United States. U.S. Information Agency. Photographs Used as Illustrations in Issues of the Journal "Problems of Communism," 1989 - 1992
Title:
Records of the U.S. Information Agency, 1900 - 2003. Photographs Used as Illustrations in Issues of the Journal "Problems of Communism", 1989 - 1992
This series consists of photographs that were used as illustrations in issues of the United States Information Agency journal, "Problems of Communism". The photographs document political, economic, and social occurrences in the waning months of the Cold War, and immediately following the collapse and breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. While most of the photography concerns China and the Soviet Union, events relating to other communist and totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia are covered. Occurrences in the former Soviet republics are also documented. Many of the key figures in world politics of the time are also captured in the photographs. Also included are a few photographs relating to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 that were published in a special edition of the journal. Shown are President John F. Kennedy, Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the naval blockade of Cuba, and aerial reconnaissance views of Soviet weaponry in Cuba (306-CP-1992-SE).
Of note in this series are photographs documenting events as they unfolded following a massive 1989 demonstration for democratic reform that took place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China (306-CP-1989-5 and 306-CP-1990-3). The photographs show Chinese students, laborers, and other protestors; the Chinese Communist Party leadership, troops of the People's Liberation Army, and the victims of the Chinese government's suppression of the demonstration. Additionally, there are photographs relating to the 1990 Soviet economic crisis and to "perestroika", the economic and social policy begun by the government in the late 1980's (306-CP-1989-6, 306-CP-1990-2, and 306-CP-1990-3). Pictured are Soviets lining up to buy goods, stores bare of stocks, and market-oriented economic ventures. Also of interest is a photograph of peaceful demonstrators in Prague during one of the events that led to the "Velvet Revolution" and the 1989 overthrow of communism in Czechoslovakia (306-CP-1991-3-91-685). There are photographs of the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary meeting at Visegrad, Hungary and at Krakow, Poland in 1991 to finalize cooperative agreements. Pictured are Vaclav Havel, Joszef Antall, and Lech Walesa (306-CP-1991-6). In addition, there are photographs of demonstrations in Albania in 1991 and images of refugees fleeing the upheaval in that country (306-CP-1991-5). Photographs recording a failed coup in 1991 against the authority of Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union (306-CP-1991-6) are also included. Pictured are Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and demonstrations. There are also photographs of celebrations over the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the opening of the borders between East and West Germany (306-CP-1992-1/2)
Other heads of state and important individuals of the Cold War-era pictured in this series include Deng Xiaoping of China (306-CP-1992-1/2-92-86), North Korea's Kim Il Sung (306-CP-1992-1/2), George Bush (306-CP-1991-6-92-62) and James A. Baker of the United States (306-CP-1991-5-91-719), Qian Qichen of China (306-CP-1991-6-92-61), Saddam Hussein (306-CP-1991-4-91-706) and Tariq Aziz of Iraq (306-CP-1991-4-707), Romanians Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu (306-CP-1991-1/2-91-479), Georgian Zviad Gamsakhurdia 306-CP-1991-6-92-58), Russians Yevgeny Primakov (306-CP-1991-4-91-706), Eduard Shevardnaze (306-CP-1991-4-91-702), and dissident Andrei Sakharov (306-CP-1991-6-92-49), Wojciech Jaruzelski of Poland (306-CP-1991-1/2-91-682), Uzbeks Islam Karimov (306-CP-1991-5-91-887) and Sharaf Rashidov (306-CP-1991-5-91-881), Fatos Nano of Albania (306-CP-1991-5-91-718), Nicaraguans Daniel Ortega and Violetta Chamorro (306-CP-1992-1/2-92-95) , Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania (306-CP-1992-1/2-92-103), Iranian Ali Akbar Hashimi Rafsanjani (306-CP-1991-4-91-703), Prince Saud Al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia (306-CP-1991-4-91-705), and Saw Maung of Burma (306-CP-1992-1/2-92-93).
The photographs in this series were obtained from commercial photography agencies and foreign government sources.
ArchivalResource:
259 items
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/607766 View
View in SNAC