Iurii Petrovich Miroliubov, 1892 - 1970

IUrii Miroliubov was born on 30 July 1892 (O.S.) in the town of Bakhmut, Ekaterinoslavskaia guberniia. The First World War interrupted his studies at the University of St. Vladimir in Kiev, and as an officer he served in the White Army in South Russia, evacuating the country in 1920. He resumed his education in Prague and Belgium, where he settled and became a chemical engineer in charge of a glycerin-producing factory.

Miroliubov also wrote prose and poetry, primarily folkloric renderings of ancient Russian history, most of which was published by his widow posthumously in the 1970s-1990s, but which also appeared in contemporary newspapers and journals. In 1954, he acquired the San Francisco-based émigré periodical Zhar-ptitsa, and moved to San Francisco, California, to continue its publication. It is in this journal that the document known as the "Vles-Kniga" (aka "Kniga Velesa", "Vlesova Kniga") first made its appearance. Purporting to be a newly-discovered ancient manuscript describing the history of the Eastern Slavs in pre-Christian times, the existence and dissemination of this literary mystification is due in large measure to Miroliubov's efforts.

Following the closure of Zhar-ptitsa in the late 1950s Miroliubov decided to return to Belgium, but never made it, dying at sea on 6 November 1970.

Detailed processing and preservation microfilming for these materials were made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by matching funds from the Hoover Institution and Museum of Russian Culture. The grant also provides for depositing a microfilm copy in the Hoover Institution Archives.The original materials and copyright to them (with some exceptions) are the property of the Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco.

IUrii Miroliubov Register