Soviet Star
Detail from “Слава ВЛКСМ! : плакат,” Monash Collections Online, accessed January 17, 2018, http://repository.monash.edu/items/show/36124
Primary Sources
- Seventeen Moments in Soviet HistorySeventeen Moments in Soviet History is a multi-media archive of primary materials that provides a cross-section of Soviet life in seventeen different years. Each module covers politics, society, culture and economics, so that users might experience a given time through the words, sounds and sights that a common Soviet citizen would have encountered.
- East View universal databases This link opens in a new windowEast View Universal Databases offers access to databases, digital archives, popular and scholarly periodicals, and eBooks from Eastern Europe, in native and translated languages. The East View Online Resources home page displays all the online resources that Monash University staff and students have access to. Popular digital archives accessed include Moscow News, Soviet Woman, The Current Digest of the Russian Press.
- The Current Digest of the Russian PressThe Current Digest of the Soviet Press (1949-1991), followed by The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press (1992-2010), and now The Current Digest of the Russian Press, presents a selection of Russian-language press materials, carefully translated into English. The translations are intended for use in teaching and research. They are therefore presented as documentary materials without elaboration or comment, and state the opinions and views of the original authors, not of the publisher of the journal.
- Moscow news digital archive This link opens in a new windowMoscow News (1930-2014) was the oldest English-language newspaper in Russia and, arguably, the newspaper with the longest democratic history. 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.
- Socialism on film This link opens in a new windowSocialism on Film is a comprehensive online collection of of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba.
- Soviet woman digital archive This link opens in a new windowSoviet Woman (1945-1991) was a sociopolitic and literary illustrated magazine spotlighting the life of women in the USSR. It began as a bimonthly magazine tasked with countering anti-Soviet propaganda by introducing Western audiences to the lifestyle of Soviet women. Soviet Woman digital archive is published in English.
- Ogonek Digital ArchivesOgonek is one of the oldest weekly illustrated magazines in Russia with it being continuously published since 1923. This digital archive allows searchable full-text and full-colour digital copies of individual issues from 1923 to 2018
- Stalin digital archive. This link opens in a new windowThe Stalin Digital Archive (SDA) is a result of collaboration between the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI) and Yale University Press. The SDA contains primary and secondary source material related to Joseph Stalin's personal biography, his work in government, and his conduct of foreign affairs. Highlights include: foreign policy with Germany before World War II; communications during the Great Purges; relations with Western intellectuals and leaders; and private notations on many Soviet leaders. The archive also contains full transcriptions of all of the volumes in Yale University Press's acclaimed Annals of Communism (AOC) series.
- Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System OnlineA collection of digital facsimiles of transcripts of interviews conducted with Soviet émigrés to West Germany, Austria, and the United States, in 1950 and 1951. The materials are in English. The interviews and most manuals and guides are full-text searchable from the HPSSS Online home page.
- Hoover Institution: Soviet UnionDespite the Iron Curtain’s dampening effect on collecting and preserving materials from the USSR, the Hoover Archives holds a number of significant collections relating to Soviet dissidents and defectors, such as Andrei Siniavskii and Aleksandr Ginzburg and Yuri Yarim-Agaev; while the NTS Samizdat collection is one of the most extensive such collections in the world. A series of joint microfilming and digitization projects from the early 1990s until today have expanded Hoover’s holdings on the Soviet state and Communist Party apparatus and on the workings of the KGB in the USSR and its national republics to enable researchers to study both sides of the equation. In addition, a number of collections deal with US-Soviet relations, including citizen diplomacy and friendship organizations that tried to defuse international tensions during the Cold War. For the Cold War itself – as a battleground of ideologies – the RFE/RL Broadcast and Corporate Records are an unparalleled resource.
- World communism : pamphlets from McMaster University This link opens in a new windowThis collection contains un-catalogued pamphlets about communism, socialism, and class struggle. The pamphlets are global in scope, although they are all in English unless otherwise noted. The bulk of the collection originates from China and Soviet Russia during the post-WWII period, although Cuba and Britain are strongly represented as well. These materials include a selection of translated speeches from Mao Zedong, as well as Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, and other prominent Soviet policy-makers from the era. Also included are Cuban communist pamphlets from the late 1950s, as well as a small selection of pamphlets published in Britain during the late 1930s and early 1940s concerning class struggle and working conditions for laborers.
- Cold War : voices of confrontation and conciliation This link opens in a new windowThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World - primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies - and the powers of the Western world, primarily the U.S. and its NATO allies. This collection, which includes transcripts of oral recollections, provides an opportunity to understand the motivations for conflict and conciliation of many of the players in the Cold War.
- Digital Archive of Ukrainian Liberation MovementThe project aims to provide open access to electronic copies of documents on the history of the Ukrainian liberation movement in the 20th century. This includes documents and materials covering the activities of organisations of the Ukrainian Liberation Movement: the armed underground (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Ukrainian Main Liberation Council, etc.), dissident and mass national democratic movements in the second half of the 20th century, and documents of repressive structures of occupation regimes (NKVD-MGB-KGB, German Gestapo and security service, etc.). Most documents are in Russian and Ukrainian.
- Soviet Movies OnlineA database of Soviet and Russian films with English subtitles (requires a subscription fee to access; cost varies)
- World of children in the USSR : Artek Pioneer Camp Archives, 1944-1967 online This link opens in a new windowEdge or Firefox browser preferred
The documents in this database provide an insight into everyday life and mentality of Soviet children. It reflects the recreation camp's history in the period between 1944 and 1967, and contains government documents on Soviet social and health policies, administrative, medical and financial records, transcripts of meetings, materials on educational and ideological work carried out in the camp statistical reports, food rations and provision standards, letters from Soviet and foreign children, diaries, and more.
- Moscow news digital archive This link opens in a new windowMoscow News (pub. 1930-2014) was the oldest English-language newspaper in Russia and, arguably, the newspaper with the longest democratic history. 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. The Moscow News Digital Archive contains all obtainable published issues (1930-2014, approx. 60,000 pages), including issues of the newspapers short-lived sister publication Moscow Daily News (1932-1938).
- Times digital archive, 1785-2019 This link opens in a new windowThe Times Digital Archive is an online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times, one of the most highly regarded resources for eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century news coverage. The Times has offered readers in-depth, award-winning, objective coverage of world events since its creation in 1785 and is the oldest daily newspaper in continuous publication. With over 12 million articles available, the archive supports research across multiple disciplines and areas of interest.
- Daily mail historical archive, 1896-2016 This link opens in a new windowThe Daily Mail has been at the heart of British journalism since 1896, regularly changing the course of government policy and setting the national debate. As well as providing access to the regular edition, the archive also contains the Atlantic editions, printed on board the transatlantic cruise liners between 1923 and 1931. Includes essays on the Daily Mail.
- ProQuest historical newspapers. New York Times (1851-2017) This link opens in a new windowIncludes full page images and article images from the New York Daily Times (1851 to 1857) and the New York Times from its first issue in 1857 to 2014. The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue, cover to cover, in downloadable PDF files.
- ProQuest historical newspapers. The Guardian and The Observer (1791-2003) This link opens in a new windowThe Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. Coverage includes all titles of these newspapers. Observer (London, England) (1791- ) and The Manchester guardian and British volunteer (1925-1828), Manchester guardian (Manchester, England : 1828) (1828-1959), Guardian (Manchester, England) (1959- ).
- ProQuest historical newspapers. The Washington Post (1877-2004) This link opens in a new windowThe Washington Post (1877-2004) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. Individual issues can be selected or the complete range can be searched by subjects, companies, people, products, and geographic areas. Each issue of every newspaper is indexed thoroughly, not only top news stories but also detailed information on the arts, sports, business, and popular culture. Items such as editorials, editorial cartoons, obituaries, and letters to the editor from well-known people are indexed.
- The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in LithuaniaThe Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania was an underground newspaper published by Catholic priests and nuns from the 1970s and 1980s. Issues are available in to read in English online.
- Facing StalingradThe project preserves and explores the memories of both German and Russian veterans from the battle of Stalingrad. Facing Stalingrad illustrates competing recollections of the battle, and provides us with two divergent, living cultures of memory.
- Project for the Study of Dissidence and SamizdatThe Electronic Archive “Project for the Study of Dissidence and Samizdat” (PSDS) includes the database of Soviet samizdat periodicals, electronic editions of selected samizdat journals, illustrated timelines of dissident movements, and interviews with activists. The Project aims to make rare materials more widely available and to provoke questions about the trajectories of groups and individuals within the varied field of Soviet dissidence and nonconformist culture.
- Wilson Center Digital Archive: International History DeclassifiedThe Digital Archive contains once-secret documents from governments all across the globe, uncovering new sources and providing fresh insights into the history of international relations and diplomacy. It collects the research of three Wilson Center projects which focus on the interrelated histories of the Cold War, Korea, and Nuclear Proliferation.
- U.S. intelligence on Europe, 1945-1995 This link opens in a new windowThis Brill collection of over 4,000 formerly classified U.S. government documents provides a comprehensive survey of the U.S. intelligence community's activities in Europe, including Eastern Europe, Turkey and Cyprus, covering the time period from the end of World War II to the fall of the Iron Curtain and beyond.
- Cold War intelligence online This link opens in a new windowThis collection of formerly classified U.S. government documents (most of them classified Top Secret or higher) provides readers with the documentary record of the successes and failures of the U.S. intelligence community in its efforts to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It covers the period from the end of World War II in 1945 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but also includes a number of formerly classified historical reports and articles written by U.S. intelligence historians since the end of the Cold War.
- Secret files from world wars to Cold War This link opens in a new windowSpanning four key twentieth-century conflicts, with a spotlight on the Second World War, this collection provides access to British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files from 1873 to 1953. Sourced from The National Archives, U.K., the range of documents from signals intelligence reports to government-directed policy and strategy, will support teaching and research from the period of Appeasement right through to the early Cold War. The content of the material is international in scope.
- Country intelligence reports on USSR This link opens in a new windowThis series consists of reports, studies, and surveys on various topics of interest to the Department of State. The reports vary from short memorandums to detailed, documented studies. The topics range from individual commodities or countries to the economic and political characteristics of whole regions. This collection consists of research and intelligence reports on the USSR for the period 1941 to 1961.
Books on the History of the Soviet Union
Bloodlands : Europe between Hitler and Stalin by ISBN: 9786612788598Publication Date: 2010A prize-winning historian recasts the history of modern Europe around its central catastrophe: the fourteen million people killed by totalitarian regimes in the lands between Hitler and Stalin
Seasoned Socialism by ISBN: 9780253040992Publication Date: 2019This essay anthology explores the intersection of gender, food and culture in post-1960s Soviet life from personal cookbooks to gulag survival. Seasoned Socialism considers the relationship between gender and food in late Soviet daily life, specifically between 1964 and 1985. Political and economic conditions heavily influenced Soviet life and foodways during this period and an exploration of Soviet women's central role in the daily sustenance for their families as well as the obstacles they faced on this quest offers new insights into intergenerational and inter-gender power dynamics of that time. Seasoned Socialism considers gender construction and performance across a wide array of primary sources, including poetry, fiction, film, women's journals, oral histories, and interviews. This collection provides fresh insight into how the Soviet government sought to influence both what citizens ate and how they thought about food.
The Shortest History of the Soviet Union by ISBN: 9781743822227Publication Date: 2022Soviet Russia arrived in the world accidentally and departed unexpectedly. More than a hundred years after the Russian Revolution, the tumultuous history of the Soviet Union continues to fascinate us and influence global politics. Here is an irresistible entree to a sweeping history. From revolution and Lenin to Stalin's Great Terror, from World War II to Gorbachev's perestroika policies, this is a lively, authoritative distillation of seventy-five years of communist rule and the collapse of an empire. Sheila Fitzpatrick shows us the fate of countries often left out of discussions of the Soviet age, provides vivid portraits of key Soviet figures and traces the aftermath of the regime's unexpected fall: the rise of Vladimir Putin, a creature of the Soviet system but not a Soviet nostalgic; and how China learned from the Soviet collapse. The Shortest History of the Soviet Union is a small masterpiece, replete with telling detail and peppered with some very black humour.
The Thaw: Soviet society and culture during the 1950s and 1960s by Call Number: 306.09470904 K88T 2013ISBN: 1442644605Publication Date: 2013available in the library
Women in the Stalin Era by ISBN: 9786610564897Publication Date: 2001This book brings together for the first time a collection of essays by western scholars about women in the Stalin era (1928-53). It explores both the realities of women's lived experience in the 1930s and 1940s, and the various forms in which womanhood and femininity were represented and constructed in these decades.
More books on the social life and customs in the Soviet Union 1970-1991.