Ukrainian-Language Letters

Series

7 archival containers

Samizdat Archives of Radio Free Europe

With the beginning of the Perestroika period, in the wake of glasnost and the cessation of foreign radio jamming, RFE/RL was bombarded with letters from the Soviet Union. In February 1989, the Samizdat Archives was assigned to the task of processing this correspondence. This resulted in the collections that is part of the Samizdat Archives holdings (Series 31-35). The letters were organized into several series, structured either chronologically (according to the respective registration number), or alphabetically by name, or geographically.

This series includes Ukrainian-language letters to RFE/RL sorted by the name of the author. The letters to the RFE/RL usually contain responses and comments to the radio broadcasting, praise, or critic of certain programs, specific appeals, and requests of the authors or the information that they wanted to publicize. Some letters also contain additional materials or copies of the documents to support the information in the letters.

The series contains letters that were mainly addressed to Radio Liberty in Munchen. The senders can be divided into the following categories. The first category consists of individuals who are asking Radio Liberty to send them some religious literature. These are people of different ages, as it can be inferred from the letters, but mainly elders. Sometimes, senders in their letters are writing on the behalf of their local religious communities. The second category consists of individuals who write to Radio Liberty because they are fans of Western music groups like Led Zeppelin etc. These are in general young people. The third category of senders can be described as people who are very much concerned about the history of Ukraine. They usually ask for additional programs on history in the broadcasting time of Radio Liberty. The fourth category of senders consists of people who are looking for their relatives whom they have lost after World War II. They usually ask Radio Liberty to help them in their search. The fifth category consists of senders who write on behalf of the organizations such as museums, institutes. People in this category usually ask Radio Liberty to assist them in their efforts to deal with particular problems, such as preservation of artifacts, etc. Finally, there are senders who write poetry and send it to Radio Liberty. These are people like Ivan Kassala. The archive fond contains two folders with his poetry.

Not Expected

The series is organized alphabetically based on the original order according to the author's surname. Anonymous letters are placed at the end of the series. Related units: 300-85-31; 300-85-32; 300-85-33; 300-85-35.

Restricted

Third party rights are to be cleared.

Revised by Anna Mazanik and Irina Egorova, 2017, revised by Anastasia Felcher, 2020.