Joan Beecher Eichrodt collection, 1872-2002

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Summary

Creators:
Eichrodt, Joan Beecher
Abstract:
Sound recordings, transcripts and summaries of interviews, notes, reports, conference proceedings, newspapers, other printed matter, and photographs relating to nationalism and separatism in Chechnya and elsewhere in the Caucasus. Digital copies of selected items available.
Extent:
33 manuscript boxes, 1 card file box, 11 oversize boxes (24.5 Linear Feet)
Language:
In Russian and English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Joan Beecher Eichrodt collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

The Joan Beecher Eichrodt collection consists of sound recordings, transcripts and summaries of interviews, notes, reports, conference proceedings, newspapers, other printed matter, and photographs relating to nationalism and separatism in Chechnya and elsewhere in the Caucasus.

As a Voice of America correspondent, Eichrodt made frequent trips to the Soviet Union to cover the Congress of People's Deputies (S"ezd narodnykh deputatov), a democratically elected assembly created by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989. Through a series of interviews with Congress members, Eichrodt documented the attitudes of Russian officials toward Gorbachev's union treaty and the rights of autonomous republics, audiotapes of which can be found in the Russia subseries of the Sound Recordings series.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Eichrodt was interested primarily in nationalist and separatist groups within the Russian Federation, particularly the North Caucasus. In 1994, she received a MacArthur grant to write a book on the history and contemporary politics of the North Caucasus, the proposal for which can be found in the Personal File.

From 1994 to 1996, Eichrodt used her grant to travel extensively in the Caucasus, interviewing hundreds of local government officials, citizens, and refugees on separatist movements and territorial conflicts. These taped interviews are in the Sound Recordings series and grouped by Caucasian republic. Included among Eichrodt's interviewees are Chechen presidents Dzhokhar Dudaev and Aslan Maskhadov, Ingushetian president Ruslan Aushev, opposition leader Zelimkhan Iandarbiev and public figure Ruslan Labazanov. Most of the interviews conducted in Chechnya are on domestic affairs from 1990 to 1997, although some relate to Stalin's 1944 deportations of Chechens and Ingush. The collection includes Interview Transcripts of selected tapes as well as Notebooks maintained by Eichrodt during her interviews and research trips.

In addition to the hundreds of recorded interviews, the bulk of the collection consists of Research Materials, Clippings and Newspapers related to Eichrodt's Voice of America reports, as well as her planned book on the Caucasus. Topics include history of the North Caucasian republics, the 1994-1996 war between Russia and Chechnia, ethnic relations, and cross-border conflicts in the Caucasus, particularly between Ingushetia and Ossetia.

Biographical / historical:
Date Event
1933 October 31
Born, Birmingham, Alabama
1959-1961
Senior Translator, Radio Liberty
1961-1966
Policy and Planning Coordinator, U.S. Division, Radio Liberty
1965
BA, Goddard College, Plainfield, VT
1968
MA, History, Columbia University. Thesis: "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality and Joseph de Maistre"
1975
PhD, History, Columbia University. Dissertation: "Anarchy and Culture: Dmitry Merezhkovsky and the Kairos"
1976-1983
Adjunct Professor, Western Connecticut State College
1977-1983
Columnist, Citizen News, New Fairfield, CT
1983-1984
Program Officer, Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union, Columbia University
1985-1990s
Senior Correspondent and Soviet Affairs Analyst, Voice of America
1994-1995
MacArthur Foundation Grant for Research and Writing
1994-1997
Conducted research and interviews in the Caucasus, primarily in Chechnia
2008 January 31
Died, New York
Acquisition information:
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2006.
Physical location:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Joan Beecher Eichrodt collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US
Contact:
(650) 723-3563
hooverarchives@stanford.edu
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