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Title: Catherine A. Gumensky (Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Gumenskaia) papers
Date (inclusive): 1913-1985
Collection Number: 2000C84
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Russian
Physical Description:
1-13 microfilm reels
(2.2 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, writings, financial records, clippings, and photographs, relating mainly to Russian émigré and family affairs.
Creator:
Gumensky, Catherine A., 1897-1988
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired.
[Identification of item], Catherine A. Gumensky Papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Originals in: Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco.
George C. Guins is best known to historians as the administrative secretary (upravliaiushchii delami) of the Siberian (later
All-Russian) anti-Bolshevik government at Omsk. Privy to governmental decisions in this capacity as well as in concurrent
service as deputy minister for education and foreign affairs, he described the workings of the government and the anti-Bolshevik
campaign in Siberia, 1918-1920, in his published memoir, Sibir', soiuzniki i Kolchak (Peking, 1921).
Less well-known is his career as a legal philosopher, journalist, and writer and lecturer on the Soviet Union. Born in Novogeorgievsk
(now Modlin, Poland) on 27 April 1887, he studied law at St. Petersburg University under the direction of the eminent jurist
and legal philosopher Leon Petrazycki, obtaining his degree in 1909. Entering government service in the Resettlement Office
(Pereselencheskoe upravlenie) of the Ministry of Agriculture, he continued legal studies in his spare time, obtaining an advanced
degree in 1915 and remaining at St. Petersburg University as a lecturer. At this time he completed a dissertation on water
rights in Central Asia.
The 1917 Revolution saw his promotion in government service to the post of chief legal counselor of the Ministry of Provisions,
but following the Bolshevik coup in October, he left for Omsk, where he was drawn into service in the White government formed
there the following summer. At the conclusion of the Civil War, he found himself in Harbin, China, where he served on the
administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway until 1926, first as director of the chancellery and later as chief controller.
At the same time, he edited and wrote for Russkoe obozrenie, published in Peking, and helped found the Harbin Law Faculty,
a unique émigré institution training lawyers in China. Here he lectured almost until his departure for the United States in
1941, made necessary by Japanese pressure due to his independent position in Harbin politics. During this period he accomplished
his greatest scholarly achievements in legal philosophy, with such publications as Novye idei v prave i osnovnye problemy
sovremennosti (Harbin, 1931-1932), Uchenie o prave i politicheskaia ekonomiia (Harbin, 1933), Ocherki sotsial'noi filosofii
(Harbin, 1936), all now bibliographic rarities.
Following his arrival in the United States, he settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, editing for a brief period the émigré
newspaper Russkaia zhizn', and lecturing at the University of California at Berkeley and the Army Language School in Monterey.
Not finding an application for his specialization in legal philosophy, he turned to teaching Russian and Soviet civilization,
history, and law, publishing numerous articles and two books on Soviet affairs: Soviet Law and Soviet Society (The Hague,
1954) and Communism on the Decline (New York, 1956). Even after retiring from active teaching, he continued to lecture and
write, served as a consultant to the Voice of America until 1964, and contributed an oral history to the UC Berkeley Regional
Oral History Office's Russian émigré program. He died in September 1971.
| 1897 July 14 (N.S.) | Born, Kazan', Russia |
| 1914-1917 | Student, Moscow University, Moscow, Russia |
| 1921 | Arrived in the United States |
| Married Dmitrii B. Gumensky | |
| 1925 | M.A., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California |
| B.A., University of California, Berkeley, California | |
| 1927 | Naturalized as a U.S. citizen |
| 1932 | Divorced Dmitrii B. Gumensky |
| 1945-1952 | Translator, U.S. Army, European High Command |
| 1988 | Died, Apple Valley, California |
Catherine A. Gumensky was a California artist of local note. The collection contains materials relating to her work as an
artist and other biographical data, as well as her children's stories. Of particular significance is the family file, which
contains a large amount of correspondence (of Catherine, her mother Neonila Platonovna Aristova, and others) with family members
in the Soviet Union and other countries from the 1920s through the 1980s, as well as writings of other family members.
Detailed processing and preservation microfilming for these materials were made possible by a generous grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities and by matching funds from the Hoover Institution and the Museum of Russian Culture. The grant
also provides depositing a microfilm copy in the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. The original materials remain in the
Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco, as its property. A transfer table indicating corresponding box and reel numbers
is available at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
The Hoover Institution assumes all responsibility for notifying users that they must comply with the copyright law of the
United States (Title 17 United States Code) and Hoover Rules for the Use and Reproduction of Archival Materials.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Russians -- United States