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You get the exact 17 Broadcasts and Business Card shownin the photos.
Condition: Good vintage condition.
“Не хлебом единым” — “Not by Bread Alone”
The archive contains consecutive program numbers 277 through 293, covering broadcasts from May 6–7 through August 26–27, 1989. These programs were prepared during the final years of the Cold War and shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Unlike clean reference copies, these appear to be working production scripts. Numerous pages contain handwritten corrections, timing indications, circled passages, deletions, substitutions and other editorial or broadcast-use markings. Several covers are marked with notations indicating their use “on broadcast.”
The programs combine Russian Orthodox religious instruction, Gospel readings, sermons, church history and reports concerning Russian Christian martyrs and confessors. Subjects visible throughout the collection include:
- Russian Orthodox Sunday Gospel readings and feast days
- The Myrrh-Bearing Women
- Healing of the Paralytic
- The Samaritan Woman
- The Ascension and Pentecost
- Russian Orthodox martyrs and confessors
- Optina Elder Nektary
- Archbishop Athanasius Malinin
- Archbishop Peter Sokolov
- Bishop Hierotheus of Nikolsk
- Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd
- Church life and religious conditions within the Soviet Union
Named contributors appearing in the scripts include Gleb Rahr, Father Georgy Benigsen, Father Mikhail Aksenov-Meerson, Evgeny Pazukhin and others. Program No. 293 identifies Archpriest Kirill Fotiev as its compiler and presenter.
The lot also includes its original heavily used storage or mailing wrapper, handwritten and dated 1989.
From the personal archive of Nicholas A. Petroff, whose career included work involving Soviet and Eastern European affairs and senior service Assistant Director with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The archive was retained together before acquisition and has not been assembled from unrelated sources. The archive’s Petroff provenance provides important context for the material and helps explain its concentration on Russian Service editorial policy, Soviet affairs, broadcasting and institutional controversies.
Radio Liberty transmitted uncensored news, cultural programming, religious discussions, and political commentary to audiences in the Soviet Union. Religious programming held particular historical importance because open religious expression and access to uncensored Orthodox material had long been restricted under Soviet rule. These scripts date from the transformative final period of the USSR.
The provenance helps explain why this group of Russian-language broadcast and political material was preserved together.
An excellent research collection relating to Radio Liberty, post-Soviet Russia, international broadcasting, journalism, Russian émigré history, religious studies and political communication.
This provenance provides valuable context but should not be interpreted as a claim that Petroff personally authored all of these scripts. However, based on their provenance and the handwritten editorial markings, they are believed to have been at least reviewed or edited by Petroff. The handwriting has not been independently authenticated.
This cohesive group would make an excellent addition to a collection focused on:
- Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe
- Radio Svoboda
- Cold War broadcasting
- Russian-language media
- Soviet and Russian history
- Religious freedom in the USSR
- Russian Orthodox Christianity
- Soviet-era religious history
- Russian émigré history
- Broadcast journalism and archival manuscripts
- Broadcast scripts and production documents
- Nicholas A. Petroff archival material
Bonus:
As an added provenance piece, this lot includes one original Nicholas Petroff business card, shown in the final photograph.
Will ship safely as always.
broadcasts lot 9
