These directories offer a broad picture of Russian society in an age of dynamic social and economic change.  As Russia’s modernization accelerated toward the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, social identity was in flux – peasants moved to urban areas to join the burgeoning industrial labor force; scions of the traditional nobility were selling their increasingly impoverished estates to become members of the nascent professional middle class; and government bureaucrats began filling positions in newly created government organs.  The city and business directories capture these phenomena in a unique way by detailing the social transformation of “new Russia” in a systematic way.

The following directory collections are available.  Please click here for a more complete description.

1. Ves Sankt-Peterburg (All St. Petersburg) – Each volume lists houses according to districts and streets with names of owners and their professions.  Local maps help bring the city to life for the researcher. The volumes also list all government offices and their employees.  Searches for particular family lines or persons can be carried out using the last-name index, which also includes first name and patronymic. 
2. Vsia Rossiia (All Russia) &  Ves SSSR (All USSR) – Each volume contains lists of people who owned businesses -- from large factories to small grocery stores -- in cities and towns throughout the entire Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union.  Some of the volumes are organized by guberniia, with general information about each guberniia in an introductory section, others by profession.  Each volume includes a list of government officials and public institutions.  All those listed are indexed by last name, then first name and patronymic.
3. Vsia Moskva (All Moscow)1875 -1917 – These directories list Moscow’s inhabitants with their home addresses and their professions.  Government, public and private institutions, and business are also listed, along with their employees.  Of particular interest are the entries for Moscow’s churches and monasteries, which include brief biographical information on priests.  The health professions are also well-represented, as hospitals and their personnel are listed, along with all practicing physicians arranged by specialization and street address.