01. USING THIS WEBSITE

“The Chronicle itself goes on, courageously and mysteriously, against all probability” (The Times, London)

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A CHRONICLE OF CURRENT EVENTS.

Numbers 1-58, 60-65

64 published (Russian), translated and annotated (English) issues of A Chronicle of Current Events can be accessed through the menu bar above.

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[A] April 1968 (No. 1) to November 1980 (No. 58)

the texts of CCE issues 1-58 are online, fully digitised, and in the process of revision.

A comprehensive “03. Name Index” and thematic “02. Contents Pages” have been added to the Themes & TAG CLOUD (see 1.2: Guided Search).

[1] The 02. CONTENTS PAGES group over 800 items and reports, year by year, in accordance with the 19 sections that evolved during the 1970s;

[2] the 03. NAME INDEX lists more than six hundred individuals mentioned more than once during the Chronicle‘s 15 years of existence.

The sheer scale and range of information gathered on this website — the 64 issues of the Chronicle are roughly equivalent to 6,000 typescript pages; that cumulative text mentions approximately 10,000 individuals and makes reference to about twenty thousand publications, almost all of them samizdat — makes these aids a quicker way to locate particular information than either the TAG CLOUD (which only lists some 200 people, places and publications), or the OPEN SEARCH, a last resort. Both the latter are to be found in the right-hand column of this page.

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[1]

This online version of the Chronicle has been designed for those who want to READ AND INFORM THEMSELVES about the post-Stalin dissident movement.

The translations have been edited and the reports sub-edited, making full use of the online space for layout in such posts — something that was, for obvious reasons, hardly ever available before: neither in the typescript samizdat originals, nor in almost all the printed translations (1971-1984).

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[2]

Those RESEARCHING THE SUBJECT are advised to return to the printed and *.pdf publications in English, above all to the late Peter Reddaway’s classic introduction to Uncensored Russia (1972, 499 pp.).

Many, but far from all, of the notes and annotations in the former sources have been included here.

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Naturally, researchers should also consult the Russian original texts.

Thanks to the Memorial Human Rights Centre they have all been accessible online since 2008, including the last, unpublished & untranslated issue (No. 65): — «Хроника текущих событий» –.

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[3]

Certain abbreviated phrases (e.g., Action Group, Working Commission) are used throughout the website to indicate organisations that often have a longer and more formal title, see 1.2: Guided Search.

In these two cases, for example, the reference is to the “Action Group for the Defence of Human Rights in the USSR”; and the “Working Commission on the Abuse of Psychiatry for Political Purposes”.

Many of the definitions and explanations repeated in successive issues of the annotated translations (e.g., “the December 1972 Decree” and “chemical works”) are gathered here in 1.1: Abbreviations & Definitions.

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[4]

Links to three RELATED WEBSITES are also provided in the right-hand column:

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[5]

[B] The last five issues (Numbers 60-64)

December 1980 (No. 60) to June 1982 (No. 64)

remain partly or wholly in pdf form.

The contents pages of all thesе issues, however, have been included in the various digitized search facilities. The individual reports they contain can quickly be accessed by turning to the pages indicated within the pdf file.

TIP — In its pdf version Issue 32-33 has 105 double-spread pages. We have given those page-spread numbers on the Contents Page, not the numbered 193 pages of the original printed version.

TIP — An entire pdf issue can be rapidly searched using  Ctrl-F in your browser and entering the name, place or term you want to find.

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TIP — You can also scroll through the contents pages of successive issues of the Chronicle by clicking on the hyperlink to the next issue at the end of each page.

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[6]

The dating of each issue

The date on each issue does not indicate when it was first published (circulated),
but the date of the latest, verified information it contains.

The discrepancy between the two was not great in the 1960s and early 1970s. Towards the end, in the 1980s, as the issues grew ever longer and pressure from the Soviet authorities increased, the first appearance of the Chronicle in Moscow (see publication details at the foot of Contents Pages for the last five issues) might be many months after its formal date.

For example:

John Crowfoot

March 2025

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1.1 ABBREVIATIONS & DEFINITIONS …

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