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Title: Russia newspaper collection
Date (inclusive): 1876-2022
Collection Number: 2019C151
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In Russian, Armenian, Ukrainian, English, French, German, Kazakh, Czech, Ruthenian, Kalmyk, Georgian, Turkmen, Yiddish, Tatar
and Uzbek
Physical Description:
1357 oversize boxes
(2143.9 Linear Feet)
Abstract: The newspapers in this collection were originally collected by the Hoover Institution Library and transferred to the Archives
in 2019. The Russia newspaper collection (1876-2022) comprises nine-hundred and sixty-six unique titles of publication in
Russian, Armenian, Ukrainian, English, French, German, Kazakh, Czech, Ruthenian, Kalmyk, Georgian, Turkmen, Yiddish, Tatar
and Uzbek. The collection includes Russian émigré newspapers and periodicals, for which local subjects have been created.
Some titles also exist on microfilm. Information about microfilm availability as well as further analyzed title information
can be found in Stanford University Libraries catalog.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
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.
Due to the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across its scope. Copyright is assumed to be held
by the original newspaper publications, which should be contacted wherein public domain has not yet passed. The Hoover Institution
can neither grant nor deny permission to publish or reproduce materials from this collection.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2019 from the Hoover Institution Library.
[Title/Date of Publication], Russia newspaper collection, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The Hoover Institution's collecting history regarding newspapers spans over 80 years. Newspapers became an integral core component
of the "Hoover War Collection" soon after it was established in 1919 as a repository of materials on World War I and the states
and societies involved in it. The subsequent widening of focus to cover the themes of "War, Revolution, and Peace" caused
the collection to grow further in scope and volume into a variety of directions.
As a result, over the course of 80 years, thousands of newspaper titles from close to a hundred different countries were collected.
They document major political and historical events, such as military conflicts and wars, the collapse of political systems,
states, and empires, the establishment of radical and revolutionary regimes, and the corollaries of all these developments,
including economic crises, famines, and migration for political reasons.
In 2000-2001, the Hoover Library's newspaper collection activities came to an almost complete halt. Around that time, the
"realignment" of library activities and collections at Stanford saw the transfer of more than 2,000 newspaper titles from
specific (mostly non-European) countries from the Hoover Library to other libraries at Stanford. Moreover, prior to the realignment,
a significant but unknown volume of paper copies of newspapers (including many Russian/Soviet titles) were discarded after
being microfilmed.
In totality, the remaining paper copies of newspapers at Hoover - excluding microfilm holdings - comprise more than 5,000
unique titles, of which at least many hundreds can be considered rare or very rare. These remaining newspaper collections
at Hoover contain materials dating from all periods of the 20th century, with some titles reaching back into the 19th century.
While the variety and diversity of papers is considerable, most titles fall into one of three groups: 1) general daily and
weekly newspapers; 2) party and propaganda newspapers; 3) newspapers addressing national or ethnic minorities, émigré newspapers,
veterans' papers, professional and union papers.
The largest number of newspaper runs include copies from the first half of the 20th century. Newspapers from this period illuminate
in particular the two world wars and their consequences as well as political, social, and economic developments in Europe
and beyond, including the rise of Socialist, right-wing, and Fascist ideologies and movements. Among the late 20th century
holdings, a significant number of papers reflect political change in various regions, most prominently the end of Socialist
and Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, but also revolutionary or radical political movements in non-European states, e.g.
in Latin America.
Very few holdings of individual newspaper titles possess complete or near-complete runs. However, in cases of gaps, supplementation
can sometimes be found in the form of microfilm copies available at the Hoover Library or holdings at Stanford University
Libraries.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Russian newspaper collection (1876-2022) consists of nine-hundred and sixty-six (966) unique titles of publication from
Imperial Russia, the Soviet and Post-Soviet period, the period of Revolutions, and the period of modern Russia. It represents
one of the most important collections at the Hoover Library & Archives and includes many titles which could be marked as unique
or important.
The collection has been organized into nine-hundred and sixty-six (966) series, one for each title within the collection.
You will also notice a string of numbers within the series information. These numbers represent the library catalog ID for
that particular newspaper title. If input into Stanford's library catalog you will be directed to the full catalog record.
We have preserved this information within our finding aid for both the benefit and ease of the researcher, as well as our
intention to utilize it via automated linking in the future.
The materials in this collection are part of an Offsite Move Project spanning 2018-2019. The items were acquired from the
Hoover Institution Library as "news collections" and were originally housed, unboxed, on shelves via their call number (normally
a country) and ordered alphabetically by title. In some cases, newspapers were not assigned a particular country, but instead
a language designation.
Upon transfer to the Archives, the collection's materials were housed in archival boxes according to size, and afforded item
level descriptive information. Intellectual arrangement was then imposed to each collection both alphabetically by title and
chronologically by date. When searching for a title alphabetically it is important to remember that all initial articles,
particularly ones used in varying languages, are excluded in alphabetical arrangement, and the title is organized based on
the first word (despite the initial article still remaining at the beginning of the title). The formatting of the dates preserves
the packet title holdings information, which was the format used by Hoover Library Staff for decades. As a result, some dates
may appear out of order by month. In the 1980s, Hoover grew less detailed in their capturing of holdings information, resulting
in generalized statements of "many issues missing" or sometimes not recording a missing issue at all.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Russian newspapers