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COLLECTIONS East Europe
Collection Highlights:
Curator(s) Introduction
The East European Collection, like all collections in the Hoover Institution, focuses primarily on events since the beginning of the twentieth century and on research materials in the original languages. It specializes in primary source documentation, private papers, diaries, manuscripts, letters, and other special materials. Coverage begins around the outbreak of World War I and concentrates on the fields of government and politics with special attention to national independence movements, the two world wars, Soviet-communist domination, and the struggle for human rights, sovereignty, and democracy. History Collecting from the area between Germany and Russia began immediately after World War I. Professor E.D. Adams, from the Stanford University History Department, on Herbert Hoover's initiative, went to Paris with a team of specialists to gather documentation on the war and the subsequent Peace Conference. All conference delegations from East/Central Europe were contacted, including those representing existing states and those with claims for statehood. Most delegates were cooperative, providing large amounts of material that formed the basis of the Hoover War Library, as it was then called. Particularly detailed documentation was obtained from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Furthermore, a member of the Adams team, Professor Ralph H. Lutz, visited Warsaw in September 1919 at the invitation of the Polish delegation, initiating what was to become a great tradition of Hoover on-site collecting of library and archival materials in East/Central Europe. Building on this solid foundation in the years that followed, contacts were established and strengthened throughout East and Central Europe, often by persons connected with the American Relief Administration, which Herbert Hoover directed. As with Western Europe, collecting in East/Central Europe was interrupted by events surrounding World War II. Earlier collecting investments and contacts paid off after the war, however, as a massive amount of wartime materials was delivered to the Hoover Institution. Many of these materials were unique clandestine publications and items issued by the German occupiers. In other cases, political and military authorities, in an effort to protect the archives from dispersion, transferred collections under their control to a safe location in the United States: the Hoover Institution. More recent collecting efforts have concentrated on current political ephemera, such as posters, leaflets, newspapers, and pamphlets (often published secretly), published books, and periodicals; and the archival documentation of the communist regime and its adversaries, the democratic opposition. Of particular note was the Hoover Institution's decision to have its curator for Eastern Europe, Maciej Siekierski, reside in Warsaw during 1991-1993. This greatly enhanced collecting in the area as he oversaw the acquisition and shipment of several tons of materials on Poland and Eastern Europe. Description
In accordance with the Hoover Institution's dedication to the study of war, revolution and peace, the East European Collection is concerned primarily with the history, ideology, politics, and international relations of the various countries it encompasses. The East European Collection emphasizes the history of its component countries beginning with the period of World War I, though some background material from the late nineteenth century is included. As with other Hoover collections, the acquisitions effort began with materials from the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, when all delegations from East/Central Europe were contacted, including those representing existing states and those with claims for statehood. Most delegates were cooperative, providing large amounts of materials that formed the basis of the Hoover War Library, as it was then called. Particularly detailed documentation was obtained at that time from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia, initiating what was to become a great tradition of Hoover on-site collecting of library and archival materials in this part of the world. The collection has been systematically expanded in succeeding years. The largest part of the collection deals with nearly five decades of communist domination over the area, an era from which the region has just begun to recover. Many of the documents in this collection were and still are opened much before similar ones are being made available in the former communist countries. Descriptions of selected holdings in the major countries of East/Central Europe follow. The Polish collection is by far the richest and most comprehensive of the Hoover Institution's East European collections. It is also the largest and the most important research collection on twentieth-century Poland outside Poland itself. There is in-depth coverage of
Exchange agreements have in recent years been concluded with the Polish Foreign Ministry and the Polish State Archives, opening new opportunities for the acquisition of microfilms. Among the first collections that have been filmed are the Polish Foreign Ministry holdings on U.S.-Polish relations during 1945-1960. Central Military Archives have contributed a large collection of documents on microfilm, mostly on the early years of the cold war, 1945-1950. Additionally, the Hoover Institution is receiving extensive microfilms from the archives of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. In exchange, the Polish State Archives has received microfilm copies of eighteen Hoover collections pertaining to Poland (altogether about 1.5 frames), mostly from the World War II era. During 2001, the Hoover Institution acquired two large and comprehensive collections on the Polish People's Republic: the complete files of the Polish News Bulletin (226 manuscript boxes) and the Archives of the Council of Ministers. The PNB—a joint translation project of the American and British Embassies in Warsaw during the entire period of communist Poland—was one of the principal sources of information on Poland for American and British diplomats. The Council of Ministers' collection, on 108 CD-ROMs, containing about 450 shelf-feet of archives, represents virtually the complete record of the highest executive body of the Government of People's Poland, declassified only in 2001. The collection is being organized, a process which will take several years to complete. Other Countries of East/Central Europe: This collection is one of the most important scholarly resources in the West on Czech and Slovak history. Areas of special strength are the World War I period; Czechs and Slovaks at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919; the first Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1939; World War II and German occupation; and post-World War II and socialist Czechoslovakia. It includes important documents on human rights, Charter 77, and other dissident publications. Noteworthy archival collections include the papers of Ivo D. Duchác(ek, Ladislav Karel Feierabend, Vladimír J. Krajina, Radomír Luža, Štefan Osuský, Ferdinand Peroutka, Juraj Slávik, and Edward Táborský. A noteworthy Slovak document is the 1944-1945 diary of Jozef Tiso, the prime minister of Slovakia. Recent additions include thousands of photocopies of secret documents issued by the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and the Interior Ministry (Jir(í Šetina Collection); the papers of Jan C(arnogurský, prime minister of Slovakia in 1991-1992; and a large collection of the correspondence of Josef Škvorecký, Czech émigré novelist and publisher. Two other recent acquisitions deserve mention. The first, the Hana Konec(ná Collection, includes documentation on prominent World War II-era Czech Communists (Viktor and Otto Synek) and on the philosopher Jan Patoc(ka. The other, the Stanislav Budín Collection, includes not only documentation on this prominent communist journalist but also extensive correspondence of his son-in-law, the dissident intellectual Zdene(k Mlynár. The Hungarian Collection officially starts with 1918, the year Hungary declared independence from Austria and proclaimed itself a republic. Holdings on the pre-1918 history of Hungary, however, are substantial. Primary and secondary coverage includes materials on World War I, the short-lived revolutionary Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919, the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the history of Hungarian diplomacy in the interwar and World War II period, the 1956 uprising, and the period since 1960 (particularly the role of the Communist Party). The holdings on World War II are supplemented by a voluminous collection of postwar memoirs, documents, and scholarly monographs sponsored predominantly by the Hungarian Communist Party. The postwar collection offers good research possibilities on many historical, political, governmental, and related subjects. The archives holds the records from Hungarian embassies in the Soviet Union, 1934-1941; in Spain, 1937-1944; and in Switzerland, 1920-1945. The papers of numerous diplomats are found in the collection, including those of Gyorgy Barcza-Nagyalasonyi, Laszlo Bartok, Tibor Eckhardt, Princess Hohenlohe, Stephen Kertesz, Elemer Radisics, and Janos Radvanyi. There is also an autobiography of Miklos Horthy. A collection of video interviews with participants in the 1956 Hungarian revolution was acquired several years ago. The most significant recent archival acquisition is the papers of Imre Pozsgay, Hungarian politician and Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party Central Committee member. These voluminous papers span more than thirty years of Pozsgay's political life and extensively document the final years of communism in Hungary.[These papers have been closed at the request of the donor.] Former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia) The Yugoslav Collection of the Hoover Institution originated with the substantial documentation from Yugoslav delegates to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. It also has excellent holdings of secondary material, both contemporary and more recent, dealing with the myriad problems of border delineation and the internal workings of the Yugoslav representation in Paris. Early in 1921 Professor Frank A. Golder gathered material from the recently formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The collection is strongest in the areas of World War I and II, especially their internal political and social aspects, the evolution of the Yugoslav Communist Party, and the emergence of a socialist society in Yugoslavia after 1945. Important archival collections include the papers of Dragisa Cvetkovic, Konstantin Fotitch, Milan Gavrilovic, Friedrich Katz, Vladimir J. Milanovich, Dusan Petkovic, and Mladen I. Zujovic. The violent breakup of Yugoslavia is documented in a unique series of photographs by the Polish photojournalist Krzystof Miller. The situation in Bosnia during the 1990s is documented by a large collection of posters, leaflets, video and audio recordings, and microfilmed copies of the most important periodicals generated by all the major participants in the conflict. A recently acquired large Albanian photographic collection, that of Roland Tasho, includes several hundred pictures covering the crisis and humanitarian tragedy in Kosovo during 1999-2000. Although the scope of the collection officially begins with the Balkan wars in 1912, it does include some background materials for earlier periods. Foreign diplomatic documentation of the pre-1912 period is well represented at the Hoover Institution. The holdings for the Balkan wars and World War I, 1912-1918, constitute a strong research collection, and the events are documented by a variety of sources. The collection includes a large gathering of materials relating to Bulgaria at the Paris Peace Conference. Other topics well documented within the collection are the Balkan conferences and the Balkan pact, the September 1923 uprising, the Zveno organization, the Bulgarian involvement in World War II, and Communist Party activities. The postwar period is the most strongly represented period in the collection, including an extensive collection of leading governmental and administrative sources and documentary collections of the Communist Party, the official ruling party since the end of 1946. Important archival collections include the papers of Georgi M. Dimitrov, Ferdinand I (czar of Bulgaria, 1861-1948), Dora Gabensky, Racho Petrov, and Dimitri Stanchov, as well as the more recently acquired documentation of Kyril Drenikoff, politician and émigré collector. A large collection of ephemeral publications documenting the political process during the years since 1990 is included in the Bulgarian Subject Collection. Though modest in size, Hoover's Romanian Collection is one of he best sources in the Western world for the study of twentieth-century Romanian history and politics, particularly because of its archival holdings. Among the topics best documented are the Balkan war, 1912-1913; World War I, 1916-1918; Romanian interwar political parties, 1920-1940; the Bessarabian and Transylvanian problems; World War II, 1939-1945; the Romanian Communist Party, 1925-1989; and the Ceausecscu era, 1964-1989. The archival collections include papers of such significant Romanian political and diplomatic leaders as Ion Duca, Gheorghe Iliescu, Mihai Marinescu, Nicolae Titulescu, Constantin Visoianu, George Caranfil, Dimitrie Ghika, Nicolae Petresceu-Comnen, Dimitri Popescu, and others. A substantial collection of political ephermera, documenting developments since December 1989, has been added to the Romanian Subject Collection. Additionally, an agreement has been reached with Fundatia Academia Civica to copy the Sighet Memorial Collection of oral history of communist crimes. Substantial portions of that collection, in digitized form, have already been received. Archival holdings provide a wide range of research materials on twentieth-century Baltic topics. Of three countries, Latvia is best represented among recent acquisitions. The papers of Mikhail Krasil'nikov, Arved Karklis, Sandr Riga (A.Rotberg), Arsenii Formakov, Andreis Eizans, and Mavriks Vulfsons provide significant archival resources for the study of cultural and political developments during the Soviet period. Additionally, the political process since the restoration of independence of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in 1991 is documented in the holdings of electoral campaign ephemera found in each country's subject collection in the archives. Guides to the Collection To assist the user, several checklists, collection surveys, and reference aids are available. General surveys include Duignan, Peter, ed. The Library of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Palm, Charles, and Dale Reed. Guide to the Hoover Institution Archives. Stanford: Hoover The Library Catalogs of the Western Language Collection of the Hoover Institution, 63 vols. Plus supplements. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1969-1977. Surveys and Guides to specific areas: Dwyer, Joseph D., ed. Russia, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: A Survey of Holdings at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1980. Filipiak, Miroslaw. Archiwalia Ambasady RP w Moskwie-Kujbyszewie (1941-1943) i Ministerstwa Informacji i Dokumentacji (1939-1945) w zbiorach Instytutu Hoovera Uniwesytetu Stanforda. Warszawa: Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwow Panstwowych, 2002. Siekierski, Maciej. "Hoover Institution's Polish Collections: An Overview and a Survey of Selected Materials on Polish-Soviet Relations." Polish Review, 33, no.3 (1988): 325-32. Siekierski, Maciej with Christopher Lazarski, compilers. Polish Independent Publications, 1976-1990. Guide to the Collection in the Hoover Institution Archives. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1999. Sworakowski, Witold S. List of Polish Underground Collection (1939-1945) in the Hoover Library. Stanford, 1948. (supplemented and revised by Helena Sworakowska, Stanford, 1961). |
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