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Most of the collection dates from 1918-1940, and concerns the Civil War in Siberia and the emigration in China. There is a long manuscript by Golovachev on the Civil War. Other manuscripts include memoirs by F. Porotikov on Admiral Kolchak, and one by V. Russii︠a︡n, a former tsarist police official, attempting to prove that Stalin was a police agent. Photographs include an inscribed portrait of Lev Tolstoĭ. Subject files concern various Siberian and Far Eastern institutions and organizations, and deal with both the Civil War and the emigration. Printed materials include books, pamphlets, newspapers, and clippings, again mostly on Siberian or Far Eastern affairs, or on the law.

The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, subject files and printed material. The correspondence is primarily from the 1920s and includes letters from G. E. Lv́ov and S. P. Mel'gunov and one or two items each from M. A. Aldanov, I. A. Bunin, N. V. Chaikovskii, A. L. Tolstaiia, V. F. Zeeler and others. The manuscripts are primarily in the form of notes in Polner's hand and include Polner's diary from the years 1919-1925. The documents belong to Tikhon Polner's brother, Sergei, and deal with the latter's expulsion from the USSR in 1921. There is extensive material in the subject files on the writings of Lev Tolstoĭ, including typescript copies of several Tolstoi manuscripts and clippings of the reviews of Polner's book on Tolstoi. Also included is a photograph of A. I. Herzen from the 1850s.