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Title: Steven A. Grant papers
Date (inclusive): 1980-2004
Collection Number: 2018C7
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In English and Russian
Physical Description:
6 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 3 phonorecords, 1 phonotape cassette, 1 videotape cassette, 5 motion picture film reels
(4.0 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, reports, studies, polling data, printed matter, and audiovisual material relating to public opinion in the
Soviet Union and former Soviet Union. Includes some material on humor in the Soviet Union.
Creator:
Grant, Steven A.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Box 8 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of 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.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2017.
[Identification of item], Steven A. Grant papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Grant joined the United States Information Agency's Office of Research in 1980. In 1982 he was appointed Assistant Cultural
Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Moscow, where he worked until June 1985.
Scope and Content of Collection
Most of this collection relates to public opinion polling in the late Soviet period through the early 1990s. This material
is significant because it throws light on the emergence of professional Western-style sociology and public opinion polling
in the USSR. Sociology as a field had been crushed under Marxist dogma, with a partial re-emergence only in the late 1950s-1960s.
There is also some correspondence with ordinary Soviet citizens and refuseniks, as well as sociologists such as Boris Grushin
and Boris Doktorov.
In addition to the purely sociological material, one box contains samples of Soviet humor: mainly political jokes and anecdotes
in the form of clippings, as well as printouts. There is also a small set of unrelated collected material: primarily photographs
from the Second World War and political ephemera from the late 1990s. One video tape contains a documentary on Boris Grushin.
An audio cassette contains an interview with a man purporting to be Stalin's bodyguard; also included is criticism of the
interview by Svetlana Allilueva (Stalin's daughter). There are three records containing spoken word recordings by Lenin, Lunacharsky
and Gorky, as well as a sample of Soviet humor by Victor Shulman.
Boris Grushin papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Alex Inkeles papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Ivan London papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Public opinion -- Soviet Union
Public opinion -- Russia (Federation)
Public opinion -- Former Soviet republics