Helen Tisdel De Wollant (1868-1955) came from a prominent Washington, D.C., family. She settled in Russia after marrying Russian diplomat Grigorii Aleksandrovich De-Vollan.
Tisdel De Wollant was living on his family estate in Yalta when the 1917 Revolution broke out. Unable to leave, she remained in Crimea for several years. She experienced deprivation and violence as one faction after another occupied the peninsula during the ensuing Civil War. She fled via Constantinople in 1920 and returned to the U.S., where she spent the rest of her life.
This collection consists of diaries, letters, typescripts, photographs, and official documents attesting to Tisdel De Wollant's life in Russia from 1898 to 1920 and in the U.S. from 1920 to 1950.
Most notable are the diaries in which Tisdel De Wollant recorded her harrowing experiences in Crimea during the Civil War, and an unpublished memoir describing her life in St. Petersburg and in the Russian countryside in the years before the 1917 Revolution.
Accessing These Materials
The collection is available for in-library use. Please consult the Fung Library for access.