Metadata: Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute, Samizdat 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 300-85
- Title:
- Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute, Samizdat Archives
- Creator/accumulator:
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Research Institute
- Date(s):
- 1956/1994
- Language:
- Armenian
- Belarusian
- English
- Estonian
- French
- Georgian
- German
- Italian
- Kazakh
- Kirghiz; Kyrgyz
- Latin
- Lithuanian
- Pushto; Pashto
- Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan
- mol
- Russian
- Ukrainian
- Extent:
- 1198 Archival boxes; 149.75 linear meters; 5 Oversized boxes (40 cm); 2.0 linear meters; 19 Archival card boxes; 5.99 linear meters
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The sub-fond contains materials collected and compiled by research specialists and analysts at the Samizdat Archives of the RFE/RL Research Institute. For the samizdat files (petitions, open letters, etc.) that were later published by the radios in their samizdat bulletins (“Materialy Samizdata" [Materials of Samizdat] and “Sobranie dokumentov samizdata” [Collection of Samizdat Documents]), the Samizdat Archives staff was responsible for collecting, cataloging, and checking the new arrivals to separate potential forgeries and verify the information in authentic documents. The Samizdat Archives staff was much more interested in political samizdat rather than in fictional prose or literary journals. Since RFE/RL wanted to provide reliable information, the factual content of Samizdat documents was very carefully checked. The rest of the sub-fond consists of clipping collections covering topics relating to Samizdat issues (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).
Materials concerning Jewish history and culture can be found in more than 1200 folders and items dispersed throughout 7 archival series out of 33 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 1964 to 1993. 1) Archival series HU OSA 300-85-9 Published Samizdat contains 614 samizdat items related to the dissent activity of Jews in the USSR and beyond, 1958-1987. These documents (petitions, open letters signed by dissidents and activists) inform about the struggle of Soviet Jews for emigration from the USSR, first-hand information about antisemitism in the USSR, activism for recognition of the Holocaust and commemoration of victims, the nationality question in the USSR, identity and self-identification as Jews, Zionism, and Jewish samizdat. 2) Archival series HU 300-85-12 Subject Files contains 144 folders that inform about everyday and political lives of Soviet Jews in the USSR and beyond (including questions of international support provided to Soviet Jews, Jewish emigration, Jews as minorities in different republics of the USSR, Jewish cultural societies and associations, antisemitism, arrests of Jews, Yiddish and Hebrew, refuseniks, Jews protesting persecution at home and abroad, statistics, Jewish press and samizdat), 1977-1991. 3) Archival series HU OSA 300-85-13 Biographical Files contains 299 folders with material that informs about personal files of Soviet Jews (including dissidents, refuseniks, successfully emigrated Jews, human rights activists, Zionist activists, arrestees, members of Jewish emigration movement, authors of samizdat self-publications, members of Jewish national movement) in the USSR, 1965-1993. 4) Archival series HU OSA 300-85-19 Soviet Informal Press contains multiple issues of the Jewish informal press (19 titles) from the transition period right before and after the collapse of the USSR, from 1989 to 1993. 5) Archival series HU OSA 300-85-44 Unpublished Samizdat: Subject Files contains 61 folders that inform about antisemitism and Jewish effort to emigrate from the USSR, refuseninks, and separated families, 1970-1987 based on information gained mainly from Soviet and international press as well as RFE/RL research input. 6) Archival series HU OSA 300-85-46 Unpublished Samizdat: Documents Sorted Chronologically contains documents that were not registered and not published in RFE/RL samizdat bulletins, were considered falsified or unreliable, contained information that was impossible to verify, or were of lesser interest for the SA staff. The series includes 15 folders with samizdat documents about Jewish dissent in the USSR in 1967-1991. 7) Archival series New York Office Files Relating to Samizdat contains files collected by the Information Division of the Radio Liberty New York office. The series contains 13 folders that inform about biographies of Jews trying to emigrate from the USSR, 1970-1990.
- 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:
- At the end of the 1960s, the Soviet Research Department of the RFE/RL Research Institute started to systematically collect samizdat documents that reached the West. Those documents were considered a valuable first-hand source from inside the Soviet Union and were actively used to prepare radio programs. By the time the Samizdat Archives was set up as a separate unit, the Samizdat collection numbered hundreds of documents. 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 1996, 2002, 2018, 2020.
- Access points: locations:
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Estonia
- Georgia
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Moldova
- Russia
- Tajikistan
- Turkmenistan
- Ukraine
- Access points: persons/families:
- Aleksandr Ginzburg
- Efim Etkind
- Elena Bonner
- Ida Milgrom
- Marc Chagall
- Menakhem Begin
- Moshe Abramov
- Subject terms:
- Aliyah
- Anti-religious activity (Soviet Union)
- Antisemitism
- Jewish community
- Jewish daily life and religious practices
- Jewish languages
- Jewish languages--Hebrew
- Jewish languages--Yiddish
- Jewish political activity
- Jewish press
- Migration
- Migration--Emigration
- Monuments and memorials
- Statistics
- Zionism
- System of arrangement:
- The sub-fond includes 33 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/jDen7kVB
- Yerusha Network member:
- Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
- Author of the description:
- Anastasia Felcher; Blinken OSA; 2022 based on Jennie Levine; Blinken OSA; 1996; Natasha Zanegina; Blinken OSA; 2002; Anna Mazanik, Blinken OSA; 2018; Anastasia Felcher; Blinken OSA; 2020.
