Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 300-85-48

Title

New York Office Files Relating to Samizdat

Date(s)

1938 - 1989

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

48 Archival boxes, 6.0 linear meters

Context

Name of creator(s)

Samizdat Archives

Archival history

These files were most probably were collected by the Information Division of the Radio Liberty New York office.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

These files were most probably were collected by the Information Division of the Radio Liberty New York office, but it is . Though there is a possibileity that some of them were originally created inat other divisions, such as Broadcasting Programming inof New York, and were later were transferred to the Information Division later.

Covering the period when Radio Liberty started paying serious attention to the opposition movement in the Soviet Union, these files reflects RL concerns its leadership’s concerns had about how to present this movement in RL its broadcasting. Many of the files contain materials related toon discussions abouton theis topic inside the radio, sometimes involving and also with participation of experts and politicians. Later, when RL’s overallformation of the general policy had been establishedwas completed, these files lost itstheir importance and at some point were transferred to the Samizdat unit, which at that time boretook the majora significant part (lion’s share) of responsibility for broadcasting Samizdat materials (selecting documents and, commenting on their contents).
This series is a mixture of subject files (for example,: Leningrad Trials, Political Prisoners) and biographical files on participants ofin the opposition movement and a few other prominent individualspersons from the Soviet Union. The creators of these files also paid attention to defectors from the USSR. There were cases in the radio history of RL/RFE when its employees turned out to be agents of security services. Two of these cases are presented in the series - those of Pavel Minarik and IUurii Marin.

These files contain correspondence between different divisions of the radio and between the radio itself and outsidersand people outside it (such as policy makers involved into the American-Soviet relations and members of the Soviet dissenters who had imemigrated to the West), memos, clippings, radio scripts, and Samizdat documents.

These files are of great interest to anybody conductingthose who is doing are research into the activityies of Radio Liberty, the way in which issues things were discussed and decisions that were made there.

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

Arranged by Latin alphabet

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Unknown

Languages

English, Russian

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed by Olga Zaslavskaya, February, 2004; revised by Olga Zaslavskaya, June, 2005; translated to Russian by Katerina Belenkina, January, 2022.