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	HU OSA 300-85-44
Fonds 300:	Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute
Subfonds 85:	Samizdat Archives
Series 44:	Unpublished Samizdat: Subject Files

Date(s) 1963-1992

Extent and medium 38 Archival boxes, 5 linear meters

Archival history

Some of the files from Series 44 originally had titles established by the Samizdat Archives (SA) staff. Others were given their titles while being processed at OSA. In the OSA database the latter titles are enclosed in square brackets. During the processing work, in those cases where Samizdat documents were not in folders but kept with other loose materials, they were separated and put into folders, which were named accordingly. If Samizdat documents were accompanied by specifically selected reference materials or other records, they were kept together and the resulting collection was treated as a file of Samizdat documents.

Scope and content

This series belongs to the Samizdat Archives (SA) backlog and contains files of unpublished Samizdat documents with subject titles.

In this series files relating to the interpretation of principles of human rights in the context of Soviet society (Natsional’nosti, Prava cheloveka, Religiia, Emigratsiia), confrontation between the Soviet regime and its dissident citizens (Karatel’nye organy, Mesta lisheniia svobody, Psikhiatriia i psikhiatricheskie bol’nitsy), and the activities of public groups during the Perestroika period (Gruppy) are the most numerous and the most interesting.

Accruals Not expected

System of arrangement

• Arranged alphabetically

Language/scripts of material

Armenian, English, Estonian, Georgian, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Ukrainian (Principally Russian)

Finding aids

• 38 containers

Related units of description

• HU OSA 300-85-45 Unpublished Samizdat: Biographical Files, 1940-1992
• HU OSA 300-85-46 Unpublished Samizdat: Documents Sorted chronologically, 1968-1994

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.

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 Radio had been computerized, as printouts.) Documents in this group have a [Prepared for publication] sign in the folder record.

Archivist's Note

Subject Files were organized on the basis of the subject category 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

While subject files were classified according to the list, the chosen category was included in the title of each file, before of its proper title. (So, if the original title was Liberal'naia partiia, the final title is [Gruppy:] Liberal'naia partiia). In cases where the two were identical, the subject category became the folder's only title.

To provide users with more searching opportunities, in some cases additional keywords from the subject list and names were included in folder record (for example: [Natsional'nosti: Krymskie tatary]; [Vlasov, IU.]).

Date(s) of descriptions

Arranged by Natasha Zanegina; described by Natasha Zanegina, 15 July 2002; revised by Pavol Salamon, 1 August 2002
Online version updated 6 January 2012