Metadata: Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute, US Office
Collection
- Country:
- Hungary
- Holding institution:
- Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Vera és Donald Blinken Nyílt Társadalom Archívum
- Postal address:
- Arany János u. 32, 1051 Budapest, Hungary
- Phone number:
- 36-1-327-3250
- Web address:
- https://osaarchivum.org/
- Email:
- info@osaarchivum.org
- Reference number:
- Sub-fond HU OSA 300-7
- Title:
- Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute, US Office
- Creator/accumulator:
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute
- Date(s):
- 1945/1973
- Language:
- English
- French
- German
- Russian
- Extent:
- 204 Archival boxes; 25.63 linear meters
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The sub-fond contains materials (newspaper clippings from western, mostly American, press and news agency releases) collected by research specialists and analysts at the US Office of the RFE/RL Research institute. The materials cover the political and ideological development of the world communist movement, the war in Indo-China, the Cuban revolution, the Communist parties of the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc, China, and the United States and the movement of so-called “non-aligned" nations. These entries are registered as archival series within the sub-fond under the names of the countries the collected material informed about (such as Hungarian Subject Files, Czechoslovak Subject Files, Subject Files Relating to China, etc.).
Materials concerning Jewish history and culture can be found in 19 folders dispersed throughout 6 archival series out of 10 that the sub-fond contains. This material informs about the lives of Jewish communities in socialist Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union, as seen on the pages of Western, mostly American, press, from 1950 to 1973. 1) Archival series HU OSA 300-7-1 Hungarian Subject Files contains 1 folder with information about Jews in socialist Hungary (Hungarian People's Republic), 1950-1973: from the late Stalinist era, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and through the first half of the Kádár regime. 2) Archival series HU 300-7-2 Polish Subject Files contains 5 folders that informs about the treatment of Jews as representatives of an ethnic minority in Socialist Poland (Polish People's Republic, PRL), 1956-1973: from the end of the Stalinist era and beginning of the political thaw to the aftermath of the 1970 Polish protests and the early years of the Gierek regime. 3) Archival series HU OSA 300-7-3 Romanian Subject Files contains 1 folder with clippings from the American press on Jewish lives in socialist Romania (Romanian People's Republic, RPR, then Socialist Republic of Romania, RSR), 1950-1974: from the late Stalinist years to the first half of Ceauşescu era. 4) Archival series HU OSA 300-7-4 Bulgarian Subject Files contains 1 folder on the treatment of Jews as representatives of an ethnic minority in socialist Bulgaria (People's Republic of Bulgaria, PRB), 1952-1970: under the rule of Zhivkov. 5) Archival series HU OSA 300-7-5 Subject Files Relating to Eastern Europe contains 4 folders with press clippings from Western printed media on the Jewish community and Jewish periodicals in the countries of Eastern Bloc, 1950-1970. 6) Archival series HU OSA 300-7-6 Subject Files Relating to the USSR contains 7 folders that inform about how Western mass media saw Jewish social life in the Soviet Union, 1955-1971: from the end of the Stalinist era, through the Khrushchev thaw, to the early years of Brezhnev rule
- Archival history:
- The sub-fond was transferred to the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives in May 1995 under the initial mandate to preserve over 2.5 linear kilometers of documents accumulated in the archives of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The US Office was established in the 1940s as part of the RFE/RL Research Unit in order to collect and prepare for publication information about ongoing affairs and developments in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, China, and the World Communist Movement, seen through the pages of the Western, mainly American, press. The establishment and activity of the RFE/RL were related to informational confrontation in the Cold War. The material was processed and revised at the Blinken OSA in 2005.
- Subject terms:
- Communism
- Jewish community
- Jewish press
- Newspaper clippings
- Socialism
- System of arrangement:
- The sub-fond includes 10 series systematized according to legacy structure of the sub-fond.
- Access, restrictions:
- Reproduction is allowed for non-commercial purposes.
- Finding aids:
- The catalog (folders/items level) is available online.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://catalog.osaarchivum.org/catalog/jDeneMbm
- Yerusha Network member:
- Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
- Author of the description:
- Anastasia Felcher; Blinken OSA; 2022 based on András Mink and Pavol Šalamon; Blinken OSA; 2005.