Table of Contents
- Collection Summary
- Biographical Note
- Scope and Content Note
- Subject Headings
- Administrative Information
- Access and Use
- Encoding Information
- Container List
Collection Summary
| Repository: | Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries |
|---|---|
| Creator: | Balabanoff, Angelica, 1878-1965 |
| Title: | Angelica Balabanoff Papers |
| Dates: | approximately 1938-1965 |
| Quantity: | 0.3 cubic feet (1 box) |
| Abstract: | Collection consists of manuscripts by Balabanoff including the first draft of a portion of her autobiography MY LIFE AS A REBEL, published in 1938, and several poems. There is also an obituary, 1965. |
Biographical Note
The daughter of a Russian Jewish landowner and businessman, Angelica Balabanoff rebelled at a young age against her upper middle-class upbringing. She earned a doctorate at the Universite Nouvelle in Brussels and began her lifelong commitment to the socialist movement. After joining the Italian Socialist Party she worked for the party in Switzerland, where she befriended Benito Mussolini. His break with socialism and espousal of fascism deeply disappointed and angered Balabanoff.
While not a great theoretician, Balabanoff was well respected in the European socialist and labor movements. She was secretary to the Zimmerwald movement, and following the Bolshevik revolution, was named Secretary of the Third Communist International in 1919. A few years later she broke with the Bolsheviks, protesting the Comintern's treatment of the Italian socialists. Emigrating first to Sweden, she began writing poetry. During World War II she lived in the United States but returned to Italy after the war. Until her death she continued to hope and work for a socialist future.
TopScope and Content Note
Collection consists of manuscripts by Balabanoff including the first draft of a portion of her autobiography MY LIFE AS A REBEL, published in 1938, and several poems. There is also an obituary, 1965.
TopAccess and Use
Access
This collection is open for research according to the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library without any additional restrictions.
Restrictions on Use
Permission to quote (publish) from unpublished or previously published material must be obtained as described in the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library.
Subject Headings
Organizations:
- Communist International
Subjects:
- Communism--Europe
- Communists
- Labor and laboring classes--Europe--Political activity
- Socialism--Europe
- Socialists
- Women in politics--Europe
- Women social reformers
- Zimmerwald movement
Places:
- Europe--Social conditions
Document Types:
- Poems
VCL Categories
- Politics
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Angelica Balabanoff Papers, Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries.
Processing Information
Original processing date unknown.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Angelica Balabanoff.
Additional material added in 2009 from the Autograph File.
Container List
| Folder 1 | First draft of the first chapters of My Life as a Rebel New York : Harper Brothers, 1938 |
| Folder 2-6 | First drafts of poems in five languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish, & Russian) |
| Folder 7 | Obituary |
| Folder 8 | Correspondence, 1941-1947, n.d. |
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Details
Collection consists of manuscripts by Balabanoff including the first draft of a portion of her autobiography MY LIFE AS A REBEL, published in 1938, and several poems. There is also an obituary, 1965.
