EASTVIEW databases (subscription)

Although area studies research has the best results when consulting area specific databases, there is something to be said of general and general reference databases. Although broad in scope, they can be immensely helpful in finding resources. Here is a list of some general databases that might be of interest to our Summer Lab guests.

In the PDF featured above you'll find some of the highlights from our collection, which includes print material, digital collections, and microform. Here are some brief descriptions of a select few.

Jewish Theater Under Stalinism (History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library, call number FILM 792.094731 J556) - This microfilm collection includes the archives of Moscow State Jewish Theater and the archive of the Theatrical School of the State Jewish Theater. It is based on the holdings of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts. It contains materials that describe the history of the Jewish theater and Jewish avant-garde art in the Soviet Union, and the Kremlin’s policy toward Jewish society and culture from 1916 until the early 1950s. This microfilm collection contains unique archival materials such as correspondence with ministries, state organizations, manuscripts/drafts, texts of plays, notes (with comments of censors), directors’ notes and personal archives of literary figures.

The GULAG Press, 1920-1937 (Slavic, call number MFICHE 077 G95) - The contents of the GULAG Press consist of news bulletins, posters, literary journals, albums and booklets, and other miscellanea. Efforts to compile the GULAG press in its entirety starting coming to fruition in the late 1990s, after the Soviet Union had col-lapsed and access to the archives became less restricted. The primary purpose of much of this material was to propagandize, yet much of historical and cultural value can nonetheless be gleaned from it.

Polish Independent Publications (IAS, call number MFICHE 943.805 P7594) - This collection is based on holdings found in Radio Free Europe in Munich, and the Polish Library POSK in London. The contents offer up a wide range of opposition and dissident periodicals up to 1988, when many oppositional publications started to appear more openly. The earliest documents in the collection date from the 1970s and mostly pertain to K.O.R., the Committee for the Defense of the Workers. The documents also highlight the legal existence of the trade union Solidarność, as well as the period of martial law. Aside from periodicals and other serials, the collections also includes many other kinds of documents, such as bulle-tins and leaflets from various branches of Solidarność, academic and student groups, peasant organizations, clandestine political parties, as well as religious and cultural groups. Émigré journals are not included.