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The collection consists of a diary, scrapbook, and photograph album of George Nathaniel
Nash, a British Army officer stationed in Russia from 1917 to 1919. These materials
chronicle
Nash's experiences during World War I and the Russian Revolution. The collection breaks
down
into three main components: first, two copies of Nash's unpublished diary, one a typescript
and the other a carbon copy; second, a scrapbook extensively cross-referenced with
the
diary; and third, a photograph album with typescript index by the author. |
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The diary is summarized by a Table of Contents and covers experiences in Petrograd,
Vladivostok, Moscow, and the Russian Southwestern front. Nash does not set out to
provide
in-depth analysis of political change in Russia, but does give a first-hand account
of the
unrest in the region at the time, as well as his own experiences there as a British
soldier.
Included are accounts of his meeting with Tsar Nicholas II, of a disorderly Russian
army,
and of his own imprisonment. Copy 1, Vol. 1 is the original diary, which contains
several
newspaper clippings, typescript translations, typescript tsarist proclamations concerning
abdication, and two pages of paper money. Copy 2, Vol. 1 is a carbon copy; it omits
the
clippings and bills but contains English translations of news articles in the back.
The
original diary's three-ring binders have been retained. |
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Vol. 2 is Nash's scrapbook, which consists of numerous examples of the following:
military
cartoons and notices, personnel listings, programs, invitations, menus, receipts,
seating
arrangements, telegrams, visiting cards, travel permits, and newspaper clippings.
Especially
notable are a tsarist wax seal, an invitation to view the burial of Revolutionary
victims,
and a rare early Soviet propaganda pamphlet entitled "Say! What Are You!" and attributed
to
Lenin. |
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Nash's photograph album is a leather-bound volume consisting of 158 chronologically
indexed
photos. A folder houses the album, its typed index, and one loose picture. Included
are
photographs relating to the diary: revolutionary Petrograd; the "Kerenski" offensive
and
retreat; the Southwestern front; the Trans-Siberian Railway; Vladivostok; the journey
from
Tiflis (Caucasus) to Erzerum (Turkey); crossing the Astrachan Steppe; and the Boutirke
Criminal Jail. |
