The first step in identifying primary source material is to read the bibliographies and scan the footnotes in secondary works on your subject. Read also the preface and acknowledgments: authors often identify particularly useful works, libraries, or archives there.
Some of the types of materials you will use as primary sources are:
1. Newspaper and journal articles written at the time of the events.
2. Personal records, memoirs and diary accounts written by those who witnessed or who participated in the events.
3. Records and publications of governments or governmental agencies involved in the events.
Generally, you will identify memoirs and diaries by searching Library Search under the name of a person (as Author, not Subject) ) you have identified through secondary readings . Check also WorldCat to identify works that other libraries may have. Try also:
Biography Reference Bank Provides full text articles from various biographical dictionaries and encyclopedias. Also lists articles about the person, books about the person, and books by the person.
Newspaper and periodical articles written at the time of an event or period under study are primary sources. Search discoverE for newspapers we own. Other Russian and East European newspapers may be available on loan from the Center for Research Libraries.
British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Documents from the Foreign Office Confidential Print.Series A, Part I: Russia 1859-1914 JX632 .B74 1983 Series A, Pt. II: Soviet Union, 1917-1939 DK266 .A3 B68 1984 Series A, Pt. III: Soviet Union, 1940-1945 JX632 .B7762 1997 Series A, Pt. IV: Soviet Union, 1946-1950 JZ632 .B77 1999 The "Confidential Print" was a means of distributing diplomatic dispatches and other papers among selected government offices and agencies. These documents were generally reports of conditions in a country or area that observers, diplomatic, military, or civilian, thought important to communicate to the Foreign Office. All of these volumes have a table of contents with two or four word descriptions of the contents of each document. Confidential U.S. Diplomatic Post Records. Russia and the Soviet Union. Part I: 1914-1918 Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files: The Soviet Union, 1945-1949 Confidential U.S. State Department Central Files: The Soviet Union, 1950-1954 Foreign Relations of the United States (1861 to present) Records of the U.S. Department of State Relating to the... ...Internal Affairs of the Russian Zone (East Germany), 1950-1954 (Microfilm 2053) (Microguide Micfilm 2053) ...Internal Affairs of Hungary, 1945-1949 (Microfilm 1653) (Microguide Micfilm 1653) ...Internal and External Affairs of Poland, 1945-1949 (Microfilm 3192) (Microguide Micfilm 3192) ...Internal Affairs of Romania, 1945-1949 (Microfilm 1738) (Microguide Micfilm 1738) ...Internal Affairs of Yugoslavia, 1945-1949 (Microfilm 1654) (Microguide Micfilm 1654)
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