This collection comprises the personal and professional correspondence (including several
photographs) of Alexander A. Vasiliev from 1925-1935, which corresponds to his first decade
employed as a professor of Ancient History in the Department of History at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Vasiliev was a historian of the Byzantine Empire. In 1925 - eight years
after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 - he emigrated to the United States from the Soviet
Union. These papers feature Vasiliev's correspondence with many Russian émigrés residing in
the United States, including musician Alexis Kall, historian Michael Rostovzteff (Yale
University), anatomy professor Alexander Maximow (University of Chicago), historian George
Vernadsky (Yale University), as well as letters from philologist Grigori Lozinski, who was
based in France. There are letters from Vasiliev's former colleagues in Russia (historian
Sergei Zhebelev and Arabist Ignaty Krachkovsky), from Vasiliev's sisters, (Nadezhda
Vasilieva and Ol'ga Khalturina, née Vasilieva), and from historians of the Byzantine Empire
Henri Grégoire and Louis Bréhier. The materials also include letters related to the Kondakov
Archaeological Institute in Prague, Czech Republic. Some letters include a handwritten draft
of Vasiliev's response to his correspondent.
