Frenkel was the son of Y.I. Frenkel, a distinguished theoretician from Leningrad, who obtained an invitation for Peierls to the conference at Odessa in 1930 at which he and Genia Peierls first met (Bird of Passage, pp. 61-62).

Correspondence relates almost entirely to historical writings and recollections of Frenkel, Tamm, Gamov and others, and of the Odessa conference. Some letters are addressed to Genia.