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Title

Collection consists of

4 lower level description(s)

Arrangement structure

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Accession

Li-Ra-Ma collection [textual records]

Date(s)

1898-1922

Place of creation

Canada

Extent

89 microfilm reels negative and positive.

Language of material

English

Scope and content

Collection consists of documents primarily in Russian, with another half dozen east-European languages frequently used. The collection contains a variety of administrative documents one would found in a consular office. Most of the documents are handwritten, or have a significant portion of their contents in handwritten form. The collection includes a large number of passports, approximately 4,000 in total, representing a wide variety of Russian internal and external passport applications and supporting documents such as verification of identity, citizenship, birth and baptismal records (approximately 11,400 files). There are military documents relating to military service in Russian or Canadian/British forces by Russian subjects. Other official documents include work permits, the correspondence of consular officers with other diplomatic officials in North America, Russia and elsewhere, including cables in cypher. Of particular interest are documents dealing with immigration, deportation and trade matters. Photographs are attached to most of the passports and to other documents in the collection (approx. 10,000). The collection was microfilmed on 16 mm film and listed as reels M-7591 to M-7672, M-8270 and M-8271 (84 reels).

Conditions of access

Finding aid

Textual records: A finding aid was produced in 1983 which lists the archival material of the collection by volume. The nominal list is a card catatogue in the Reference Room of the National Archives, and is also available on 16 mm reels H-1971 to H-1975. MSS1441 (Electronic)

Creator / Provenance

Likacheff, A.S.

Additional name(s)

Ragosine, K.
Mathers, H.I.

Biography / Administrative history

From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century - years of massive immigration to Canada and the United States - the Imperial Russian Government, which included eastern Poland and Finland, as well as most of the former USSR, maintained consulates throughout North America. With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the consulates were closed, and their records subsequently passed from one temporary storage to another, many being lost, damaged, or destroyed in the process. Some had been given to the Hoover Institute for War, Peace and Revolution (United States). Eventually the remainder were placed in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States Government. The collection is organized into American and Canadian sections.

The Canadian section is a collection of documents created in the Imperial Russian Consular offices in Montreal, Vancouver, and Halifax by consuls, the last of whom were A.S. Likacheff, K. Ragosine, and H.I. Mathers (LI-RA-MA). In 1917, with the fall of the Czarist government in Russia, the Canadian Government offered to pay the salaries of these consuls because it highly valued and needed their expertise, and skills in dealing with the sizeable number of Slavic immigrants who had by that time, settled in Canada. One could, in fact, construe that these officials were then in Canadian Government service. Their activity came to an end in the early 1920's, at which time their papers were entrusted to other senior Russian diplomats opposed to the new Soviet regime, who were stationed in Washington, D.C., United States.

Additional information

Subject heading

1. Russians - Canada, 1898-1922
2. Murmansk-Arkangelsk Railroad, [1898-1922]
3. Russia - Emigration and immigration, 1898-1922
4. Port of Vancouver, [1903-1920]
5. Canada - Armed Forces - Recruiting, enlistment, etc, 1900-1922
6. Vancouver Board of Trade, [1903-1920]
7. Russian Canadians, 1898-1922.
8. Draft - Canada, [191-]
9. World War I, [1904-1922]
10. Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905.
11. Slavs - Evacuation and relocation - Canada, [191-]
12. World War I - Canada - Security, [191-]
13. Russia - Commerce, 1900-1920.
14. Canada - Commerce, 1900-1920.
15. Commerce.
16. Siberia (Russia)
17. Shipwrecks, [1900-1920]
18. Refugees, Political, [1904-1920]
19. Russia - Politics and government, [1903-1920]
20. Diplomatic and consular service, Russian - Canada, [1898-1922]
21. Canada - Relations - Russia, [1903-1920]
22. Russia - Relations - Canada, [1903-1920]

Source

Private

Other system control no.

MAINS25262

MIKAN no.

105717