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A Zotero Group Library listing secondary and primary sources, in print and online, for researchers of Russian and Soviet history. Created by librarians and faculty at Harvard.
This is a collection of primary source documents covering the collapse of the Soviet Union during the late 1980s. The collection contains documents from archives in most of the former Soviet bloc countries.
Contains Soviet documents related to Soviet-Iranian relations, Soviet interests in Iran, and Soviet support for the separatist movement in Iranian Azerbaijan.
Documents containing the thoughts and opinions of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The earliest document is from 1955 and the latest is from 1968. Most are from Russian archives, along with a few Bulgarian and Romanian documents.
Documents that discuss the aftermath of Stalin’s death in 1953. Comprised of letters and speech transcripts, these documents mostly come from Russian archives and span 1944 to 1962.
Documents that discuss the Soviet-Chinese relationship during the Cold War. Composed largely of cables, memos, and telegrams, this collection spans the 1930s through 1959, or the period prior to the split.
Documents related to the Soviet development of nuclear weapons. These letters and memorandums come from the 1940s up to the 1980s, and are from varied archival sources.
A collection of primary sources from Meeting of Frontiers, a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
The product of U.S. intelligence analysis of Soviet foreign policy, military capabilities, the economy, Soviet science and technology, and the internal situation - including both leadership politics and the situation within the country as a whole.
Gudok is a Russian daily newspaper in continuous publication since 1917 and is one of the oldest and leading trade newspapers in Russia.
Gudok has also provided important commentary on Soviet and post-Soviet Russian culture, politics, and social life. Its primary purpose has been informing the general Soviet and subsequently Russian reader with the larger goings on in the country in combination with a mix of biting social commentary and satire, one of the newspapers most popular features.
The Imperial Russian Newspapers collection comprises out-of-copyright newspapers spanning the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, up to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. [1782-1918]
"There are about 500,000 pages, the collection’s core titles are from Moscow and St. Petersburg, complemented by regional newspapers across the vast Russian Empire.
The collection also includes two e-book editions (full-text searchable) of pertinent reference books: an in-depth bibliographic record of all known newspapers published in Imperial Russia (over 10 key bibliographies) and a unique collection of dozens of contemporaneous (mostly nineteenth century) reference works. "
Izvestiia is one of the longest-running Russian newspapers. [1917 - 2011]
Completely digitized archive of Izvestiia, one of the longest-running Russian newspapers founded in March 1917; during the Soviet period Izvestiia was the official organ of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Krokodil (Russian for "Crocodile") was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. [1922 - 2008]
Founded in 1922, it was first published as a supplement for Rabochaia gazeta. Although political satire was dangerous during much of the Soviet period, Krokodil was given considerable license to lampoon political figures and events. Other safe topics for mockery included the mid-level bureaucrat's lack of imagination and workers drinking on the job. The journal also ridiculed capitalist countries and attacked various political, ethnic and religious groups that allegedly opposed the Soviet system.
Complete Digital Archive of the renowned Russian journal LEF (Left Front of the Arts) published in the early 20th Century contains rare works of avant-garde writers, photographers, critics and designers in the turbulent era of the first Soviet art. [1923-1925]
"History of LEF
In the wake of the Russian Revolution, the group “Left Front of the Arts” (“Левый фронт искусств”, “Levyi Front Iskusstv”) was formed in Moscow, bringing together creative people of the era -- avant-garde poets, writers, photographers, and filmmakers, including
Vladimir Mayakovsky, Osip Brik, and others. The group’s philosophy was to re-examine the ideology of so-called leftist art, abandon individualism, and increase art’s role in building communism. The group considered itself as the only representative of revolutionary art."
Moscow News (pub. 1930-2014) was the oldest English-language newspaper in Russia and, arguably, the newspaper with the longest democratic history. This resource also contains access to the sister publication Moscow Daily News, which ran from 1932-1938.
"From a mouthpiece of the Communist party to an influential advocate for social and political change, the pages of Moscow News reflect the shifting ideological, political, social and economic currents that have swept through the Soviet Union and Russia in the last century. "
In 1968, the Muslim Religious Board for Central Asia and Kazakhstan, established Muslims of the Soviet East as the only Islamic periodical carrying the official seal of approval of the Soviet government.
Its English language edition appeared in 1974 and the journal ceased to publish in 1990. [1974 - 1990].
Nedelia was established in 1960, as a Sunday supplement to Izvestiia under the editorship of Aleksey Adzhubey, the son in law of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. At the height of its popularity Nedelia claimed up to two million copies in weekly circulation. [1960-2002]
It was one of the very few Soviet periodicals that kept the official Communist Party propaganda to a minimum, covering instead cultural, social, and political happenings with a certain degree of lightheartedness, which perhaps was the main reason behind its popularity.
Articles published by Pravda during the Cold War and the years immediately following, from 1959 to 1996, collected and translated into English by the CIA.
RG was founded in 1990 by the government of the Russian Federation, Rossiiskaia Gazeta is a Russian newspaper of public record based in Moscow. [1990-2018]
As an official newspaper, its editorial policy reflects the government’s policy on any given issue, although it frequently publishes commentaries and opinions that differ from government’s positions. As such the newspaper is an authoritative source of official government policy and an important venue of official commentary on laws and regulations enacted by the Russian legislature. It features interviews with influential Russian politicians, businesses, and cultural figures.
Seans is a well-known Russian journal dedicated to Film Studies in Russian and Post-Soviet space. It was founded in 1989 by the young Leningrad film critic Lyubov Arkus and supported by the Lenfilm studio director Aleksandr Golutva. [1990 - 2021]
From its earliest issues, Seans set out to chart a more original course, becoming in essence a forum for the discussion of not only the latest trends in the industry but also of film criticism, film studies, and the ever-evolving language of cinema and the visual arts. Each issue of Seans is centered around a particular theme, with content addressing a variety of related artistic, cinematographic, and social concerns.
Seans took a six-year hiatus from 1998-2004 following the death of Sergey Dobrotvorsky, one of the magazine’s key editors.
Published initially under the aegis of the of Soviet Women’s Anti-Fascist Committee and the Central Council of Trade Unions of the USSR, in the aftermath of the WWII in 1945, the Soviet Woman magazine began as a bimonthly illustrated magazine. [1945-1991]
The magazine was tasked with countering anti-Soviet propaganda. The magazine introduced Western audiences to the lifestyle of Soviet women, their role in the post-WWII rebuilding of the Soviet economy, and praised their achievements in the arts and the sciences. The magazine covered issues dealing with economics, politics, life abroad, life in Soviet republics, women’s fashion, as well as broader issues in culture and the arts. One of its most popular features was the translations of Soviet literary works, making available in English, (and other languages) works of Russian and Soviet writers that were previously unavailable. An important communist propaganda outlet, the magazine continued its run until the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
The newspaper Za vozvrashchenie na Rodinu (Return to Motherland) was established in East Berlin. The newspaper was aimed at Russian emigrants and was an important anti-western propaganda tool for the USSR. [1955-1960]
The main objective of the newspaper was the creation of a favorable image of the Soviet Union and the criticism of émigré organizations in the post-war period and during the Cold War. The newspaper was published under the watchful eye of the KGB, and only the most loyal Soviet officials were allowed to work on this project.
