Natalia Aleksandrovna Roskina (1927-1989) was born in Leningrad to Aleksandr Iosifovich Roskin and Nadezhda Davydovna Rabinovich. After being evacuated during the war, she went to Moscow and later graduated from the Philological Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. She became a prominent Moscow literary scholar, writer, and memoirist. She was a close friend of many leading cultural figures and dissidents, including the writer Vasilii Grossman and the poets Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Zabolotskii. Natalia's father, Aleksandr Iosifovich Roskin (1898-1941), was a noted writer and Chekhov scholar. The papers of Natalia Roskina are comprised of: (1) manuscripts of unpublished poems, stories, novellas, memoirs about major literary figures, and diaries (2) correspondence with family members and friends and (3) such miscellaneous items as bibliographies and obituaries.

Natalia's daughter, Irina Valentinovna Roskina (1948-), was born in Moscow. Her father was the psychiatrist, Valentin Vladimirovich Borinevich, and in 1971 she too graduated from the Philological Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. She worked for Gosfilmofond (the state film archive) and pursued her literary interests by writing reviews and doing translations and abstracts. She emigrated to Israel in 1990. Her papers are comprised of: (1) unpublished essays, novellas, and memoirs of her mother and close family friends, including the poet and playwright Aleksandr Galich (2) correspondence with noted Russian cultural figures, including the poet Evgenii Rein, the political thinker Mikhail Agurskii, and the poet and literary critic Tat'iana Bek and (3) such miscellaneous items as letters of recommendation and a notebook of favorite quotations.

The Roskina papers include 50 rare photographs, some of which are inscribed, as well as books about Leonid Andreev and about poetric theory.