| Summary: | The core of the Samizdat Archives (SA) is the collection of Samizdat documents (many of them copies) created in the former Soviet Union (usually for underground circulation) and then sent (usually smuggled) abroad to make them available to the public via Western mass media. All the other materials which belong to the SA holdings were built by SA staff around the collection of Samizdat documents.
The SA collected Samizdat documents which reflected the interests and activities of opposition movements in the Soviet Union (human rights groups, national and religious groups). These include statements of protest by groups and individuals, discussions and analyses of the Soviet political and economic system, reports on the anti-constitutional actions of the Soviet authorities. Later, during the Perestroika period, two major topics for Samizdat documents emerged: the future development of Soviet society and efforts to build up a new political system.
The existing holdings of SA grouped as follows:
Published Samizdat documents (Series 1-10)
This group includes Samizdat documents (6617) which were processed by SA staff and circulated around RFE/RL in the “Materialy Samizdata" publication, and the registers and indexes which SA staff developed for this collection.
Unpublished Samizdat documents (Series 36-42, 44-46)
This group includes those Samizdat documents which reached RFE/RL, but for different reasons were not selected for circulation.
Support materials (Series 12, 13, 20-30, 70)
This group includes numerous reference materials which SA staff collected during the years of its existence: intensive subject and biographical files built primarily on such sources as Soviet and Western mass media, several special indexes, and a small collection of reference publications relating to Samizdat issues, but published outside the radio.
Letters of the Perestroika period (Series 31-35)
This group includes several thousands of letters which reached RFE/RL from the Soviet Union during the Perestroika period. Only a part of them were registered and processed at the time of their arrival.
Informal / Regional Press (Series 15-19)
This is a large collection of press materials (newspapers and magazines). For the most part it consists of the first independent publications of the Perestroika period, but there are also official local Soviet publications or publications with limited circulation and some Samizdat publications of the pre-Perestroika period. SA developed several finding aids for this collection.
Administrative Files (Series 47)
This group contains administrative papers kept by members of SA staff for their personal use: letters, telexes, and e-mail messages, memorandums, instructions, time sheets, requests, requisitions, and other documentation reflecting the activity of SA.
For over 20 years, RFE/RL collected Samizdat documents relating to attempts by the Soviet public to influence the policy of the totalitarian Soviet state and mostly dealing with human rights issues. Samizdat and RFE/RL as the most effective of its propagandists played a very significant role in the development of Soviet society and in the history of the human rights movement. Considering that the Soviet authorities did their utmost to shut down independent voices, the RFE/RL collection of Samizdat documents sheds light on an otherwise hidden part of Soviet history through years from Zastoi to the Perestroika period.
The SA collection is also a unique source of historical materials documenting a very significant period in the development of Soviet history when Soviet society was taking its first steps towards democracy by implementing the Glasnost’ (Openness) policy. The Informal/Regional Press Collection, letters from the Soviet Union to RFE/RL and hundreds of Samizdat documents give a wide picture of a society in transition with all its confusions, hopes, discoveries, and disappointments.
Accruals not expected
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