Archival Holdings

Over the past six years, a large quantity of books and archives have found their way to Kaunas. Some of the materials are currently in storage at the central library until the Center has enough space to make them accessible to students. Among these are more than 10,000 books from individual donors (e.g. Andrew Blane, Ellen Dahrendorf, Martin Dewhirst, Peter Reddaway and John Roberts) and institutions (e.g. St. Anthony’s College).
 
Currently the following archives are accessible for research purposes:

  1. The archive of the International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry 1974-1993, an Amsterdam-based organization that was the main engine of the campaign against the use of psychiatry against dissidents in the USSR and several other countries in the world. Of this archive no copies exist anywhere else.
  2. The independent press archive of the Bukovsky Foundation (incomplete). The Bukovsky Foundation/Second World Center in Amsterdam kept record of as many independent publications as possible during the years 1987-1991.;
  3. The photo archive of the Bukovsky Foundation. This archive contains up to 3,000 photographs of dissidents in the USSR and is one of the largest archives of its kind. The University of Bremen (Eastern Europe Research Center) started the cataloguing process and digitalization of this archive is planned;
  4. Half of the Peter Reddaway archive on Sovietology, Russian Studies, human rights etc., in total approximately 30 meters. The other half of Reddaway’s archive is at George Washington University in the United States.
  5. Parts of the archive sof Martin Dewhirst. Martin Dewhirst is widely seen as one of the world’s leading experts on censorship and the Soviet prison system.
  6. The oral history archive of the Foundation to Preserve the History of Maidan. This archive is currently being developed, and currently contains over 600 unique oral history interviews with people involved in Maidan (from all sides). Another copy is kept at the Eastern Europe Research Center at Bremen University (Germany).

The archive of the complaints bureau of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association covering the years 1991-2011, which contains files on 15,000 complains submitted and processed re. political abuse of psychiatry, misuse of psychiatry and/or inhuman and degrading treatment. A unique archive that like no other will give a full understanding of Soviet psychiatry.

Visitor Testimonials

Anastassiya Schacht, MA

"I spent a week working on archival materials at the Andrey Sakharov Center for Democratic Development located at the Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas. The Sakharov Center hosts an extremely good selection of materials on Human Rights movement in the late Cold War..."

The Andrei Sakharov Research Center contributes to the development of a pluralist and democratic society in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

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Contacts

Andrei Sakharov Research Center
Daukanto 27, offices 304-307
44249 Kaunas, Lithuania

office@sakharovcenter.eu
www.revivingthehelsinkispirit.org

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