Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 300-85-38

Title

Issues of Bulletin ''V''

Date(s)

1980 - 1983

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

4 Archival boxes, 0.5 linear meters

Context

Name of creator(s)

Samizdat Archives

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

Bulletin “V" (where “V" stands for the first letter of the Russian word vesti, “news") was a Samizdat publication circulated in the Soviet Union from 1980 to 1983 (105 issues in total). Typed in only a few copies, it was intended to provide information on the human rights situation in the country for further dissemination.

Scope and Content (Narrative)

According to Society "Memorial", Bulletin "V“ may be considered an attempt to create a dissident news agency, since this samizdat human rights publication was intended not only for independent reading, but for further use by other human rights publications and groups: by ”Chronicle of Current Events“ and Moscow Helsinki Group in the Soviet Union and by ”News from the USSR" in Munich.

Bulletin “V" recorded human right violations in the Soviet Union, provided information on recent trials and on the condition of political prisoners in the places of confinement, reported on new developments in the human rights movement. It can be considered a valuable source for the history of the human rights movement in the Soviet Union.

According to Society "Memorial", names of the authors and editors were not mentioned on the pages of the Bulletin "V". The title "Bulletin" was added to the first page No. 84 in October 1982 after the departure of one of its main editors, Vladimir Tol'ts and arrests of other members of editorial board: Ivan Kovalev, Alexei Smirnov. Following these events, Sergei Grigoriants became the editor of the Bulletin "V". The following contributors participated in compiling the bulletin: K. Popov, F. Kiselev, L. Tumanova, V. Senderov, E. Sannikova, T. Trusova and E. Kulinskaya. In May 1983, in issue no. 105, the editorial board announced that bulletin “V" was closing down.

Samizdat Archives has an almost complete set of bulletin “V" (though with some gaps and several unidentified issues). Several issues at the bottom of the list are fragmented. The issues of bulletin “V" obtained by RFE/RL were partly smuggled to RFE/RL from the Soviet Union (no. 101, 103, 106 and the following items on the list), partly donated by Vladimir Tol’ts, who worked for the Russian service at the radio. When distributed to RFE/RL, bulletin “V" was not reproduced as a whole, though many documents from the bulletin were included in “Materialy Samzidata".

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

Arranged according to issues of the bulletin.

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

Unknown

Languages

Russian

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed and revised by Anastasia Felcher, 2020-21.