Inventory of the Spas T. Raikin Papers
Prepared by Spas T. Raikin and Hoover Institution Archives Staff
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Phone: (650) 723-3563
Fax: (650) 725-3445
Email: archives@hoover.stanford.edu
© 2008
Hoover Institution Archives. All rights reserved.
Inventory of the Spas T. Raikin Papers
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, California
- Prepared by:
- Spas T. Raikin and Hoover Institution Archives Staff
- Date Completed:
- 2009, revised 2012
- Encoded by:
- Machine-readable finding aid derived from MARC record by David Sun.
© 2009 Hoover Institution Archives. All rights reserved.
Collection Summary
Title: Spas T. Raikin papers
Dates: 1922-2011
Collection Number: 80148
Creator: Raikin, Spas T., 1922-
Collection Size:
55 manuscript boxes
(22 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Correspondence, writings, bulletins, serial issues, printed matter, and photographs, relating to Bulgarian history, the Bulgarian
Orthodox Eastern Church, Bulgarian émigré affairs, and activities of anti-communist organizations, including the Anti-Bolshevik
Bloc of Nations and the Bulgarian National Front.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
Bulgarian
English
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
Publication Rights
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Spas T. Raikin papers, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1980, with a voluminous increment received in 2012.
Accruals
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
Biographical Note
A Bulgarian-American historian, Raikin served as secretary of the Central Executive Board, Bulgarian National Council, from
1960 to 1963.
Born to a poor peasant family, Raikin herded cows and sheep until he was admitted to the Plovdiv Theological Seminary. He
graduated with honors and went on to study in the School of Theology in Sofia University and teach in the Sofia Theological
Seminary. Once the Bulgarian Communists had solidified their power, they intensified their religious persecution, drafting
Raikin into the army, where he served his time in a military labor camp. In 1951, he and several of his friends escaped from
the camp and formed a partisan group in the Rhodope Mountains in southern Bulgaria. Evading the Communists, they managed to
cross into Greece, where he received a scholarship from the World Council of Churches to study theology at the University
of Athens. He went on to study at the universities in Geneva, Basel, and King's College in London, finally taking a graduate
degree in political science at Columbia University in New York. In New York, Raikin became a social worker who helped resettle
Bulgarian refugees in the United States under a State Department Program, as well as a staff member in the Travelers Aid Society.
It was in that capacity that he was directed to meet Lee Harvey Oswald upon his return from Russia. Raikin found a hotel room
for Oswald, his wife, and baby, and handed him a check that paid for their move to Fort Worth, Texas. His account of this
event is in the Warren Commission Report and is discussed in dozens of works on the Kennedy assassination.
Raikin's academic career was mostly with East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, where he taught from 1966 until his
retirement in 1991. He published some twenty books on Bulgarian history, politics, and culture from the late nineteenth century
into the twentieth. He was also active in Bulgarian and East European anticommunist exile organizations.
Additional biographical information may be found in box 1.
Scope and Content of Collection
Raikin's papers, contained in ninety-nine binders, document Rhis historical research and writing as well as Bulgarian émigré
activities in the United States.
Spas T. Raikin notes, "The following?99 volumes of my archives are a mirror of my political activities in exile. They contain
information on historical, political, social, and ecclesiastical events in the turbulent 20th century in which I personally
participated, witnessed and interpreted."
"Some of this information was published in my twenty volumes in the [several] series
Politicheski problemi pred bulgarskata obshtestvenost v chuzhbina (Political Problems Facing the Bulgarian Community Abroad), five volumes,
Politichesko pateshestvie sreshtu vetrovete na XX vek (Political Journey Against the Winds of the XX Century), thirteen volumes, and
San Stefanska Bulgaria. Poiava, sudba, triumf i tragedia na bulgarskata natsionalna ideia (Origins, Fate, Triumph and Tragedy
of the Bulgarian National Idea)
, two volumes."
"Articles, documents, essays, papers and commentaries not included in the above publications are in these Archives. I believe
that all these materials - published or not published, but saved here - will serve well future scholars in understanding and
interpreting Bulgarian history of our age, specifically our exile movement." Spas T. Raikin, 29 November 2011, Stroudsburg,
Pennsylvania, Box 1
Binder number 71, however, is different from the others. It contains copies of documents, notes, and clippings about his meeting
with Lee Harvey Oswald in the port at Hoboken, New Jersey on June 13, 1962, when Oswald was returning from the Soviet Union.
Arranged by Raikin in numerical order by binder, with all titles retained. Although Raikin created 99 volumes, he did not
include number 78 in the collection.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Bŭlgarska pravoslavna tsŭrkva.
Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations.
Bulgarian National Front.
Anti-communist movements.
Bulgarians--United States.
Bulgaria--Emigration and immigration.
Bulgaria--History.
Arranged by Raikin in numerical order by binder; all titles were retained
Box: 1
Writings, memoranda, and declarations relating to Bulgaria, Bulgarian émigré, and the Bulgarian National Council, received
in 1980 (formerly 10.V)
Box/Binder: 1 : 1
Preface, photographs, biography notes, my creed, editorial principles, "Escape from Hell," "Epilogue - Evil's Flowers," documents,
contents of archives
Box/Binder: 1 : 2
Family history, personal documents, letters from and to my brothers
Box/Binder: 2 : 3
Personal, letters to and from family in Bulgaria
Box/Binder: 3 : 4
Documents, originals and copies, Marin, Bezmer, Trudovak, World Council of Churches, Lavrion, Switzerland, England
Box/Binder: 4 : 5-6
Darzhavna Sigurnost, dossier "Desertiori," "Bulgarian Sum"
Box/Binder: 5 : 8
American Bulgarian League
Box/Binder: 6 : 9
Arrival in America, Diary first seven weeks, politics and refugees, Church World Service,
1954-1955
Box/Binder: 6 : 10
Bulgarian National Front (BNF) first congress, political report, Kalin Koichev, Ivan Dochev, Paprikov, MPO, church politics
and refugees
Box/Binder: 7 : 11-12
Borba edited by Raikin, #1-21,
1956-1963
Box/Binder: 8 : 13
American Friends Anti-Bolshevik Block of Nations, Raikin, Secretary General,
1958-1960
Box: 10-14
Bulgarian National Front and Bulgarian National Council
Box: 16-18
Bulgarian Agrarian National Union
Box/Binder: 20 : 35
Published and unpublished articles
Box/Binder: 21 : 36-37
Papers and articles, published and not published
Box/Binder: 22 : 38
Unpublished papers and articles
Box/Binder: 22 : 39
San Stefanska Bulgaria, English original text
Box/Binder: 23 : 40-41
San Stefanska Bulgaria, English original text
Box/Binder: 24 : 42
Scrapbook, Zhelev, Stoyanov, Project Political Program BNF, Washington declaration, Spas, Tantikov, et al.
Box/Binder: 24 : 43
Bulgarian Orthodox Church under communism, Senate hearing, my report for Bolan court case
Box/Binder: 25 : 44
Trudovak, Marin, long hand texts
Box/Binder: 25 : 45
Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 1
Box/Binder: 26 : 46
Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 2 (not published papers)
Box/Binder: 26 : 47-48
Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 3-4,
1992-2002
Box/Binder: 27 : 49
Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 5,
1992-2002
Box/Binder: 27 : 50
Court case, Varba-Nov vs. St. Andrey, Attorney Bolan 1
Box/Binder: 28 : 51
Court case, Varba-Nov vs. St. Andrey, Attorney Bolan 2
Box/Binder: 28 : 52
Raskol in New York, Schismatics vs. Metropolitan Joseph II
Box/Binder: 29 : 53
Chicago, Munich, Raskol,
1992-2002
Box/Binder: 30 : 54
Free Agrarian Banner edited by Raikin,
1981-1983
Box/Binder: 31 : 55
Personal correspondence, family in Bulgaria
Box/Binder: 31 : 56
General correspondence,
New York Times, Pocono records, Chicago churches, et al.
Box/Binder: 32 : 57
Important correspondence, Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, Dr. Ivan Gadjev, Meytropolitan Kiril Yonchev, Petar Nikolov
Box/Binder: 32 : 58
My dossier in "Darzhavna Sigurnost" Sofia, Bulgaria, my dossiers in CIA and FBI, State Department, Filchev, Attorney General,
Sofia, Bulgaria
Box/Binder: 33 : 59
Political VIP in my orbit, Borislav, Dochev, Radi, G. M., Dimitrov, Shivarov
Box/Binder: 34 : 60
Omitted or repeated materials, VIP BNF, BNC, schism, refugees, seminarians, lost pages, omitted letters
Box/Binder: 35 : 61
Bulgarian Orthodox Chuch under communism, my resistance, Joseph I Kalin, Koichev
Box/Binder: 35 : 62
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, New York diocese, Joseph II and Raikin vs. Schismatics, Joseph II confession
Box/Binder: 36 : 63
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, New York diocese, Joseph II and Raikin vs. Schismatics
Box/Binder: 36 : 64
Diocese in good and bad times, documentation: Schismatics vs. Joseph in court action, analysis by Raikin
Box/Binder: 37 : 65
Analysis by Raikin, papers against the Schismatics, in defense of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, miscellaneous
Box/Binder: 37 : 66
Miscellaneous: omitted items, personal principles, drafts, unpublished documents and essays, maps
Box: 38-42
General correspondence, alphabetical
Box/Binder: 40 : 71
O-S. Includes Lee Harvey Oswald materials
Box/Binder: 42 : 74
Miscellaneous correspondence,
1992-1993
Box/Binder: 43 : 75
Miscellaneous correspondence,
1984-1985
Box/Binder: 43 : 76
Munich correspondence, RFE, Darvodelski vs. Raikin, Stephan Popov, Rodopi Odyssey, Post-communist era letters, memorandum
to president Bush, failure in the Middle East, Julia Daskalova, "Nedelnik," Velko Valkanov
Box/Binder: 44 : 77
The Theodores, Momar Quaddafi, Chicago cultural affairs, Simeon Ovcharov, Raikovski
Box/Binder: 44 : 78
Not sent to Hoover Institution by Raikin
Box/Binder: 44 : 79
Correspondence, Tsanyo P. Tsvaitkov, commentaries, post-communist Bulgaria
Box/Binder: 45 : 80
Robert Chipperfield, press forums, commentaries, Bulgarian politics
Box/Binder: 45 : 81
Corduffe, Emil, Australia, commentary, e-mail
Box/Binder: 46 : 82
Pocono Record letters to the editor,
1970-2011
Box/Binder: 46 : 83
Important omissions, letters, commentaries, documents
Box/Binder: 47 : 84
Samples, articles, Bulgarian press,
2000-2005
Box: 47-51
Political commentaries, internet pages
Box/Binder: 52 : 94
Defective English text of
San Stefanska Bulgaria 1
Box/Binder: 53 : 95
Defective English text of
San Stefanska Bulgaria 2
Box/Binder: 53 : 96
Unpublished essays, articles, conference papers, historical studies
Box/Binder: 54 : 97
Introduction to philosophy notes, 1964-1965, lectures
Box/Binder: 54 : 98
Personal promotion papers
Box/Binder: 54 : 98
Personal correspondents: Altunkov, Miro G., Mitropolit Simeon Ing. Doichin, Penev
Box/Binder: 55 : 99
Personal correspondents: Gadjec, Rev. Peniu, Tsvaitkov, Todorov, Jordan, Perle, Richard, commentaries
