Overview
Papers of American journalist Nicholas Daniloff concerning his arrest and release in the Soviet Union in 1986.
Dates
- Creation: 1957-2008
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1986-1988
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English, Russian, German, and French.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
15 linear feet (17 boxes)0.7 Gigabytes
The collection concerns the "Daniloff Affair" of 1986, including correspondence, editorials, and clippings; the collection also includes compositions and research files for Two Lives, One Russia (1988) and files from Daniloff's journalism career prior to his arrest.
Includes material by Daniloff's wife, Ruth Daniloff; a CD-R of Danilov genealogy (2008), audio tapes, and several photographs.
Biographical / Historical
Nicholas Daniloff is an American journalist and 1956 Harvard graduate who was most prominent in the 1980s for his reporting on the Soviet Union. From 1981 to 1986 Daniloff served as the Moscow bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report. Shortly before his tenure ended, he became known internationally on August 30, 1986, when he was arrested in Moscow by the KGB and accused of espionage. This period would come to be known as the "Daniloff Affair". On September 23 Daniloff was allowed to leave the Soviet Union without charges. Daniloff contends in his autobiography, Two Lives, One Russia, that the KGB falsely accused him in retaliation for the American arrest of a Soviet spy. He later became an instructor at Northeastern University's School of Journalism and from 1992 until 1999 served at the director of the school. He retired in 2014.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Compositions
- II. Correspondence
- III. Research files
- ___A. General research files
- ___B. Daniloff affair
- IV. Clippings
- V. Audiovisual and other material
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2013M-20. Gift of Nicholas Daniloff; received: 2013 August 27, December 3.
General note
The collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Christine Jacobson and Irina Klyagin.
- Title
- Daniloff, Nicholas, 1934-. Nicholas Daniloff papers, 1957-2008: Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02459
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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