Inventory of the Spas T. Raikin papers
Finding aid prepared by Spas T. Raikin and Hoover Institution Library and Archives Staff
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
© 2008
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
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Title: Spas T. Raikin papers
Date (inclusive): 1922-2011
Collection Number: 80148
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In Bulgarian and English
Physical Description:
55 manuscript boxes
(22.0 Linear Feet)
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.
Creator:
Raĭkin, Spas, 1922-
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Access
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.
Use
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1980, with a voluminous increment received in 2012.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Spas T. Raikin papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Anti-communist movements
Bulgaria -- Emigration and immigration
Bulgarians -- United States
Bulgaria -- History
Bŭlgarska pravoslavna t͡sŭrkva
Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations
Bulgarian National Front
Arranged by Raikin in numerical order by binder; all titles were retained
file 1
Writings, memoranda, and declarations relating to Bulgaria, Bulgarian émigré, and the Bulgarian National Council, received
in 1980 (formerly 10.V)
box 1, folder 1
Preface, photographs, biography notes, my creed, editorial principles, "Escape from Hell," "Epilogue - Evil's Flowers," documents,
contents of archives
box 1, folder 2
Family history, personal documents, letters from and to my brothers
box 2, folder 3
Personal, letters to and from family in Bulgaria
box 3, folder 4
Documents, originals and copies, Marin, Bezmer, Trudovak, World Council of Churches, Lavrion, Switzerland, England
box 4, folder 5-6
Darzhavna Sigurnost, dossier "Desertiori," "Bulgarian Sum"
box 5, folder 8
American Bulgarian League
box 6, folder 9
Arrival in America, Diary first seven weeks, politics and refugees, Church World Service
1954-1955
box 6, folder 10
Bulgarian National Front (BNF) first congress, political report, Kalin Koichev, Ivan Dochev, Paprikov, MPO, church politics
and refugees
box 7, folder 11-12
Borba edited by Raikin, #1-21
1956-1963
box 8, folder 13
American Friends Anti-Bolshevik Block of Nations, Raikin, Secretary General
1958-1960
Bulgarian National Front and Bulgarian National Council
Bulgarian Agrarian National Union
box 20, folder 35
Published and unpublished articles
box 21, folder 36-37
Papers and articles, published and not published
box 22, folder 38
Unpublished papers and articles
box 22, folder 39
San Stefanska Bulgaria, English original text
box 23, folder 40-41
San Stefanska Bulgaria, English original text
box 24, folder 42
Scrapbook, Zhelev, Stoyanov, Project Political Program BNF, Washington declaration, Spas, Tantikov, et al.
box 24, folder 43
Bulgarian Orthodox Church under communism, Senate hearing, my report for Bolan court case
box 25, folder 44
Trudovak, Marin, long hand texts
box 25, folder 45
Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 1
box 26, folder 46
Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 2 (not published papers)
box 26, folder 47-48
Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 3-4
1992-2002
box 27, folder 49
Schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church 5
1992-2002
box 27, folder 50
Court case, Varba-Nov vs. St. Andrey, Attorney Bolan 1
box 28, folder 51
Court case, Varba-Nov vs. St. Andrey, Attorney Bolan 2
box 28, folder 52
Raskol in New York, Schismatics vs. Metropolitan Joseph II
box 29, folder 53
Chicago, Munich, Raskol
1992-2002
box 30, folder 54
Free Agrarian Banner edited by Raikin
1981-1983
box 31, folder 55
Personal correspondence, family in Bulgaria
box 31, folder 56
General correspondence,
New York Times, Pocono records, Chicago churches, et al.
box 32, folder 57
Important correspondence, Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, Dr. Ivan Gadjev, Meytropolitan Kiril Yonchev, Petar Nikolov
box 32, folder 58
My dossier in "Darzhavna Sigurnost" Sofia, Bulgaria, my dossiers in CIA and FBI, State Department, Filchev, Attorney General,
Sofia, Bulgaria
box 33, folder 59
Political VIP in my orbit, Borislav, Dochev, Radi, G. M., Dimitrov, Shivarov
box 34, folder 60
Omitted or repeated materials, VIP BNF, BNC, schism, refugees, seminarians, lost pages, omitted letters
box 35, folder 61
Bulgarian Orthodox Chuch under communism, my resistance, Joseph I Kalin, Koichev
box 35, folder 62
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, New York diocese, Joseph II and Raikin vs. Schismatics, Joseph II confession
box 36, folder 63
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, New York diocese, Joseph II and Raikin vs. Schismatics
box 36, folder 64
Diocese in good and bad times, documentation: Schismatics vs. Joseph in court action, analysis by Raikin
box 37, folder 65
Analysis by Raikin, papers against the Schismatics, in defense of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, miscellaneous
box 37, folder 66
Miscellaneous: omitted items, personal principles, drafts, unpublished documents and essays, maps
General correspondence, alphabetical
box 40, folder 71
O-S. Includes Lee Harvey Oswald materials
box 42, folder 74
Miscellaneous correspondence
1992-1993
box 43, folder 75
Miscellaneous correspondence
1984-1985
box 43, folder 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 44, folder 77
The Theodores, Momar Quaddafi, Chicago cultural affairs, Simeon Ovcharov, Raikovski
box 44, folder 78
Not sent to Hoover Institution by Raikin
box 44, folder 79
Correspondence, Tsanyo P. Tsvaitkov, commentaries, post-communist Bulgaria
box 45, folder 80
Robert Chipperfield, press forums, commentaries, Bulgarian politics
box 45, folder 81
Corduffe, Emil, Australia, commentary, e-mail
box 46, folder 82
Pocono Record letters to the editor
1970-2011
box 46, folder 83
Important omissions, letters, commentaries, documents
box 47, folder 84
Samples, articles, Bulgarian press
2000-2005
Political commentaries, internet pages
box 52, folder 94
Defective English text of
San Stefanska Bulgaria 1
box 53, folder 95
Defective English text of
San Stefanska Bulgaria 2
box 53, folder 96
Unpublished essays, articles, conference papers, historical studies
box 54, folder 97
Introduction to philosophy notes, 1964-1965, lectures
box 54, folder 98
Personal promotion papers
box 54, folder 98
Personal correspondents: Altunkov, Miro G., Mitropolit Simeon Ing. Doichin, Penev
box 55, folder 99
Personal correspondents: Gadjec, Rev. Peniu, Tsvaitkov, Todorov, Jordan, Perle, Richard, commentaries
