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	HU OSA 300-30
Fonds 300:	Records of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute (RFE/RL RI)
Subfonds 30:	Czechoslovak Unit

Date(s) 1951-1994

Extent and medium

1746 Archival boxes, 218 linear meters
1 Archival card boxes, 0.32 linear meters
237 Rolls of 16mm microfilm in microfilm cabinet, 5 linear meters
193 Rolls of 35mm microfilm in microfilm cabinet, 10 linear meters
Total: 234 linear meters

Name of creator(s)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute: Information Resources Department: East European Archives: Czechoslovak Unit

Administrative/Biographical history

• HU OSA 300-30C Czechoslovak Unit

Scope and content

The subfonds includes press clippings, news agency releases, transcripts of the Czechoslovak Monitoring, Biographical and Subject Card files, Press Surveys, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Papers and background analyses, index cards, emigree publications, posters and leaflets.

Originating from unofficial and non-public but mainly reliable sources (interviews with refugees, escapees, dissidents), Information Items in microfilm format from 1950 untill 1956 and on paper from late 1960's have a special value among the records.

Extensive is the information related to agriculture, armed forces, Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, political parties and opposition, economy, culture, industry and state apparatus, security, ecology, social issues, foreign relations and biographies of both Czechoslovak and foreign personalities.
The records are primarily textual but they include one microfilm series as well.

Of particular value are some copies of newspapers from 1927, 1928, 1935, 1938 relating to the presidential elections, transcript from the Slánsky show trial, records related to the 1968 Prague Spring, files on Stalin, Tito, Brezhnev and Gorbachev, transcripts of phone calls of listeners to the Radios, documents focused on and produced by dissidents (Charta 77), files on the events of November 1989, file on the construction of the Gabčíkovo/Nagymaros dam.

The existence of multiple subject files and two country files is reflecting the filing practice of the Czechoslovak Unit.

Accruals Not expected

System of arrangement

• HU OSA 300-30-1 Card Index to the Subject Files, 1951-1991
• HU OSA 300-30-2 Old Code Subject Files I, 1951-1961
• HU OSA 300-30-3 Old Code Subject Files II, 1962-1966
• HU OSA 300-30-4 Old Code Subject Files III, 1967-1971
• HU OSA 300-30-5 Old Code Subject Files IV, 1967-1971
• HU OSA 300-30-6 Old Code Subject Files V, 1946-1975
• HU OSA 300-30-7 Old Code Subject Files VI, 1976-1991
• HU OSA 300-30-8 Old Code Subject Card Files, 1951-1993
• HU OSA 300-30-9 New Code Subject Files, 1964-1992
• HU OSA 300-30-10 Card Index to the Country Files, 1967-1988
• HU OSA 300-30-11 Country Files I, 1967-1976
• HU OSA 300-30-12 Country Files II, 1977-1988
• HU OSA 300-30-13 Information Items, 1965-1971
• HU OSA 300-30-14 Collection of Documents on 1968, 1968
• HU OSA 300-30-15 Collection of Documents Relating to the Czechoslovak Opposition and Protest Movement, 1972-1992
• HU OSA 300-30-16 Card Index to the Biographical Files
• HU OSA 300-30-17 Biographical Files, 1938-1967
• HU OSA 300-30-18 Biographical Card Files, 1951-1971
• HU OSA 300-30-19 Biographical Files I, 1953-1994
• HU OSA 300-30-20 Biographical Files II, 1972-1990
• HU OSA 300-30-21 Biographical Files on Stalin, Tito, Brezhnev and Gorbachev, 1968-1988
• HU OSA 300-30-22 Czechoslovak Monitoring, 1951-1992
• HU OSA 300-30-23 Czech and Slovak Monitoring, 1993-1995
• HU OSA 300-30-24 Czechoslovak Press Survey in English, 1957-1975
• HU OSA 300-30-25 Czechoslovak Press Survey in Czech and Slovak, 1967-1992
• HU OSA 300-30-26 Czech and Slovak Press Survey in Czech and Slovak, 1992
• HU OSA 300-30-27 Czech Press Survey, 1993-1994
• HU OSA 300-30-28 Slovak Press Survey, 1993-1994
• HU OSA 300-30-29 Telephone Calls to the Czechoslovak Desk, 1985-1989
• HU OSA 300-30-30 Miscellaneous Records of the Czechoslovak Unit, 1951-1975
• HU OSA 300-30-31 Biographical Registers, 1950-1953

Language/scripts of material

Czech, Slovak, and English, but also German and French

Finding aids

• Related OSA Reference Information Papers is available. (Environment, the Roma (Gypsies), Church and Religion, Prague Spring 1968, The 1956 Hungarian revolution, Forced Labor Camps under Communism)

Related materials

• HU OSA 205 Records of the Open Media Research Institute (OMRI), 1952-1997
• HU OSA 332 Records of the Slovak Helsinki Committee
• HU OSA 300-8 Publications Department, 1950-1994 (contains Background reports, Situation Reports, Report on Czechoslovakia, Research Report relating to Czechoslovakia. Czech Republic and Slovak Republic)

Date(s) of descriptions

Arranged by Jirina Smejkalova, Erika Molnar, Lajos Ludman, 1996 - 1998
; described by Pavol Salamon, 11 August 2000, revised by Pavol Salamon 11 April 2002
Online version updated 17 September 2008