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	HU OSA 300-85-46
Fonds 300:	Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute
Subfonds 85:	Samizdat Archives
Series 46:	Unpublished Samizdat: Documents Sorted chronologically

Date(s) 1968-1994

Extent and medium 19 Archival boxes, 2 linear meters

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.

Scope and content

This series contains unpublished Samizdat files arranged in chronological order.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the list developed by SA (Samizdat Archives) staff for the clipping Subject Files, Series 12, and used for classifying unpublished Samizdat documents).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

System of arrangement

• Arranged chronologically

Conditions governing access Limited

Language/scripts of material

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

Finding aids

• 19 containers

Related units of description

• HU OSA 300-85-44 Unpublished Samizdat: Subject Files, 1963-1992
• HU OSA 300-85-45 Unpublished Samizdat: Biographical Files, 1940-1992

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.

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.

Date(s) of descriptions

Arranged by Natasha Zanegina; described by Natasha Zanegina, 15 July 2002
Online version updated 6 January 2012