Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 300-5-30

Title

Subject Files of Oksana Antic

Date(s)

1960 - 1992

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

39 Archival boxes, 4.88 linear meters

Context

Name of creator(s)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc - Research Institute

Administrative / Biographical history

My name is Oxana Miller and I was born on July 1932 in Taganrog on the Azov
Sea. My father was professor dr. Michail Miller, a historian and
archeologist, my mother Tatiana Nekludova, who became after the break down
the the Tsarist regime, a nurse. I attended for 3 years grammar school nr. 42 in Rostov where my father was teaching at the state university. In January 1943/ when the Wehrmacht was withdrawing, we fled Soviet Russia and came to Dnepropetrovsk on the Dnepr. After about 6 months we proceeded to Lviv (Lemberg) and then in spring 1944
arrived in Vienna. In November, befor the Soviet army was entered Vienna, we
went by train to Goettingen in Low Saxonia/ Fortunately, the front stopped
there about 10 miles fromm the town and we were administrated by British
authorities.
I attended German Mittelschule November 1944-1950 (one had to pass an
examination to attend a gymnasim but I did not speak German. Our German
forefathers were invited by Peter the Great to come to Russia and the
family was totally russified.)
In 1950 I entered Fremdsprachen-und Dolmetscherinstitut der Industrie-und
Handelskammer fuer Suedhannover and passed examinsations for a translator
German-Russian and German/English and vice versa.
March 1952 I married Hermann W.Gaertner, a journalist who just returned from
the Polish prisonership and in November 1953 we emigrated to the States.
In New York I worked 1954-56 for the Guide Service of the UN (a special
permission was issued since German citizens were not permitted to work for
the UN then, only citizens of member-countries),
In May 1959 we returned to Germany and settled in Munich (my father had a
job as a scientific secretary at the American Institute for the Reserach of
the Soviet Union) I became assistent to Mrs. Trude Gunther, -advisor for
the Non-Slavic Desks. She managed the Armenian, Azerbaidjani, Georgian,
North/Caucasian, Tatar/Bashkir and Turkestani Desks (the Slavonic desks were
the Russian, the Ukrainian and the Belorussian).The members of the desks
had to translate their scripts before they went on the air into Russian and
I had to write short contents in English, a weekly/report and some
commentaries, if necessary. In 1965 I quit this job and stayed home with my
two sons and the old parents.
In winter 1968 my father died and the same week I was divorced. Radio
Liberty offered me a job in the famous "Red Archive" which was a part of the
Research Department, supposed to be one of the best archives on the Soviet
Union at that time. In September 1970 I married Zdenko Antic, a colleague
from the Radio Free Europe, an anallyst of the Yougoslav affairs.
January 1, 1975 Albert Boiter, the director of the research Department,
realized a post for analyzing the religious situation in the Soviet
Union should be created and appointed me to write about religions and
churches in the Soviet Union, the atheist education and the persecution the
believers. In May 1989 my husband died.
I kept the post of the analyst of religious affairs until my resignation in
July 1992 (February 1992 I married Alexander Gladkov, a Russian businessman
from Sankt Petersburg).

1) Regular contributions to the RFE/RL Research Report / Weekly analyses
from the RFE RL Research Institute
2. Contributions to The Orthodox Monitor \*A publication devoted to news of
persecuted Orthodox Christians (Washington D.C.)
3. Articles written by me and also by Zdenko Antic were published f.e.in
Soviet-East European Survey
1983/1984 and 1987-1988 Selected Research and Analysis from Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty. Edited by Vojtech Mastny.
4. The modern Encyclopedia of Religions in Russia and the Soviet Union, vol.
6, Council of 1990, Orthodox Bishops, Oxana Antic, pages 75/80.Academic
International Press, 1995/Gulf Breeze, Florida.
5." Eastern Christianity and Politics in the Twentieth Century", edited by
Pedro Ramet, Duke University press, 1988: The Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad, Oxana Antic, pp. 145.
6. Religious Policy in the Soviet Union, edited by Sabrina Petra Ramet
^Professor Ramet changed his sex and is a woman now. He visited me recently
with his wife. OA Cambridge University Press, 1993, The spread of modern
cults in the USSR, pp. 252/270.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

The series comprises different materials that were collected by Oxana Antic, who worked in the Research Department of Radio Liberty, in the famous “Red Archive," in 1970 - 1980s. Taking a post of the analyst of religious affairs in the Soviet Union, she wrote about religions and churches in the Soviet Union, the atheist education and the persecution of the believers.
Her collection consists of diverse documents, newspaper and magazine clippings, publications of the official letters by Oxana Antic to political organizations, authors of religious publications and editors of some periodicals and records from religious conferences and councils. There are a few private letters from those who sent some materials to O.Antic and commented on the origin of the documents and her answers to them. The range of topics covered by the collection embraces particular events, such as the attempt on the pope’s life and the visit of the pope to the USSR, information on famous personalities, say, poets-dissidents and priests, the coverage of the trials of the believers. There are also sources of the general character: various records on glasnost’, religious freedom, clashes between KGB and Russian Orthodox Church, a review of the religious publications in the Soviet Union as well as those published abroad and resolutions of special official committees and commissions on the religious affairs.

On the whole, the archive represents information that could be found in Soviet official newspapers and magazines, publications and commentaries on it in the western mass circulated press and some records that were not available to a wider circle of the readership. Collected together, these materials can be of importance for those researchers who seek to trace the trends, examine a particular case study for a long period of time and/or attempted to perform a comparative analysis of western and Soviet perspectives on various religious issues. It can be also possible to find documents devoted to particular regions of the Soviet Union. These documents are filed on the territorial affiliation: Belorussia, the Western Ukraine, Georgia, etc.

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

Arranged by subjects by Russian alphabet

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Unknown

Languages

English, German, Russian