Press / media

Das Webangebot enthält historischen Radioaufzeichnungen aus der Zeit der Sowjetunion.

Audiopedia

The portal ats as an access point to films and images from selected collections of 40 film archives across Europe, some from Central and Southeastern Europe as well as the Baltic states. It also offers special collections with materials on World War I and the post-World War II reconstructions.

European Film Gateway

Founded in 1941, the FBIS's mission was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate from up to 70 languages intercepted broadcasts of foreign governments, official news media and secret broadcasts in occupied territories across all continents. The information service was later subdivided into the War Department and, from 1947, the foreign intelligence service CIA. The database is important for East and Southeast European studies, as it contains US Intelligence reports on Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and Central Asia. 

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports 1941-1996

The database contains news reports, television and radio transcripts from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service on legal and illegal immigration and refugees in the period 1941-1996, and is of great importance for East and Southeast European studies as it provides material on the following topics:

• 1944-1996 Refugees from the Baltic States
• 1945-1952 Displaced people after World War II
• 1946-1952 Jews after World War II
• 1945-1952 Resettlement and repatriation after World War II
• 1950-1996 Gypsies
• 1956-1957 Refugees after the Hungarian Revolution
• 1970-1996 Soviet Jews
• 1990-1996 Refugees from the Former Yugoslavia

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Immigrations, Migrations and Refugees : Global Perspectives, 1941-1996

The collections of primary sources on nuclear, chemical and biological weapos was curated by a U.S. governmental organisation, that surveilled media programmes all over the world. The database contains radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals, government documents, and books providing global reactions to the world arms race.

Nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction: Global perspectives, 1945-1996

The database "Periodicals of the Baltics, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine" contains numerous publications that have appeared in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine since 1997. These include both periodicals and newspapers.

Periodicals of the Baltics, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine (UDB-EUR)

"Socialism on film" documents the communist world from the Russian Revolution until the 1980s. This unique collection of documentary films, features and newsreels reveals all aspects of life behind the Iron Curtain, as seen by filmmakers from the USSR, Vietnam, Cuba, China, East Germany, Eastern Europe and more. Providing a counterpoint to Western perceptions of communist states and their actions, the films illuminate how socialist countries saw themselves and the world around them during the major political and social events of the twentieth century. The footage was originally sourced from communist states, then translated into English language for private distribution in Britain and the West. A huge variety of topics can be understood through the communist lens: war, peace, revolution, Cold War tensions, the transformation of society, industry, memory, culture and more. This is the largest film collection of its kind to survive in Western Europe and it is now held at the British Film Institute’s National Archive. These films have been conserved, digitised from the original 16mm and 35mm reels, and are fully transcribed and searchable.

The films in the database have been grouped into 24 sub-collections. Films from the following collections are of particular interest for the Central, Eastern and Southeastern European studies:

• Lenin & the Russian Revolution
• The Second World War & the Rise of Fascism
• The Holocaust & War Crimes
• Global Tensions & the Cold War
• Soviet Newsreels & Cinemagazines
• Youth & Education
• Women
• Health & Medicine
• Agriculture
• Politics & Society
• Technology, Space & Science

Socialism on film: The Cold War and international propaganda

Read our post about the collection on the OstBib blog!

The database contains reports, publications, and news broadcasts from communist countries collected by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service from 1945 to 1991. The primary sources refer to the following facets of the Cold War: 

• "The Bomb" and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Cold War Turning Points
• Isms, Slogans and Political Philosophies
• Organizations
• Programs and Strategies
• Proxy Wars
• Society, Culture, Science
• Soviet/Russian Leaders
• U.S. Presidents
• Other Eastern Block Leaders 
• Other Western Leaders

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS) 
The Cold War: Global perspectives on East-West tensions, 1945-1991

The collection "Varnenski periodični izdanija" contains more than 150 digitised newspapers, that were published in Varna between 1879 and 1944. The single issues can be downloaded as a PDF file and are full-text searchable.

Varnenski periodični izdanija

The database contains digitised editions of "Kavkaz", the first Russian-language newspaper in the Caucasus, published between 1846 and 1918.

The main purpose of the newspaper was, on the one hand, to promote Russian culture and influence in the Caucasus and, on the other hand, "to acquaint the Russian public with the life, habits and traditions of the tribes in the Caucasus".
In 1846 "Kavkaz" began as a weekly newspaper, from 1850 it appeared twice, from 1868 three times a week and from 1877 until its discontinuation in 1918 daily.

Kavkaz Digital Archive

Today's newspaper "Slovo Kyrgyzstana" was founded on March 23, 1925 under the title "Batratskaja Pravda" (or "Batratskaia Pravda"), was published in Bishkek and served as the press organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan until 1991. During this time, the Russian-language newspaper changed its title several times. With the political independence of Kyrgyzstan, the newspaper has been published under the name "Slovo Kyrgyzstana" (English: "Word of Kyrgyzstan") since 1991. The digital archive contains the issues from 1925 to 2022 and comprises over 120,000 pages that can be searched in full text.

Slovo Kyrgystana Digital Archive

Croatian historic newspapers provides access to digitised Croatian newspapers from the collections of National and University Library in Zagreb and other heritage institutions in Croatia. The portal currently contains a selection of titles from the 18^th and 19^th centuries, featuring the significant titles like "Kroatischer Korrespondent" (1789) and "Primorac" (1873-1878). Full texts of digitised newspaper issues can be searched via the portal interface.

Croatian historic newspapers

The collection contains 22 digitised newspapers that were published in Istria in the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Included are German, Italian and Croatian lanauge newspapers. Moreover yearly reports of Istrian schools are available.

Istrian Newspapers Online

The portal contains historical newspapers that were published in Varaždin since 1848. The focus is on newspapers from the 1920's, the newest volumes were published in 1997. A full-text search is available.

Novinstvo Varaždina

In order to bridge the knowledge gap that exists in the West on the topic of the Soviet Union, the Joint Committee on Slavic Studies founded the journal "The Current Digest of the Soviet Press" (1949-1991), which was continued after the collapse of the Soviet Union as "The Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press" (1992-2010). Since 2011 it has been available as "The Current Digest of the Russian Press". The compilation includes selected articles on current topics from leading Russian-language newspapers such as the central newspaper "Izvestia", "Novaia gazeta" – one of the few remaining independent press organs in Russia – and its counterpart, "Rossiiskaia gazeta", the mouthpiece of the Russian government. More business-oriented dailies and weeklies such as "Kommersant", "RBK Daily" and "Ekspert", as well as the English-language "The Moscow Times" are also among the newspapers analysed.

In total, the digital archive of "Current Digest" comprises over 164,000 articles, which are available in English translation and are searchable in full text.

The Current Digest of the Russian Press digital archive

The Russian newspaper "Gudok", published continuously since 1917, is one of the oldest and leading daily newspapers in Russia. In addition to industry news about the railway industry, the paper deals with topics from the fields of culture and politics as well as social issues. A mixture of biting social commentary and satire is particularly characteristic. (FID license)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Gudok Digital Archive

Illiustrirovannaia Rossiia (La Russie Illustrée) was a literary and illustrated weekly magazine published in Paris from 1924 to 1939. The magazine was particularly aimed at the growing community of Russian émigrés who had left Russia in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. Thus, Illiustrirovannaia Rossiia offers a unique fund of linguistic and visual representations that provides an indispensable insight into Russian cultural life in exile.

Illiustrirovannaia Rossiia Digital Archive

Everyday life, landscape, localities as well as political events are depicted in pictures from magazines, making the source collection a treasure trove of e.g. lost customs and buildings. Part of the "Primary Sources for Slavic Studies". (in Germany free access through national license)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Imperial Russia's Illustrated Press Online

Available in open access and searchable as full texts, the "Imperial Russian newspapers" digital collection contains 20 newspapers published in the Russian Empire from the 18th century to the October Revolution of 1917.

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Imperial Russian Newspapers 

Integrum World Wide is the largest full-text database in Russia and the CIS states, currently containing over 360 million documents. The electronic full texts in Russian and English have their main focus in the fields of politics, culture, economy and society. Among other things, it contains texts from the Russian and English press (regional and national newspapers and magazines, monitor services of television and radio, press agencies), statistics (Goskomstat), legal texts, government publications, patent specifications (Rospatent), fine literature, bibliographic databases of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION), Internet sources, address and telephone directories, yellow pages, and much more.

Integrum World Wide

Volumes of the nationally published Russian daily newspaper “Izvestiia” from 1917 to 1991 are readable and searchable online. (In Germany, free access is available due to a national license.)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Izvestiia Digital Archive

The database contains digitised editions of "Kavkaz", the first Russian-language newspaper in the Caucasus, published between 1846 and 1918.

The main purpose of the newspaper was, on the one hand, to promote Russian culture and influence in the Caucasus and, on the other hand, "to acquaint the Russian public with the life, habits and traditions of the tribes in the Caucasus".
In 1846 "Kavkaz" began as a weekly newspaper, from 1850 it appeared twice, from 1868 three times a week, and, from 1877 until its discontinuation in 1918, daily.

Kavkaz Digital Archive

The Russian-language film and photographic art magazine "Kino-Fot" (Russian: Кино-фот) was published in six issues from August 1922 to January 1923. It reflects the guiding ideas of the constructivist group around Aleksei Gan, Varvara Stepanova and Alexander Rodchenko. "Kino-Fot" brings together abstract photomontages, typographic designs and programmatic texts. The magazine is considered an influential publication for avant-garde design.

The digital archive includes all six issues, which are available for download as full-page PDFs. The total of 99 articles can be searched using a full-text search (in Cyrillic and in Anglo-Saxon transliteration).

Kino-fot Digital Archive

"Kino-Zhurnal A.R.K." is a Soviet film magazine that was issued monthly between 1925 and 1926. It was published by Nikolai Lebedev for the Moscow Association of Revolutionary Cinematography. Influential directors such as Sergei Eisenstein explained their approach here. Their theories and debates, which produced completely new concepts, particularly in relation to film montage, are depicted in "Kino-zhurnal A. R. K.".

The archive contains all 12 issues of the magazine with 444 articles dealing with Soviet and international cinema.

Kino-Zhurnal A.R.K. Digital Archive

"Krokodil" was a Soviet satirical magazine that appeared from 1922 to 2000 (there was also a revival attempt from 2005 to 2008). Through cartoons and satirical texts it addressed topics such as religion, alcoholism, the Soviet bureaucracy or politics, and society in the "West". With a circulation of up to 6.5 million copies, "Krokodil" was one of the most popular products of the Soviet press and, after 1930, was the sole licensed satirical magazine in the Soviet Union.

The database contains the digitised editions from 1922 to 2000 and is searchable in full text. In addition, all images are provided with keywords and can easily be found using the search function.

Krokodil Digital Archive

Read our post about the collection on the OstBib blog!

This is a digital archive of one of the oldest Russian newspapers with a focus on literary topics. The archive contains approximately 53,500 pages of articles from 1929 to 2011 and is readable and searchable online. (In Germany, free access is available due to a national license.)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Literaturnaia Gazeta Digital Archive

In two sub-collections, "Mass media in Russia online" provides digital copies of a selection of cheap daily historical Russian newspapers (kopejki), which had a wide readership and were aimed at broad urban strata of the population. The collections are part of the "Primary Sources for Slavic Studies". (In Germany, free access is available due to a national license)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Mass media in Russia online (Parts 1 and 2)

This is digital archive of the oldest English-language newspapers in the Soviet Union and Russia, "Moscow Daily News" (1932-1938) and "Moscow News" (1930-2014)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Moscow News Digital Archive

Founded in 1968 by the Muslim Religious Council for Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Muslims of the Soviet East was the only Islamic journal to bear the official seal of approval of the Soviet government. Originally published in Uzbek, the journal expanded its linguistic base in subsequent years to include Arabic (1969), French and English (1974), Farsi (1980) and Dari (1984). A Russian edition was added only in 1990, a year before the journal ceased publication. East View offers only the English edition.

Muslims of the Soviet East Digital Archive

In the database you will find the digitized editions of "Russkoe Slovo" with the volumes from 1917 to 1920 and of "Novoe Russkoe Slovo" with the volumes from 1925 to 2009.

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Novoe Russkoe Slovo Digital Archive

"Ogonek" was on of the oldest Russian weekly periodicals and was continuously published from 1923 until 2020. It contained illustrated articles on politics, culture and economics, interviews and photo reportages. During its history "Ogonek" published original art of famous Soviet artists such as Vladimir Majakovskij, Isaak Babel, Ilʹja Ilʹf und Evgenij Petrov, Evgenij Evtušenko, photographer Jurij Rost and many more.

Ogonek Digital Archive

The database contains digitised editions of the Russian-language daily newspaper Pravda in full text, from the beginning of its publication in 1912 and 1913 and from 1918 to the end of 2009. (In Germany, free access is available due to a national license)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Pravda Digital Archive

The source collection includes some of the most interesting examples of early 20^th-century anarchist periodicals, which could only be published for a short time in Russia (mostly 1917-1918). It is part of the "Primary Sources for Slavic Studies". (In Germany, free access is available due to a national license)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Russian anarchist periodicals of the early 20th century online

Researchers working on the topic of Muslims and Islam in Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia can use the Universal Database of Russian Islamic Studies to access the latest scientific publications and journalistic news conveniently via a web portal. Until now, this material has been difficult to access in Germany. Part of the database dates back to 2007 and is continuously updated with the latest articles.

The following Islamic journals are included:

1. "Islam v sovremennom mire";
2. "Islamovedenie";
3. "Minaret Islama";
4. "Islam v stranach Sodružestva Nezavisimych Gosudarstv".

The following newspapers are included:

1. "As-Salam";
2. "Islamskij vestnik";
3. "Medina al‘ Islam";
4. "Minbar Islama";
5. "Poslanie / Riselet";
6. "Zori Islama".

All editions of the digital collection can be searched in full text both in Cyrillic and in transliteration; it is also possible to browse individual editions from the database. Individual pages can be downloaded in the original layout as PDF files.

Russian Islamic Studies

Read our post about the collection on the OstBib blog!

The "Russian Military and Security Periodicals" database contains numerous magazines and newspapers from the military sector that have been published in Russia since 1992. The publications, issued by both independent publishers and the Russian military, deal with various topics from the areas of land, sea and air forces. While the majority of the titles are published in Russian, the package also contains some magazines in English.

Russian Military and Security Periodicals (UDB-MIL)

The "Russian Library and Information Sciences Journals" database contains specialist journals from the fields of library science, archives and museums. The publications deal with various topics such as the operation of libraries and archives, bibliographic standards and digitisation in the library sector. In addition to current titles, the collection also contains the archives of discontinued journals from the information and library sector.

Russian Library and Information Sciences Journals (UDB-LIB)

The Slaviane Digital Archive contains all issues of the monthly magazine Slaviane (1942 to 1958) in full text as well as in facsimile format. The anti-fascist Soviet propaganda magazine was founded in 1942 and emerged during the Second World War as a platform for intellectuals and politicians from Slavic countries. After the end of the war, the journal shifted its focus from fighting Nazism to reporting on life and culture in the Soviet Union.

Slaviane Digital Archive

The magazine "Soviet Woman" was published monthly from 1945 in Russian, English, German and French and reported on the lives of women in the Soviet Union. As a publication aimed primarily at foreign readers, the magazine covered various topics such as economics, politics, fashion and culture, but also included translations of literary works from the Soviet Union.
The archive contains more than 500 English-language issues of "Soviet Woman" published between 1945 and 1991 as searchable digital copies.

Soviet Woman Digital Archive (DA-SW)

The journal "Vestnik Evropy" is one of the earliest and most influential literary and political journals in Russia. The founder of the journal was the writer and historian Nikolai Karamzin. The journal has been published in three series: 1802-1830; 1866-1918; 2001-. Editions from 2001 onwards are available free of charge on the internet.

Vestnik Evropy

The digital archive of "Voennaja mysl'" – the most important military-theoretical journal in the Soviet Union and Russia – contains more than 1,087 issues and includes a total of over 13,000 articles, available as searchable and downloadable PDF files.

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Voennaia Mysl Digital Archive

The Warsaw Pact Journal Digital Archive includes all 40 issues of the journal "Informatsionnyi sbornik ShOVS Varshavskogo Dogovora" published between 1970 and 1990. This was a secret Soviet-run military-theoretical journal with a thematic focus on coalition strategy and operations. During its existence, the Warsaw Pact Journal played an important role in communicating military doctrine, strategy and operational art among Warsaw Pact members.

Warsaw Pact Journal Digital Archive

"Za Vozvrashchenie na Rodinu" was published fortnightly in East Berlin between 1955 and 1960 and was primarily aimed at Russian exile organisations in the West. Against the backdrop of the Cold War, this KGB-controlled publication was primarily directed against exile organisations and served as a propaganda tool for the Soviet Union. The archive contains all available issues of the newspaper in searchable full text.

Za Vozvrashchenie na Rodinu Digital Archive (DA-ZVR)

The collection of the University library Belgrade contains historical newspapers, that were published in Serbia between 1830 and 1940. The digitised volumes are only availabe as JPG and there is no full-text search.

Digital newspaper collection of the University library Belgrade

The "Chernobyl Newspapers Collection" comprises three newspapers that were published in the years before and after the nuclear disaster in the Chernobyl area. These are the two local newspapers "Prapor peremohy" (1981 - 1988) and "Trybuna pratsi" (1981 - 1990), which were published in Ukrainian within or in the immediate vicinity of the exclusion zone. In addition, the collection also includes "Tribuna Energetika", the 1979 to 1990 volumes of the Russian-language works magazine of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which provide insights into work at the power plant and life in the town of Prypiat.

Chernobyl: Newspapers Collection (DA-ChNC)

The collection includes digital copies of ten newspapers, which have been or still are being published in the territories of the two self-appointed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The publications in the collection date from 2013 to 2015 and cover the "hot" phase of the conflict between the Ukrainian central government and the separatists, including the independence referendums as well as the serious military conflicts. The database of searchable full texts offers information for the study of separatist movements in Eastern Ukraine. The contents can be accessed via the internet, which greatly simplifies study of newspapers that are otherwise difficult to access.

Donetsk and Luhansk Newspaper Collection

Read our post about the collection on the OstBib blog!

The database includes around 600 digitised periodicals in different languages, such as Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish, that were published in Ukraine mainly in the 20th century. Access is free and there is an option for a full-text search.

Libraria - Ukrainian Online Periodicals Archive

The Russian-language daily newspaper "Pravda Ukrainy" was founded in 1938 as an organ of the Communist Party of Ukraine. In the 1990s, the newspaper broke away from its ideological roots and continued to be published as a politically independent newspaper until it was discontinued in 2014.
"Pravda Ukrainy Digital Archive" contains all available issues of the newspaper published between 1938 and 2014 in searchable full text.

Pravda Ukrainy (DA-PU)

The digital collection "Ukrainian Publications" offers access to over 40 Ukrainian periodicals in Russian, Ukrainian, and English. The publications are stored in the database as “full text”, so the documents can be searched in full. While some of the articles have been available since 1997, more have been added since 2001. Individual issues can be downloaded for more detailed study and referenced thanks to the inclusion of permalinks.

Ukrainian publications

Read our post about the collection on the OstBib blog!

The digital archive of the newspaper "Délmagyarország contains all editions that were published between 1910 and 2010. Access is free and the volumes can be downloaded as PDF-files. There is also a full-text search option.

DélmagyArchív

The database contains nearly 1.500 historical and contemporary newspapes, magazines and scientific als well as professional journals, that can be viewed as PDF.

Electronic Periodicals Archive & Database