Foreign Internet Archives on the Yalta Conference: Revisiting the Theory of ‘Communication Power’: The National Archives (TNA) (Great Britain)

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УДК: 930.25+1+327

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2018-3-750-760

Oleg K. Shevchenko

V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Simferopol, Russian Federation

Foreign Internet Archives on the Yalta Conference: Revisiting the Theory of ‘Communication Power’: The National Archives (TNA) (Great Britain)

Abstract

The article deals with the problems of uploading archival materials on the Yalta conference to open-source websites. The author focuses on the UK experience. The significance of studying open-source archival documents as historical sources is not of purely archival or, rather, source-studies nature, but has a serious political background. The author demonstrates the potential of publication of the ‘Yalta-1945’ archival documents for solving important issues connected to geopolitical interests of various states. The textual analysis of documents and detailed analysis of their structure allow to conclude that national scholars can now access foreign documents on the ‘Yalta-1945,’ and yet they should beware of the ‘communication power’ technologies used by the United States and Great Britain. The author analyzes key series of English-language documents available on The National Archives official website. There are available on-line various catalogues, files descriptions, etc. Great Britain has uploaded a great number of digitized documents and microfilms on Yalta-1945. Most of these are open-sourced. Studying these documents adds to our knowledge of the Yalta Conference and allows to conduct a cross-sectional analysis of documents on the ‘Yalta-1945’ in the United States, Great Britain, and the USSR. However, the way documents are placed and presented and the nature of tools created for primary generalization of the documentation allow to assert that the authorities attempt to manipulate the public conscience.

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Keywords

Crimean conference 1945, digital archives, digital libraries, intellectuals and authorities, knowledge authority, information society.

References

SHEVCHENKO, O. K. Arkheologiya vlasti: Vostochnaya Galichina v etnicheskikh diskursakh Yaltinskoi konferentsii [Archeology of power: Eastern Galicia in ethnic discourses of Yalta conference. In Russ.] IN: Rusin, 2015, no. 4, pp. 174-188.

SHEVCHENKO, O. K. Krymskaya (Yaltinskaya) konferentsiya 1945 g.: k voprosu o sozdanii edinogo reestra istochnikov [Crimea (Yalta) Conference of 1945: A Unified Register of Historical Sources. In Russ.] IN: Vestnik Arhivista, 2015, no. 2, pp. 43-58.

YURCHENKO, S.V. Istoricheskii kontekst, znachenie i uroki Yaltinskoi konferentsii 1945 g. [Historical Background, Impact and Lessons of the Crimea (Yalta) Conference of 1945. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik Arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2016, no. 1, pp. 202-236.

‘Argonaut’ Record of Military and Political Proceedings at Malta and in the Crimea (Yalta) 1945 [on-line]. Available at: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/checkout/ordersummary (accessed 23.02.2018)

About author

Shevchenko Oleg Konstantinovich, PhD in Philosophy, associate professor, V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, assistant professor, Yevpatoria, Russian Federation, +7-978-703-52-66, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 2.03.2018, published:

SHEVCHENKO, O. K. Zarubezhnye arkhivy po Yaltinskoi konferentsii 1945 g. v Internet-prostranstve. K voprosu o teorii «vlasti kommunikatsii»: «Natsional'nyi arkhiv» (Velikobritaniya) [Foreign Internet Archives on the Yalta Conference: Revisiting the Theory of ‘Communication Power’: The National Archives (TNA) (Great Britain). In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2018, no. 3, pp. 750-760. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2018-3-750-760

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