When were the Soviet archives closed?

When were the Soviet archives closed?

Abstract. The opening of formerly closed and classified archives following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a remarkable experience for historians working in this field.

Are Soviet archives open?

The Presidential Archive is still not open, but occasionally a few documents find their way out in carefully timed and placed leaks. These documents are exact, precise, and rich in historical value. If certain documents were declassified, they could well give away current secrets of the post-Soviet state.

Why did the USA hope that the USSR would refuse the invitation to the Marshall Plan negotiations?

The Soviet Union refused the aid because Stalin believed that economic integration with the West would allow Eastern Bloc countries to escape Soviet control.

What is the period of tension between the US and the Soviet Union known as?

The Cold War
The Cold War was an ongoing political rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies that developed after World War II. This hostility between the two superpowers was first given its name by George Orwell in an article published in 1945.

What were the Soviet archives?

Covering the period 1919-1992, the documents were selected to prove that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union showed a complete disregard for human rights and international law. They constitute the most revealing collection of documents of the Soviet Union to have emerged since its collapse.

What did the Soviet archives reveal?

The material in the exhibit offers only a small suggestion of what the vast archives of the paper-intensive Soviet era may eventually reveal. The material suggests that totalitarian practices of terror and forced labor began earlier and more deliberately than have often been assumed.

Who are the kulaks and what happened to them?

During the Russian Revolution, kulak was used to chastise peasants who withheld grain from the Bolsheviks. According to Marxist–Leninist political theories of the early 20th century, the kulaks were considered class enemies of the poorer peasants.

What happened to the Soviet Union in 1991?

In early December, Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus met in Brest to form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), effectively declaring the demise of the Soviet Union. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag lowered for the last time over the Kremlin, thereafter replaced by the Russian tricolor.

What caused the collapse of the Soviet Union?

Gorbachev’s decision to allow elections with a multi-party system and create a presidency for the Soviet Union began a slow process of democratization that eventually destabilized Communist control and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

What countries broke away from the Soviet Union in 1989?

The Revolutions of 1989 and the Fall of the Soviet Union. One by one, the Baltic states (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) declared their independence from Moscow. Then, in early December, the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine broke away from the USSR and created the Commonwealth of Independent States.

What’s in the Soviet archives?

They include material from archives that had been key working files of the Communist rulers until August 1991: the archives of the Central Committee, the Presidential archive, and the KGB. This exhibit illustrates both the domestic and the foreign policy of Soviet rule.