Soviet Archives.. What do they reveal?

In my morning search for news, I stumbled upon this fascinating article, which describes the availability online of documents of the former Soviet Union, they have been available since 1999, but there has been little interest in translating what the docs contain.

Some of the categories are in English:

1. Ideology and Politics of Soviet Communist Party (KPSS)
1.1 Ideology and Propaganda
1.2 Media: newspapers, radio, TV
1.3 Cultural events, science, economy
1.4 Internal Affairs

2. KPSS and Terror in the USSR
2.1 Prior to 1975
2.2 1975 - 1991

3. Suppression of Dissisdents
3.1 1960-1969
3.2 1970-1979
3.3 after 1980
3.4 Sakharov
3.5 Solzhenitsyn
3.6 Use of Psychiatry for Political Purpose

4. Perestroika


and the list goes on.. the documents themselves are still in Russian.

Is it time to find out what these archives hold? Does anyone know where you can translate pdfs?

Heres the article:

A Hidden History of Evil

In the world’s collective consciousness, the word “Nazi” is synonymous with evil. It is widely understood that the Nazis’ ideology—nationalism, anti-Semitism, the autarkic ethnic state, the Führer principle—led directly to the furnaces of Auschwitz. It is not nearly as well understood that Communism led just as inexorably, everywhere on the globe where it was applied, to starvation, torture, and slave-labor camps. Nor is it widely acknowledged that Communism was responsible for the deaths of some 150 million human beings during the twentieth century. The world remains inexplicably indifferent and uncurious about the deadliest ideology in history.

For evidence of this indifference, consider the unread Soviet archives. Pavel Stroilov, a Russian exile in London, has on his computer 50,000 unpublished, untranslated, top-secret Kremlin documents, mostly dating from the close of the Cold War. He stole them in 2003 and fled Russia. Within living memory, they would have been worth millions to the CIA; they surely tell a story about Communism and its collapse that the world needs to know. Yet he can’t get anyone to house them in a reputable library, publish them, or fund their translation. In fact, he can’t get anyone to take much interest in them at all.

To take a look at the docs, go here:

Soviet Archives

Well I bet there is some interesting stuff to be found. However it might take some time since it's all in Russian I downloaded a couple files. When I have time I will put them in the translation program I have, hopefully it will work. Thanks for sharing!

There will be little disclosure of any real significance for anyone who was not involved in the events relating to the documents. You can bet the real secrets will be never be revealed.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


Thanks, if you are successful in translating some of them please share with us how ?

It seems like there is plenty of material to examine

Woah, lots of info. Can't read russian but i've downloaded them anyway. Too much info to ask someone on ATS to translate i imagine Really wish there was some sort of program to translate pdf's. Oh i suggest people get the firefox addon downthemall..saves all the clicking.

Oh mblah what program are you using to translate?


[edit on 13-5-2010 by Solomons]

I would be very interested in reading the Soviet Unions plans to overthrow the United States if they are in there somewhere.
I've heard stories about thier plans, but have never seen any documents.

When the Soviet Union was forced, through perestroika and the will of the Baltic people, to leave Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, they left behind reams of documents. Most of these documents, of course, are mundane in nature, however, there ARE many documents that have revealed some interesting aspects of the nature of the Communist regime in the Soviet Union.....
Lithuania Publishes KGB files On-Line.

Language barriers have been a problem in investigating any files from the Soviet Union. Frankly, how many of us speak Russian? The site I've referenced has documents posted in Russian, Lithuanian AND their translations! Of course, there are still, literally, tons of material that remain untranslated but, at least, this is a start.

reply to post by benevolent tyrant


Thanks, going to check that one out now, since I haven't been able to figure out how to translate any of the files on the archive I linked.

I have been slowly reading through The Gulag Archipeligo, and would like to see what the Soviet docs on Solzhenitsyn entail.

[edit on 5/13/2010 by JacKatMtn]