Correspondence, Jan. - March, 1935

The collection is comprised largely of letters from 1934 to 1939 which Hazard wrote to Walter S. Rogers, Director of the Institute of Current World Affairs, and to John French, a lawyer and family friend. French's grandson, a 1986 graduate of Bates, gave the letters to the College in 1990.

Hazard worked for the Institute of Current World Affairs following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1934 and was the first American to study Soviet law at the Moscow Judicial Institute which granted him a certificate in 1937. He then moved to Chicago. His letters particularly to Rogers, but also to French, provide important first-hand information about Soviet politics, culture, economics, law, relations with the United States, and religion. The collection also includes some of his journal articles, as well as unpublished reports on topics such as voting procedures in the Soviet Union, legal education, and the interpretation of Soviet law.