Stalin Digital Archive
Overview
Abstract
The Stalin Digital Archive (SDA) is planned to encompass almost 400,000 pages of unpublished materials from the archives of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, a central figure in Soviet and 20th-century world events. Items selected include personal correspondence, memoranda, log books, and internal reports. It also will include 25 monographs from the Annals of Communism (AOC) series from Yale University Press, providing translations of several hundred primary source documents, which will be presented in cross-searchable e-book format.
This review was initially written prior to full release of the database. At the time of the initial review in February, 2013, only 3% of the archive had been loaded into the database.
This review is in progress. CRL continues to gather information to inform its critical assessment of this digital resource. We invite thoughts and comments from members of the CRL community on the potential value of the database. Also note that the review was written in advance of the database launch. Trial access was not yet available.
This resource is currently offered to CRL libraries at favorable terms. Representatives at each library have been sent login access to view purchase or subscription offers.
Sources
Sources for this review include information publicly posted or obtained directly from the publisher and data collected by CRL staff and specialists at CRL libraries. Whenever possible, CRL reviews are also based on examination of the digital collection itself. Other sources are noted where cited.
Analysis
Collection Content
The Stalin Digital Archive (SDA) is planned to encompass almost 400,000 pages of unpublished materials from the archives of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, a central figure in Soviet and 20th-century world events. Items selected include personal correspondence, memoranda, log books, and internal reports. It also will include 25 monographs from the Annals of Communism (AOC) series from Yale University Press, providing translations of several hundred primary source documents, which will be presented in cross-searchable e-book format.
This review was initially written prior to full release of the database. At the time of the initial review in February, 2013, only 3% of the archive had been loaded into the database.
SDA is a result of collaboration between the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (“RGASPI,” formerly the Archive of Marxism-Leninism), and Yale University Press to create an electronic database of finding aids, digitized documents and images, and materials from the recently declassified Stalin archive in the RGASPI holdings. This web-based archive of primary and secondary sources will make available documents that previously could only be consulted on site at the RGASPI in Moscow. Digital versions of Yale’s AOC series supplement the RGASPI collection with scholarly commentary on selected documents concerning the history of Soviet and international communism from Russian state and party archives spanning the 75-year history of the Communist Party.
The collection highlights aspects of the dictator's political life, including:
- USSR foreign policy and relations Germany before World War II
- communications between Stalin and the NKVD head during the Great Purges
- directives from Stalin to the Politburo outlining post-WWII Soviet strategies
- personal correspondence between Stalin and Western intellectuals and political leaders
- private notations about Lenin, Trotsky, Bukharin, and other Soviet leaders.
The complete wartime correspondence between Stalin and Franklin Delano Roosevelt is also in the archive, as are Stalin's letters to and from intellectuals in the United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy.
While the original Stalin Archive at RGASPI (Fond 558) consists of approximately 40,000 documents, the digital collection curated by Yale totals around 28,000 documents and excludes any material—for instance, obituaries, gifts, greeting cards, etc.—with little or no intrinsic scholarly value. Digitization focused instead on documents pertinent to Stalin’s biography, his work in government, and his conduct of foreign affairs. Notable examples include:
- Opis 1: documents written by Stalin from 1889 to 1952
- Opis 2: documents written by Stalin from 1911 to 1944
- Opis 3: more than 300 books from Stalin’s personal library, some annotated in margins
- Opis 4: Stalin’s biographical materials, and
- Opis 11: Stalin’s correspondence from 1917 to 1952, plus 188 maps with Stalin's own handwritten markings.
Annals of Communism Series
Linking between the translations and images eventually will facilitate side-by-side comparison of the English and Russian texts reproduced in the series. See Appendix A for a complete list of AOC titles.
Transcriptions and translations
The database will contain a mixture of documents in Russian and in English. The documents published in AOC have been translated in English, while documents scanned directly from RGASPI are presented as page images in the original Russian. Eventually the database will also include some transcriptions and the publisher notes that "the SDA Editorial Team is in the process of translating a portion of these documents into English." Users are invited to prioritize documents for translation, or even submit translations themselves, which will then become the property of Yale University Press. The publishers have indicated in correspondence that approximately 2500 of the RGASPI documents will be text searchable in Russian, while an estimated 250 selected documents "of particular importance" will also be translated and text searchable in English.
Delivery
Users may browse by chronological category:
1890-1904 Pre-revolutionary Period
1905-1907 First Russian Revolution
1908-1917 Between Revolutions/Reaction
1917-1922 Revolution and the Civil War
1922-1928 Reconstruction and NEP
1928-1939 Collectivization, Industrialization, and Terror
1939-1945 WWII and the Great Patriotic War
1945-1953 Reconstruction and the onset of the Cold War
1953-1964 After Stalin: Kruschev Reforms
1964-1985 Brezhnev and "stagnation"
1985-1991 Perestroika and the end of the Soviet Union
Platform tools
Both the search and browse functions allow limiting to either the documents in the Annals or the original RGASI files.
New cataloging of all the documents was undertaken by RGASI following specifications worked out with Yale Univresity Press. Subject tags and descriptions are currently displayed in Cyrillic, but the publisher indicates these will be transliterated. Note that to search for a known document by identification number, the user must be careful to follow a specific format of commas and spacing (f.558, op.11, d.1, doc.1).
Search terms can be entered in English (e.g. Romanized) or Russian Cyrillic, but results are language-specific: only documents available the language searched will be retrieved. However, names of authors and "recipient" subjects are searchable and sortable in both Russian and English. After questions on the method used for Romanization, Yale University Press posted the project's Transliteration Policy, which is intended to apply a modified version of the Library of Congress so that "those lacking a command of the Russian language" will recognize commonly used forms such as "Trotsky". But those examining the content initially loaded in the database have found multiple inconsistencies such as use of both "Mikoyan" and "Mikoian". The publishers have explained that transliterated metadata has not yet been fully edited and corrected. They have not committed at this point to a specific method for name authority control, which is unfortunate.
SDA uses a proprietary Document Viewer which potentially can display a document image and plain text as well as the associated metadata ("document info"). Currently only one document can be viewed at a time, although a future version of the platform is planned to allow document comparisons. As is often the case with proprietary platforms, some functions seem non-intuitive or incomplete. For instance, there is no page to page navigation for the AOC volumes: one must scroll down through many pages.
The identification and integration of the AOC content seems to be awkwardly handled, particularly at the initial launch stage of the collection, when the full complement of scanned pages from archival content has not been added. The editors indicate that they provide the documents from AOC in both their original published context and as individual documents "to augment discoverability." But in the general browse list a less-discerning user may have difficulty differentiating AOC volumes from documents. Most critically, editorial annotations are not very clearly differentiated from the plain text display of the translated documents. And the AOC volume editor is not cited in the accompanying bibliographic reference. Furthermore, the citations formatted for export reference only SDA and Yale University Press, but not the original AOC volume or editor. Citations can be exported for Zotero, but are not currently compatible with Endnote or RefWorks.
User registration for access
Access to SDA has very particular constraints. On the one hand, anyone can search or browse content lists without a subscription to the resource. But users must be registered and log in each time with a personal "MySDA" account in order to view any document, even though they are accessing the database at a subscribing institution. And currently documents may only be saved within the MySDA folder. Required user registration is unusual for a licensed databases of archival content: for instance, The Churchill Archive (Bloomsbury), or the various archival collections from the National Archives distributed by Adam Matthew. The publisher indicates that they are considering implementing independent document viewing and downloading to personal folders.
Account customization and user community
The publishers claim to have designed a platform to facilitate individual as well as collaborative research by allowing users to compare specific documents side-by-side (but not in the pre-launch version), saving searches and documents into personal libraries (after logging in on MySDA), and defining their own tags. In addition, there will be the capability of multiple users to join an online community of likeminded scholars. As part of this community, users will be able to take part in discussion groups and freely share their own annotations and tagging systems with colleagues. While users will be able to choose which tags and annotations to share with other SDA users, there willl also be "SDA Editor Approved" annotations. Users must sign up for Research Interest groups to participate in various Discussion Forums; site administrators can remove posts deemed "inappropriate", and creators of individual topic threads can delete the threads and associated posts.
Strengths and weaknesses
When completed, the SDA will provide greater access for historically significant material to a broader group of scholars, offering the enhancement of online tools. It will benefit from the added commentary and translations in the AOC volumes; and eventually will offer comparisons of translated and original documents. But the publishers have imposed a significant disadvantage on scholars by limiting document viewing to a proprietary platform and not allowing downloading. It is anticipated that scholars eventually will want to see other documents besides those curated for inclusion, including documents referencing Stalin from other fonds. This collection does not seem suitable for less specialized users, given the extent of Cyrillic text in the metadata and the complicated interface.
Comments from librarians viewing the pre-launch version of the digital collection included:
- Questions on whether content from other archival files and unpublished material gathered for the Yale series will ever be added. Also question on whether updated editions of the Yale series might be included.
- Questions on what provisions might be made in the future to archive the digital files, including the e-books.
- Questions about whether a standard system has been applied to transliterated (Romanized) forms of names. Criticism during the early launch stage of the inconsistent application of the publishers' cited modification of the Library of Congress system: Yale University Press acknowledged that transliterated metadata was initially mounted without final editing and corrections. Criticism of the lack of name authority control.
- Comments suggesting that the pricing is high in relation to the extent and value of the content, especially since many features are still being developed (platform features, translated documents, metadata links between documents).
- Numerous concerns about the user registration requirement to view documents. Also concerns about the inability to download copies of the documents for use elsewhere. "A researcher can't work with the documents at all unless he/she is connected to the Internet and logged in to the site. [Whereas] most archives will make photocopies of [original] documents for researchers on-site for a fee." "Making a personal account mandatory in order to view the actual documents is intrusive."
Details
Direct from Publisher
Sources
Collection Content
| Subjects covered | Stalin, Communism, Former USSR | |
| Geographic coverage | Former USSR | |
| Chronological coverage | 1890-1991 | |
| Content types | Documents, archives, correspondence, reports, books | |
| Source formats | Paper | |
| Total titles | 28,000 documents (including 300 monographs from Stalin's library and 25 published titles from Yale University Press) | |
| Total pages | 400,000 | |
| Digital collection launch date | 2013 | |
| Update frequency | Every few months until content completely archived | |
| Collection ongoing | Y | |
| Completion date | Original documents: March 2013; Transcriptions/translations: December 2014 | |
| Available supplements | NA | |
| Major languages | Russian with English interface |
Technical Platform
| Browser compatibility | Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 7+, Opera | |
| Authentication options | Site-specific log-in | |
| Archiving solution – master files | NA (archiving is the responsibility of Yale University Press) | |
| Archiving solution – derivative files | NA | |
| Availability in web discovery tools | NA | |
| Open URL target | http://www.stalindigitalarchive.com | |
| Federated searching, z39.50 | NA | |
| Local host option | NA | |
| Usage statistics | private | |
Interface Tools
| Full text displayed | Y | |
| Page images | Y | |
| Color images | Y | |
| Search full text | Y | |
| Advanced search | Y | |
| Search within results | Y | |
| Limit results by dates and/or document types | Y | |
| Display highlighted search terms | Y | |
| Display snippet -- search term in context | N - next iteration | |
| Relevance sorting | Y | |
| Save searches | Y | |
| Download PDF | N | |
| Download HTML | N | |
| Print page | Y | |
| Print full document | N | |
| Export citations | Y | |
| Annotation tools | Y | |
| Cross-product searching | N | |
| ILL | N | |
| Restrictions on use | Institutional subscription only |
Provider
| Publisher / Distributor | Yale University Press; distributed by East View Information Services, Inc. | |
| Address | 10601 Wayzata Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55305 | |
| Contact | http://www.stalindigitalarchive.com; info@eastview.com | |
| Related product(s) | NA | |
| CRL Profile of Publisher | URL |
Terms
| Options | ||
|---|---|---|
| Subscription option | Institutional subscription | |
| Purchase option | Contact East View Information Services | |
| Multiple year payments option | Contact East View Information Services | |
| Hosting charges | NA | |
| List of purchasers available | Contact East View Information Services | |
| Sample license available | Contact East View Information Services | |
| MARC records purchase fee | N | |
| Price tier basis | Contact East View Information Services |
Appendix
Appendix A
Monographs in the Annals of Communism Series
Spain Betrayed (edited by Ronald Radosh, Mary Habeck, and Grigory Sevostianov)
Sedition: Everyday Resistance in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and Brezhnev (edited by Vladimir Kozlov, Sheila Fitzpatrick, and Sergei Mironenko)
Gulag Voices: An Anthology (edited by Anne Applebaum)
The Kirov Murder and Soviet History (Matthew Lenoe)
Children of the Gulag (Cathy Frierson and Semyon Vilensky)
The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939, Updated and Abridged Edition (J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov)
Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment (edited by Anna Cienciala, Natalia Lebedeva, and Wojciech Materski)
Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents, 1917-1953 (Katerina Clark and Evgeny Dobrenko, with Andrei Artizov and Oleg Naumov)
Piggy Foxy and the Sword of Revolution: Bolshevik Self-Portraits (edited by Alexander Vatlin and Larisa Malashenko)
Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (edited by Joshua Rubenstein and Vladimir Naumov)
The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov (edited and annotated by Joshua Rubenstein and Alexander Gribanov)
The War Against the Peasantry, 1927-1930: The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside, Vol. 1 (edited by Lynne Viola, V.P. Danilov, N.A. Ivnitskii, and Denis Kozlov)
The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror (Oleg Khlevniuk)
Stalinism as a Way of Life: A Narrative in Documents (compiled by Ludmila Kosheleva et al.)
Voices of Revolution, 1917 (Mark Steinberg)
The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence, 1931–36 (edited by R.W. Davies et al.)
The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949 (Georgi Dimitrov)
The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939
(J. Arch Getty and Oleg Naumov)
Enemies Within the Gates? The Comintern and the Stalinist Repression, 1934-1939
(William Chase)
Dimitrov and Stalin, 1934-1943: Letters from the Soviet Archives (edited by Alexander Dallin and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov)
The Unknown Lenin: From the Secret Archive (edited by Richard Pipes)
The Soviet World of American Communism (Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill Anderson)
The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution (Mark Steinberg and Vladimir Khrustalëv)
The Secret World of American Communism (Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov)
Stalin's Letters to Molotov: 1925-1936 (edited by Lars Lih, Oleg Naumov, and Oleg Khlevniuk)
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