Archival Footage
- Witness to History: The Collapse of the Soviet UnionThis documentary looks at the history of the USSR from its creation in 1922 to its dissolution in 1991. Archival footage documents the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II ; Lenin and the Russian Revolution ; Stalin and the rise of the USSR as a world power ; post-World War II Europe and the Iron Curtain; the events that led to the building of the Berlin Wall; the economic and political reforms instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev; the fall of the Berlin Wall.
What is a primary source?
Not sure about the difference between primary and secondary sources? Watch this video:
Primary Sources on the Web
Many primary sources have been digitized and made available on the web. You have to be careful, though, because often the source of the document is not provided. You need to evaluate each web site carefully to determine if it is reliable. In general, you can just add the words "primary sources" to your search to locate such documents on the web. The following sites are examples of what you can find on the web.
- Harvard Project on the Soviet Social SystemSummary transcripts of 705 interviews conducted with refugees from the USSR during the early years of the Cold War.
- Cold War International History ProjectA digital collection of documents, many from the Soviet Union. Includes a section on the collapse of the Soviet Union, and also on the "Soviet Union and the Olympics)
If you speak Russian...
- Literaturnaia Gazeta This link opens in a new windowLiteraturnaia Gazeta was one of the most influential cultural newspapers of the Soviet Union. Includes the full text of all issues from 1921 to 2011.
Using Oscar to Find Primary Sources
You can use the library online catalog, OSCAR, to find published primary sources or books including primary documents If you are interesting in the writings of a specific individual, just do an author search. If you are looking for primary sources on a specific topic, just enter your keywords and add one of the following words, depending on what you are looking for: correspondence, papers, speeches, memoirs, personal narratives, documents, sources.
For example: Soviet Union and sources
- Women and Russia: Feminist Writings from the Soviet Union byISBN: 0807067083:Publication Date: 1984-05-01
Stories of the Soviet Experience by ISBN: 9780801448393Publication Date: 2009-10-22
Stalin and the Lubianka by ISBN: 9780300171891Publication Date: 2015-01-13
The Preobrazhensky Papers by ISBN: 9789004245211Publication Date: 2014-03-17
The October Revolution: a Collection of Speeches and ArticlesISBN: 9780404153724
