Subject Files

Series

317 archival containers

Samizdat Archives of Radio Free Europe

The records of the Research Institute are deposited under a 1994 agreement between Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Open Media Research Institute and the Open Society Institute. The subject files were created at the Samizdat Archives (SA) of the RFL/RL Research Institute in order to support the research work of its staff. The files are based on the subject list developed specifically for this project. The subject list contains 52 general categories, with numerous sub-categories and sub-sub-categories.

The subject files include clippings from Russian and Western press, news agency releases, RFE/RL research papers, transcripts of radio broadcasts, and other information that aided SA staff in ascertaining the authenticity of Samizdat documents, contextualizing them and generally understanding the situation in the Soviet Union as well as the early years of post-Soviet transition. The series covers the major topics of Soviet political and intellectual life (power and state, ideology, legislation, international relations, punitive bodies, human rights, nationality policy, censorship and mass media). A substantial part of the series materials is devoted to the political processes and social movements of the perestroika era. Several subject categories deal with the dissident movement and the history of Samizdat, its production and circulation. In addition to this, the subject files include documents on some more specific aspects of Soviet and early post-Soviet everyday culture, for example, housing, public health, prices and consumption, pop-music, rumors and jokes, mafia, drugs, as well as the life of women, children, homosexuals and people with disabilities.

Not Expected

The series is organized based on the original order. The documents are arranged alphabetically by subject categories and sub-categories (in Russian) and thereunder chronologically.

Not Restricted

Reproduction is allowed for non commercial purposes.

Processed by Jennie Levine, Irida Tase and Olga Zaslavskaya, 1997; revised by Natasha Zanegina, 2002; revised by Anna Mazanik and Alexandra Medzibrodszky, 2017; revised by Anastasia Felcher, Mariia Golovina and Faeza Yuldasheva, 2020; revised by Evgeny Beliakov in May-June 2022.