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NÁRODNÍ MUZEUM
ČESKOSLOVENSKÉ DOKUMENTAČNÍ STŘEDISKO 1948–1989

NATIONAL MUSEUM
CZECHOSLOVAK DOCUMENTATION CENTRE 1948–1989
http://www.nm.cz/historicke-muzeum/ceskoslovenske-dokumentacni-stredisko.php

Josefská 6/34 
118 00 Praha 1
The Czech Republic
Email: jitka_hanakova@nm.cz

About the institution:
The National Museum is the central state museum and it seeks to enhance the sense of national identity and awareness of being part of the whole framework of European and world community and culture. The Czechoslovak Documentation Centre 1948–1989 has been a part of the National Museum from 2003. The Documentation Centre collects samizdat and exile press and other materials related to anti-totalitarian resistance during the communist dictatorship. The largest collection of RFE documents in the Czech Republic can be found there.

Holdings related to RFE/RL:
Archive of Radio Free Europe – Written Documents
Around 170 linear metres of RFE written materials form the basis of the collection. Includes transcripts of the main news programmes (eg. “Political Blocs”) from 1976, prints of the Czechoslovak Service Monitoring from 1956, and many others. This collection containes also Background Reports, Situation Reports, Press Surveys etc., related to Czechoslovakia and other countries within the eastern bloc.

Archive of Radio Free Europe – The Sound Archive of RFE
The sound archives of Radio Free Europe are comprised of 660 CDs. These recordings were created through digitalization of tapes from the private collection of the long-term editor and the chief of the Czech Broadcast Service Olga Kopecká-Valeská as well as from the archives of RFE/RL in Prague prior to their transfer to the Hoover Institution Archives. The register can be found on the National Museum Web site: http://www.nm.cz/historicke-muzeum/ceskoslov_stredisko_rfe.php

Agneša Kalinová (RFE)
This file contains materials related to human rights from RFE broadcasts in 1983. The materials are concerned with individual examples of the persecution of Czechoslovak citizens by police and state organs of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Primarily, the file is comprised of recordings of the programme “Political Bloc” from April to December of 1983.

Jan Čep (RFE) – Úvahy časové a nadčasové (“Timely and Timeless Musings”)
Includes manuscripts, typescripts and printed documents, which the journalist himself prepared, related to Radio Free Europe broadcast cca 1953–1963, primarily for the programme “Timely and Timeless Musings”.

Online resources related to RFE/RL:
Exhibit: The Sound Archive of Radio Free Europe
Exhibits of some recordings of the Czechoslovak Broadcasting placed on the National Museum Web site on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the first broadcasting of Radio Free Europe.
http://www.esbirky.cz/cz/instituce/narodni-muzeum/historicke-muzeum/sbirka-ceskoslovenskeho-dokumentacniho-strediska/

Contact:
Jitka Hanáková, Head of department Czechoslovak Documentation Centre 1948-1989, National Museum
E-mail: jitka_hanakova@nm.cz


The registers contains only records fully processed and available to researchers. Other sections of the collection are also accessible though preliminary guides are not posted. >>details

Register to the Corporate Records
Register to the Broadcast Records
Polish Broadcast Archive Database.
Guide to RFE/RL-related collections
OSA finding aids

The RFE/RL collection is available on a limited basis. The broadcast archive, consisting of some 80,000 reel-to-reel tapes, must be transferred to a more stable and durable medium before it can be made available to the public. The paper records are being made available as they are processed. Researchers are advised to contact RFE/RL project archivist Anatol Shmelev before visiting the Archives to determine current availability. >>details