Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 300-85-46

Title

Unpublished Samizdat: Documents Sorted chronologically

Date(s)

1968 - 1994

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

19 Archival boxes, 2.38 linear meters

Context

Archival history

The Samizdat Archives (SA) backlog included a number of files without titles, but designated by dates. Very often this date showed when this group of documents arrived at the SA. In this case the date was sometimes preceded by the word “New". In other cases a file designated by a date could contain a group of documents selected for publication in “Materialy Samizdata" (often accompanied by reference materials). If a folder without any title contained several documents which did not pertain to the same subject or relate to the same person, it was also designated with date(s ). In all three cases “Samizdat Documents" was used as a standard title.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

This series contains unpublished Samizdat files arranged in chronological order.

The best represented topics are the following: Gruppy, Mesta lisheniia svobody, Perestroika, Religiia. (subject categories are borrowed from the list developed by SA (Samizdat Archives) staff for the clipping Subject Files, Series 12, and used for classifying unpublished Samizdat documents).

Accruals

Not Expected

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Limited

Languages

English, Estonian, Georgian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Pushto; Pashto, Russian, Ukrainian

Notes

Note

The chronology of Samizdat documents is a very complicated issue. Many Samizdat documents are not dated. Very often the dates of their creation and circulation are not the same, and it is hard to establish which of the two is indicated on the document. Finally, the dates that appear on folders or in the left or right hand corner of the reverse of the first page of each document (this was supposed to be standard practice at the SA, but unfortunately the rule was not always followed) are dates of its receipt by the SA. But in spite of the variety of possible evidence it was sometimes impossible to establish any date with certainty. This is why the dates that appear in the database and on each folder should often be seen as relative.

Description Control

Archivist's note

To provide users with more searching opportunities, in some case additional names and keywords were included in the folder record (for example: [Kiselev, IU]; [Emigratsiia: Otkazniki]). Subject categories were borrowed from the list developed by SA staff for the clipping Subject Files (see Series 12): Vlast’ i gosudarstvo Voiny Geografiia Gruppy Zakonodatel’stvo Inakomyslie Inostrantsy v SSSR Istoriia Karatel’nye organy Kul’tura Mesta lisheniia svobody Nauka Natsional’nosti Perestroika Prava cheloveka Protesty Psikhiatriia i psikhiatricheskie bol’nitsy Religiia Samizdat Sviaz’ (pochta, telefon) Sotsial’nye gruppy i sotsial’nye iavleniia Sredstava massovoi informatsii Ekologiia Economika Emigratsia To give users better a idea of the SA's approach to selecting samizdat documents for publication, we marked out those documents, which were prepared for publication but for different reasons were not published. (Very often they were printed as stencils or, after the Radio had been computerized, as printouts.) Documents in this group have a [Prepared for publication] sign in the folder record.