Cold War Archives in the Decade of Openness - conference materials

On June 28 and 29, 2000, the Library and the Department of Defense, presented a conference called "Cold War Archives in the Decade of Openness," held at the Library of Congress. The conference was the result of a four-year effort, known as the "Open House Project," that brought microfilm of formerly classified records from the military archives of Hungary, Poland and Romania to the Library of Congress.

The conference explored the contents of the microfilm, the state of the Central European archives represented at the conference, and the activities of archives in the United States that focus exclusively on Cold War topics or have significant collections relating to the Cold War. The book below is freely available online:

The Open House Collection: Documents from the Military Archives of Former Warsaw Pact Countries in the Library of Congress
Call Number: DJK50 .O63 2000
Published/Created: Washington, DC. 2000
Compilation of the keynote address and papers presented at the Conference on Cold War Archives in the Decade of Openness sponsored by the Department of Defense and the Library of Congress and held at the Library, June 28-29, 2000, highlighting the collections of the Defense Department's Open House Program deposited in the European Division of the Library.
Edited by Frank N. Schubert.
Includes bibliographical references.
Freely available in digital form

Further reading available online about the conference:

After the Cold War : Defense Department Official Delivers Keynote Address by Fineberg, Gail and Martin, John
Published in the Library of Congress. Information Bulletin October 2000 - Vol 59, No. 10
Cold War Archives Joint Conference Concludes 'Open House Project' by Nyirady, Kenneth
Published in the Library of Congress. Information Bulletin October 2000 - Vol 59, No. 10

More primary resources available online for researchers:

CIA Historical Collections
Provides access to declassified documents of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Cold War Origins by Wilson Center Digital Archive
This collection of primary source documents discusses international relations during World War II and the years shortly after. It begins with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in 1939 and ends with documents from the 1950’s. The collection contains a wide variety of documents including agreements, memorandums, meeting minutes, cables, letters, diary entries, and military reports from WWII. The documents mainly come from Russian and Bulgarian archives.
A Finding Aid to National Archives Records Relating to the Cold War by Wehrkamp, Tim
Published/Created: 2020
This reference information paper provides an introduction to National Archives records relating to the Cold War. It includes information about newsreels and television broadcasts, still and motion pictures, textual records, and electronic records.
Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training
In this collection, the Library of Congress makes available interview transcripts from the oral history archives of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST). These transcripts present a window into the lives of U.S. diplomats and the major diplomatic crisis and issues that the United States faced during the second half of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st.
Most of the interviews involve post-World War II diplomacy, from the late 1940s to the present day.
Warsaw Pact by Wilson Center Digital Archive
Documents on the Eastern Bloc military and security organization dominated by the Soviet Union.Also known as the Warsaw Treaty Organization, or the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. The documents span 1955 to 1988, and most come from archives in Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland. Most discuss troop movements amongst the Warsaw Pact states.

The subscription resource described below marked with a padlock is available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

Cold War Eastern Europe, 1947-1982 External This link opens in a new window
Cold War Eastern Europe provides access to thousands of files from the political departments of the U.K. Foreign Office responsible for dealing with and reporting on the Soviet Union and the socialist states of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Sourced entirely from The National Archives, U.K., the files provide a uniquely comprehensive, English-language history of post-Stalinist Eastern Europe. With coverage of every country in Eastern Europe, the resource enables comparative study of trends across the region, or in-depth analysis of individual countries.
Featured countries are:
Albania
Bulgaria
Czechoslovakia
East Germany and Berlin
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Soviet Union
Yugoslavia

Cold War Military Archives from Hungary, Poland, and Romania

European Studies: Ask a Librarian

Cold War Archives in the Decade of Openness - conference materials

Further reading available online about the conference:

More primary resources available online for researchers: