World War II in the RSASR phono documents

Abstract

The present article describes the phono documents of the Russian State Archives of Sound Recordings related to World War II. The work covers the specifics of these documents and their value for the war history research as well as for understanding of the war-time atmosphere and its reflection in people’s minds during and after the war. The paper analyses the audio recordings made both during World War II and the following years. The examples of most important documents are presented. The existence of phono documents created before the start of World War II and after its end is indicated. The article informs on the sound recordings created during the years of World War II. It also states the existence of captured phono documents created by Nazi Germany and sound recordings of war criminals court processes. The author describes the work done by archivists to provide easy access of the public to phono documents. The article specifies the thematic catalogues of war history documents dating from 1929 to 1946 that can be found on the RSASR’s website. The titles and the short descriptions of the Internet projects that include fragments of the World War II history audio recordings are also given. The article notes a presence in the Archives of the numerous artistic recordings pertaining to the War and indicates their importance.