. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 702846694.
Katalog literatury na tatskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94754 R736k3. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 47244205.
Katalog literatury na Tsakhurskom yazyke [microform]
New York: N. Ross, 1997. U of I Library Call Number: MFICHE 016.94752 R736k10. Location: International and Area Studies Library, Microfilm Room. OCLC Accession Number: 39973928.
ONLINE RESOURCES
The National Library of the Republic of Dagestan has also published numerous bibliographical guides on a wide variety of topics primarily related to the literature and history of Dagestan. The bibliographical guides are available for download through the National Library’s website.
Letopis’ pechati and National Bibliography in Dagestan
Due to the Dagestan’s multi-ethnic composition, literature in many different languages is published in the republic, such as Avar, Kumyk, Dargin, Lak, Lezgian, Tabasaran, Tat, Nogai, and Russian. Dagestan has a rich tradition of folk songs and tales, and its production expanded rapidly in the Soviet period. In 1961, the Rasul Gamzatov National Library of Dagestan began publishing annually a letopisi pechati with bibliographic information on the works published in Dagestan in a given year. In Dagestan, literature in fourteen different languages is published, ranging from scientific publications, to fiction and children’s literature. A unique feature of the letopisi in Dagestan is that they reflect local publications in all of Dagestan’s languages, as well as in Chechen, Russian, Azerbaijani, and other languages. (Source: Natsional’naia biblioteka Respubliki Dagestan imeni Rasula Gamzatova, “Letopis’ pechati Dagestana”)
Electronic copies of the letopis’ pechati for the years 1970-1972 and since 1997 are available on the website of the National Library. Through WorldCat, users can find other issues of the letopis’ pechati in physical (OCLC accession number 42679127) and electronic form (OCLC accession number 610126453).
In 1970, 286 books and pamphlets (999,000 copies), 22 periodicals (181,000 per issue) and 47 newspapers (305,000 copies per issue) were published in Dagestan. The following is a list of newspapers published including the first year of publication and the language of the newspaper: Kommunist (1928) in Lezgin, Baarab bairakh (1918) in Avar, Lenin elu (1918) in in Kumyk, Lenina bairakh (1921) in Dargin, Dagestanskaia pravda (1918) in Russian, and Komsomolets Dagestana (1921) in Russian. The following is a list of other periodicals published in Dagestan including the first year and language of publication: Druzhba (1952) in Avar, Dargin, Lak, Kumyk and Lezgin; Literaturnyi al’manakh (1953) in Tabasaran; Sovetskaia Rodina (1960) in Tatar; Zhenshchina Dagestana (1957) in Avar, Dargin, Lak, Kumyk, Lezgin and Tabasaran; Sovetskii Dagestan (1965) in Russian; and Bloknot agitatora (1945) in Russian. Users can consult Gazety SSSR 1917-1960: Bibliograficheskii spravochnik 5 for a list of newspapers published in the following languages of Dagestan between 1917 and 1960: Avar, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Kumyk, Lezgian, Tabasaran and Tat.
The Academy of Sciences in Dagestan
One of the major research centers in Dagestan is the Dagestan branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Makhachkala. On the institute’s website, users can find an overview of the different subdivisions and their research focus, information about the institute’s library collection, short descriptions of new books by researchers of the Academy of Sciences, and online access to issues of the institute’s journal Vestnik Dagestanskogo nauchnogo tsentra.
Archival materials
Dagestan’s main archive is the Central State Archive of the Republic of Dagestan. It was founded in 1923. On the archive’s website, users interested in using archival materials in their research can find information about the archive’s services, archival guides, and a catalog to search the archive’s collections. The collection covers the period from the early eighteenth century to the present, and includes documents in areas such as:
- Materials from local state institutions of the Dagestan Region, Dagestan ASSR and the Republic of Dagestan
- The development of the economy of Dagestan
- Late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century documents about the political and trades relations between Central Russia and Iran, Turkey, and Crimea, and with Dagestani, Kabardian, Chechen, and other leaders
- Personal collections of important figures in the history of Dagestan
Language and keyboard
According to the constitution of the Republic of Dagestan, official state languages are Russian and the languages of all the ethnic groups that live in the Republic. Among the languages with writing systems that have an official status are Avar, Aghul, Azerbaijani, Dargin, Kumyk, Lak, Lezgian, Nogai, Rutul, Tabasaran, Tat, Tsakhur, and Chechen. Users interested in using national languages can download a Cyrillic extended keyboard that can be used for many of the languages of Dagestan and the rest of the the Russian Federation.
Source: Ethnologue.