Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 300-1-2

Title

Information Items

Date(s)

1951 - 1956

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

77 Rolls of 35 mm microfilm in microfilm cabinet, 3.85 linear meters

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

The series consists of microfilmed transcripts and summaries of interviews and reports. The reports, which were sent to the Munich headquarters from RFE’s ten Western European field bureaus, are based on interviews conducted with immigrants and defectors in Western refugee camps and immigration offices or with Western travelers returning from trips behind the Iron Curtain, and also on RFE correspondence with anonymous sources from the socialist countries. Once they reached the national units, the reports were carefully checked for accuracy and plausibility. Only those which passed the various filtering systems were recommended as material for producing radio programs.
The reports were translated into English and published in the original language followed by the English version; the great majority, however, appear only in the original language. Translation, English editing, and typing of the items were responsibility of the East Europe Research and Analysis Department. At the end of 1969, there were 17 national reporters stationed in six RFE field bureaus: London, Munich (German News Desk) Paris, Rome, Stockholm and Vienna.
The items provide information, relating to mainly Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania but also to the Soviet Union and the GDR, on a variety of topics from the communist party to prison conditions, from military issues to defectors, from economic problems to the reception of and reaction to RFE broadcasts.
The collection will obviously interest historians of Soviet and East European Communism, presenting them with detailed information about the tumultuous social, political and military events that swept the countries of Eastern Europe in the 1950s. However, thanks to its breadth, the series could constitute an extremely valuable resource for a far wider range of researchers, from political scientists interested in the implications that major socio-political changes have for individual citizens' everyday lives to specialists in international relations who are interested in the 20th Century history of their discipline.

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

Alphabetically according to subjects and thereunder chronologically

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

The records might contain unpublished personal data which are restricted from access by RFE/RL.

Languages

Bulgarian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Romany, Slovak

Description Control

Archivist's note

Arranged by István Aranyosi, Nino Gogoladze, Liia Karsakova, Matej Novák, Serban Popescu, George Turturea, Laura Vasile and Dan-Cristian Zeman; described by Csaba Szilágyi and George Turturea, June 2004; revised by Pavol Šalamon, November, 2004.