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Use
Acquisition Information
Preferred Citation
Biographical Note
Scope and Content of Collection
Separated Materials Note
Title: Belenkiys-Serebro family papers
Date (inclusive): 1854-2017
Collection Number: 2019C52
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In Russian and English
Physical Description:
17 manuscript boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 1 oversize folder, 1 painting
(11 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Professor Moisei Belenkiy was a military doctor during WWI and later professor. His wife Lidiya Landesman-Belenkaya was a
psychology professor. Their daughter Lidiya Belenkaya-Serebro was a chemist, her husband Vladimir Serebro was an engineer.
The Belenkiys-Serebro family papers (1854-2017) include biographical materials and personal documents of three generations
of Belenkiys-Landesman-Serebro family members; their family correspondence and correspondence with people of literature and
culture; memoirs and diaries; drawings; photographs; and clippings.
Creator:
Serebro, V. S. (Vladimir Semenovich)
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Access
Box OCM3 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of 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.
Use
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2018.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Belenkiys-Serebro family papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Biographical Note
Professor Moisei Belenkiy (1892 - 1982), a military doctor during WWI, later professor, famous specialist in balneotherapy
and physical therapy; his wife, Lidiya Landesman-Belenkaya (1910-1987), psychology professor; their daughter Lidiya Belenkaya-Serebro
(1931-2013), chemist; her husband Vladimir Serebro (1932-2018), engineer.
Scope and Content of Collection
The
Belenkiys-Serebro family papers consist of materials collected by family members in the span of the 20th – beginning of the 21st century. This material has
been arranged into series corresponding to members of the Belenkiys-Serebro family: Professor Moisei Belenkiy, famous specialist
in balneology and physical therapy, his wife, psychologist Lidiya Landesman-Belenkaya, their daughter, Lidiya Belenkaya-Serebro,
and her husband Vladimir Serebro.
In addition the papers include the Belenkiy brothers series relating to the six brothers of Moiseĭ Belenkiy.
Letters of four generations of the family: M. Belenkiy and L. Landesman-Belenkaya; L. Belenkaya–Serebro and Vladimir Serebro;
and the family of their grandson Boris Serebro, his wife Alena Serebro, and their children Maxim and Vadim Serebro can be
found in the
Family correspondence series. Most of the letters in this series were written at the time when Boris Serebro and his family immigrated to the United
states; they described their road to the US and first years in this country.
The
Printed matter includes rare books and published writings by Vladimir Serebro.
In the center of the collection are papers of Moisei Belenkiy (1892-1982), including his biographical documents, materials
relating to his service in the Russian Imperial Army during WWI, his career in medicine, and life of the family in evacuation
to Tashkent during WWII. Of special interest are letters from Patriarch of All Russia Aleksiĭ, famous actors, and writers
in his
correspondence; and memoirs in his
writings covering all periods of his life. M. Belenkiy was an accomplished artist, and two albums of his drawings depict WWI scenes,
life in Central Asia during evacuation, and other events. Some of the letters were also illustrated by his drawings. Photography
became life-time hobby of M. Belenkiy, and the collection includes a lot of photographs made during his numerous trips to
various areas of the Soviet Union and abroad.
Of great interest is the
Belenkiy brothers series. Three brothers, Isaak, Iosif, and Abram, served in the Red Army during the Civil War. Abram, combat division commander,
was killed in 1920 at the age of 25 during the Red Army offensive in Poland. His oil self-portrait is included in the collection.
While being a delegate to the VII All-Russian Congress of Soviets he made a small drawings depicting Lenin, Lunacharskiĭ,
Podvoĭskiĭ, and other leading Bolsheviks. Iosif, director of the huge Uralmash plant, was found dead in his hotel room in
Moscow in 1933. As later documents from Soviet archives showed, he had been murdered. Boris Belenkiy, diplomat, USSR trade
representative in Germany, and then in Italy, fell victim to Stalin's repressions in 1939. Engineer Isaak Belenkiy educated
in Germany, supervised electrification of Kievo-Pecherskaia Lavra in Kiev and later was appointed as a director of a plant
in Liubertsy, near Moscow. Grigoriĭ Belenkiy lived in Leningrad and was professor of medicine. His file is the most informative;
it includes his letters from fronts of WWII and his biography written by his wife, Irina Brandt-Belenkaya. A small file of
their half-brother Lev Belenkiy includes his poetry and correspondence. All brothers were gifted writers and artists. In 1909
they created a handwritten literary almanac, also in this collection.
Papers of psychiatrist Lidiya Landesman-Belenkaya contain documents from her famous Landesman-Shapiro family of doctors of
medicine; biographical documents; vast correspondence, including letters from writers Irakliĭ Andronnikov and Aleksandra Brushteĭn,
Pushkin Scholar Tamara Tsiavlovskaia, and others; and recollections, including those about Anna Akhmatova.
Lidiya Belenkaya-Serebro series is representative of her many talents and interests. It includes correspondence with friends and colleagues; letters
from Andrè Landesman, her Paris relative, with a family tree and writing about the Landesman family. The series includes
Lidiya's diaries and recollections and writings about poets Anna Akhmatova and Valentin Berestov; writer Konstantin Paustovskiĭ;
and about Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lilia Brik.
Professional and personal correspondence and published memoirs included in Vladimir Serebro series is complemented by documents
related to economist B.F. Brandt and statesman Sergeĭ Vitte, the first Prime-Minister of the Russian Empire.
A very important
Photographs series depicts all stages of the life of the family. It includes photographs taken from the beginning of the 20th century
through the beginning of the 21st century.
Separated Materials Note
Five books have been separated from this collection and have been added to the library catalog.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War, 1914-1918 -- Russia
Belenʹkiĭ, M. S. (Moĭseĭ Solomonovich)