Schlesinger Papers

The Schlesinger Papers comprise the collected editorials, articles, correspondence, lectures, drafts, book revisions and memoirs of Dr Rudolf Schlesinger (1901-1969), Marxist theoretician and co-founder of the University of Glasgow's Institute of Soviet and East European Studies.

After his death in 1969, all of Dr Schlesinger's papers became the property of his close friend and executor, René Beerman; in 1991 the papers were donated to the University and were transferred to the Special Collections Department. Contents include:

• Editorials, articles and correspondence relating to Schlesinger's editorship of Soviet Studies and Co-existence.
• Lectures, drafts and revisions for books and articles on Soviet history, the Soviet legal system and its political theory.
• Memoirs.
• Some correspondence with leaders of the German Communist Party in the 1930s.
• Part of the records of the German Communist Party during the 1920s and 30s (in very poor condition).

How to find material in the Schlesinger Papers

• The items in this collection have not yet been fully listed in our manuscripts search; however, for an overview of the Papers, see the collection page (MS Gen 1660) in the manuscripts search.
• An initial inventory of the material is available in the Special Collections Department (on the reference shelves in the reading room)
• James Downs, Rudolf Schlesinger: a display of documents to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death on 11 November 1969, Glasgow University Library, 11 November 1994 - 6 January 1995 (Glasgow, 1994). Exhibition catalogue available in the Special Collections reading room.