The collection has been foldered strictly in the order in which it was found. Most of the material had been previously processed and described. Many items were identified and grouped by Nadezhda Mandelʹshtam; part of the collection was organized by Nikolai Khardzhiev; much of the work on collating and describing poetry and prose manuscripts was done by Irina Semenko. The present inventory draws almost exclusively on these earlier descriptions. In several cases, however, no description was available, and attempts were made to organize certain items (without disturbing the original order of item envelopes) and identify them. Thus, Nadezhda Mandelʹshtam's correspondence (Box 3, Folders 102-104) has been itemized and chronologically arranged within the three envelopes in which it was originally placed. Some additional corrections (Boxes 1 & 3) have been made by Pavel Polian (Nerler) in December 1999.

Material for some items was frequently found in different parts of the collection, therefore, for prose, cross-reference has been made to relevant folders. Besides, for poetry and for prose, respective indexes to titles and first lines have been compiled. For letters, there are indexes to addressees and senders.