The project has three components: (1) the development of an archival and scholarly exchange program to benefit Russian studies; (2) the preservation of approximately 25 million sheets of archival documentation on microfilm; and (3) the distribution of the microfilm for scholarly research. Rosarkhiv is producing the microfilm with financial resources provided by the Hoover Institution. The microfilm is being published by Rosarkhiv and the Hoover Institution and distributed by Chadwyck-Healey.
Rosarkhiv and the Hoover Institution have established an Editorial Board of six scholars, which has made the selection of materials for filming. Board members include three persons representing Rosarkhiv (Prof. Rudolf G. Pikhoia, Prof. Nikolai N. Pokrovskii, and Col. Gen. Dmitri Volkogonov) and three scholars representing the Hoover Institution (Dr Robert Conquest, Dr John Dunlop, and Prof. Terence Emmons). Professor Pikhoia, who is chairman of Rosarkhiv, also chairs the Editorial Board. Dr Jana Howlett, University lecturer in the Department of Slavonic Studies at Cambridge University, is the project consultant, and serves as an ex officio member of the Editorial Board.
The selection of materials for filming is based on two principal criteria. First, the project is giving priority to the records of the highest policy-making organs of the Communist Party. Second, the project is filming record series in their entirety, rather than disparate files or documents selected on the basis of subject content.
The project is intended to enhance access to the newly opened Russian archives as well as to preserve them for future research. Complete sets of the microfilm will be deposited with Rosarkhiv for use by scholars in Russia, and at the Hoover Institution for use by scholars in the United States. In addition to this catalogue, a list of materials included in the project will be posted electronically with frequent updates on the Hoover Institution's World Wide Web server. The URL for the Hoover Institution is HTTP:/ /Hoover.Stanford.Edu/WWW/Welcome.HTML)
The agreement also establishes an archival and scholarly exchange program. In exchange for microfilm of the former Communist Party archives, the Hoover Institution has made a commitment to give to Rosarkhiv a microfilm copy of all its Russian archival holdings. To the extent that resources permit, microfilms of the Communist Party archives will be deposited at the U.S. Library of Congress and the Novosibirsk Regional State Archives.
It is a pleasure to note that this entire undertaking has been made possible by the timely and generous financial support of several major donors. We gratefully acknowledge these donors and extend to them - on behalf of all scholars who now and in the future will benefit from their generosity - our appreciation and thanks. They are: The Margaret W. and Herbert Hoover, Jr. Foundation, The Sarah Scaife Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The John M. Olin Foundation, The Jaquel匤 Hume Foundation, and The Estelle Buel Simon Trust (Alice Phillips Rose, Trustee).
Rudolf G. Pikhoia, Prof., Dr.
Chairman, State Archival Service
of the Russian Federation
Charles G. Palm
Deputy Director, Hoover Institution,
Stanford University
March 1995