Metadata: Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute, Soviet Red Archives
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 300-80
- Title:
- Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute, Soviet Red Archives
- Creator/accumulator:
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute
- Date(s):
- 1953/1994
- Language:
- Croatian
- Czech
- English
- French
- German
- Russian
- Extent:
- 2652 Archival boxes; 331.5 linear meters
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The sub-fond contains materials (clippings from Soviet periodicals available abroad, a wide range of Soviet magazines and various scientific journals; transcripts and informational summaries gathered from monitoring Soviet radio and television; and Soviet news agency releases, samizdat materials, Western publications and Radio Liberty materials such as broadcast transcripts, research materials and press releases) collected by research specialists and analysts at the Soviet Red Archives of the RFE/RL Research Institute.
Materials concerning Jewish history and culture can be found in 79 folders dispersed throughout 4 archival series out of 11 that the sub-fond contains. This material informs about lives of Jewish communities in the USSR and in the newly independent countries after the USSR dissolved, from 1953 to 1994. 1) Archival series HU OSA 300-80-1 Old Code Subject Files contains 62 folders with information about Jews in the USSR and beyond collected from Soviet official newspapers and magazines, publications and commentaries on it in the western mass-circulated press, 1953-1993. Main topics include antisemitism, Jewish writers, Jewish literature, the impact of anti-cosmopolitan campaign, and trials against Jews (Leningrad trial, Kishinev trial, Riga trial), Zionism, emigration, and refuseniks. 2) Archival series HU 300-80-2 New Code Subject Files contains 3 folders that informs about Soviet Jews emigrating and the Jewish question in the USSR and beyond in 1989-1991. 3) Archival series HU OSA 300-80-6 New Code Republics Files contains 1 folder with material that informs about Jewish lives in Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR, 1992-1994. 4) Archival series HU OSA 300-80-8 Non-USSR Biographical Files contains 14 folders that inform how Soviet and post-Soviet press reported about Chagall, Einstein, Eshkol, Freud, Kafka, Meir, Wallenberg and others from 1960 to 1993.
- 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 Soviet Red Archives was established in 1953 as part of the Radio Liberty Research Unit in order to extract reliable and accurate data from the massive body of media produced in the Soviet republics. Each piece of information was filed according to a subject classification. When necessary, files were cross-referenced to ensure greater access to information. Establishment of the RFE/RL was related to informational confrontation in the Cold War. The material was processed and revised at the Blinken OSA in 1994, 2001, 2004.
- System of arrangement:
- The sub-fond includes 11 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/jDen72LL#context
- Yerusha Network member:
- Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
- Author of the description:
- Anastasia Felcher; Blinken OSA; 2022 based on Jennie Levine; Irida Tase; Olga Zaslavskaya; Natalia Lekant, Blinken OSA; 1994; Natasha Zanegina; Blinken OSA; 2001; Jennie Levine; Blinken OSA; 2004.
