Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System digital collection : interviews and manuals, 1950-1953 (inclusive)
Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System
A collection of summary transcripts of 693 interviews conducted with Soviet émigrés in West Germany, Austria, and the U.S. during the early years of the Cold War. Also known as the Russian Refugee Project, the study was implemented by Harvard’s Russian Research Center (now the Davis Center) with the goal of gaining insights into strategic psychological and sociological aspects of the Soviet social system. The A-schedule interviews, conducted according to a standardized interview guide (A-schedule), are personal life histories. The B-schedule interviews focus on special topics, including economics, government, ethnic groups, and professions.
In addition to the original transcripts their digital scans are available through an open-access online database containing all interview transcripts as well as 7 manuals and guides to the interviews.The interviews and most manuals and guides are full-text searchable from the home page.
Guide to Working with the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Online, by David Brandenberger
Original Schedule A transcripts
Original Schedule B transcripts
Accompanying materials (Friedrich-Fainsod Files, not digitized)