Samizdat and Dissident Archives: Trends in Their Acquisition, Preservation,and Access in North American Repositories

Abstract

This article surveys the way dissident movements from the Soviet era have been documented in North American archives and libraries. It first presents the challenges involved in acquiring, preserving, and making accessible samizdat and other underground publications, as well as archival documents and personal papers of those organizations and individuals involved in dissident activities from the 1950s to the 1980s. A brief overview follows of the more significant samizdat and dissident collections, and of efforts to preserve Solidarity material, succeeded by a summary of issues involved in metadata creation for samizdat material. The article is supplemented by a selected listing of samizdat and archival dissident collections held in North American repositories.