Papers of Maxim Vinawer
Scope and Content Note
The Maxim Vinawer Papers consist of materials pertaining to Maxim Vinawer’s activities as a political and a communal leader. The collection covers the period between 1915 and 1926. These materials illuminate Vinawer’s participation in Russian politics as one of the leaders of the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets), his appointment as a Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Crimean Regional Government in 1919, and his activities as a prominent figure among Zionist and émigré groups in Paris.
The collection consists of correspondence, circular letters, memoranda, bulletins, clippings, minutes of meetings, essays, manuscripts, drafts and notes.
The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with individuals and organizations including Petr Miliukov, Reuben Blank, Louis Marshall, Party of People’s Freedom (also known as Constitutional Democratic Party), Alliance Israélite Universelle, Jewish Delegation in Paris, Jewish Information Office and Jewish Telegraphic Agency, La Tribune Juive and Evreiskii Vestni, (Jewish Herald, Rus. Еврейский Вестник. Correspondence covers topics such as German occupation and Skoropadsky's coup d'etat, political activities in exile, the fate of Jews in Soviet Russia, Jewish education, Entente occupation of Crimea, (Entente was an alliance of foreign powers during World War I. It included France, Great Britain, and Russia. After the Revolution, it occupied parts of Russia), Zionism and emigration to Palestine, and émigré publications.
Materials pertaining to publication efforts also include financial documents such as reports, bank statements, bills, and statistics. Additionally, there are drafts of articles and clippings. Other clippings found in the collection pertain to Russian émigré groups in France, Germany, and other countries, Zionism, and political activities in exile.
Additionally, there is a small amount of materials dealing with the Crimean Regional Government that include circular letters, drafts of agreements with the occupational forces of Entente, and affidavits.
Also, the collection includes drafts, notes, essays, and manuscripts by Maxim Vinawer and other individuals.
Dates
- Creation: 1914-1926
Creator
Language of Materials
The collection is in Russian with some French, German, English, Polish and Yiddish.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection has been digitized and is available online without restrictions. The physical collection is closed.
Use Restrictions
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Biographical Note
Maxim Moiseevich Vinawer, lawyer, political and communal leader was born in 1863 in Warsaw, Russian Empire (now Poland) into a wealthy Jewish family. Upon completion of earlier schooling at the 3rd Warsaw Gymnasium, Maxim Vinawer continued his studies at Warsaw University where he studied law. Upon the completion of his studies Maxim Vinawer moved to Saint Petersburg where he became an assistant to a barrister (he became a barrister in 1904). In addition to practicing law, he regularly contributed to scholarly publications such as Zhurnal Ministerstva Yustizii (Journal of the Ministry of Justice, Rus. Журнал Министерства Юстиции) and Vestnik Prava, (Bulletin of Law, Rus. Вестник права). Maxim Vinawer and V.D. Nabokov served as co-editors for the Bulletin of Law between 1904 and 1906. He was also an active member of the Jurist Society at the Saint Petersburg University which served as a centre of the liberal intelligentsia and served as a chairman of the first two Congresses of Russian Jurists.
Being a member of the Hevrah Mefitsei Haskalah (Society for the Promotion of Culture Among the Jews of Russia, Rus. Обшество для Распространения Просвещения Между Евреями в России), in the late 1890s Vinawer was one the founders of the Historical and Ethnographic Commission (from 1908, Jewish Historical Ethnographic Society) and its first chairman.
In addition to being a lawyer and a prominent Jewish public leader Maxim Vinawer took active part in the political life of Russian Empire. In 1905 he was a founding member of the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party (Cadets) and in the same year was elected to the First State Duma (the lower house of the Parlament). During this period he is closely associated with Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov and Pavel Miliukov. After signing the Vyborg Appeal protesting against dissolution of the first Duma, Maxim Vinawer was imprisoned for three month and lost his rights to run for an official office.
After the February Revolution of 1917 Maxim Vinawer returned to active participation in political life of Russia. In 1917 was appointed a Senator. In 1918 he escaped to Crimea where he became a Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Crimean Regional Government. With the fall of the last stronghold of the White Movement in Crimea in 1919 Maxim Vinawer moved to Paris, France where he continued to take part in political activities of various Russian émigré groups.
In Paris, Maxim Vinawer became a chairperson of the Russian Publishing House in Paris and frequently published articles and essays in Miliukov’s Poslednie Novosti (Latest News, Rus. Последние Hовости) and La Tribune Juive (Jewish Tribune), journal that he helped found. He also helped establish Russian University (a deparment) at Université de Paris, where he delivered a series of lectures on Russian civil law.
Maxim Vinawer died in 1926, at the age of 64 in Paris, France.
Extent
1.3 Linear Feet
Abstract
Maxim Vinawer Papers consist of materials pertaining to Maxim Vinawer’s activities as a political and a communal leader. The collection covers the period between 1915 and 1926. These materials illuminate Vinawer’s participation in Russian politics as one of the leaders of the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets), his appointment as a Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Crimean Regional Government in 1919, and his activities as a prominent figure among Zionist and émigré groups in Paris. The collection consists of correspondence, circular letters, memoranda, bulletins, clippings, minutes of meetings, essays, manuscripts, drafts and notes
Arrangement
This collection is arranged as a portion of the Tcherikower Archive, which includes RG 80 through RG 89.
Collection consists of a single series:
Custodial History
The Collection was received by Elias Tcherikower who was the head of the Historical Section of YIVO.
Subject
- Vinaver, M. (Maksim), 1862 or 1863-1926 (Person)
- Mili︠u︡kov, P. N. (Pavel Nikolaevich), 1859-1943 (Person)
- Marshall, Louis, 1856-1929 (Person)
- Party of People’s Freedom (Organization)
- Crimean Regional Government (Organization)
- Triple entente (Organization)
- Alliance israélite universelle (Organization)
- Comité des délégations juives (Paris, France) (Organization)
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency (New York, N.Y.) (Organization)
- Konstitut︠s︡ionno-demokraticheskai︠a︡ partii︠a︡ (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Affidavits
- Certificates
- clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Drafts (documents)
- manuscripts (documents)
- Minutes (administrative records)
- Newspapers
- Official documents
- Resolutions (administrative records)
Geographic
Topical
Uniform Title
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of Maxim Vinawer 1914-1926 RG 84
- Author
- Originally processed by YIVO Archives staff and by Marek Web in the 1960's and 1970's. Materials further processed, described, prepared for digitization and finding aid encoded by Yakov Il'ich Sklar in 2017.
- Date
- ©2017
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- Processed, conserved and digitized as part of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections project (2015-2022). Additional work funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Repository Details
Part of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Repository
