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The Alexander Herzen Foundation (in Dutch: ''Alexander Herzenstichting'') was a non-profit foundation, legally established in 1969 in Amsterdam, dedicated to publish samizdat manuscripts from dissidents in the former Soviet Union in the original language or in translation. The Alexander Herzen Foundation was the first to publish accounts of the Sinyavsky-Daniel trial and the works of
Website Karel van het Reve (in Dutch).
Frank Fisher and his wife Elisabeth Fisher-Spanjer were also involved in its founding. The date of establishment of the foundation is mentioned in the obituary written by Robert van Amerongen after Van het Reve's death. The Foundation is named after Alexander Herzen, the Russian philosopher and writer who founded in 1853 an independent publishing house in Russia. Karel van het Reve was in 1967-1968 foreign correspondent in Moscow of the Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool. He considered, quite unusual at the time, collecting samizdat documents as one of his journalistic tasks. He published, among other pieces, the famous Andrei Sakharov memorandum ''Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom''. This was the overture to the Alexander Herzen Foundation. The Foundation was established to publish samizdat manuscripts in the West and to preserve the revenues for the authors of the manuscripts. The annotated texts being published in the original language was also important to counteract corrupt editions and bad translations. The foundation ended in 1998 because the
The Alexander Herzen Foundation (in Dutch: ''Alexander Herzenstichting'') was a non-profit foundation, legally established in 1969 in Amsterdam, dedicated to publish samizdat manuscripts from dissidents in the former Soviet Union in the original language or in translation. The Alexander Herzen Foundation was the first to publish accounts of the Sinyavsky-Daniel trial and the works of Andrei Amalrik
Andrei Alekseevich Amalrik (russian: Андре́й Алексе́евич Ама́льрик, 12 May 1938, Moscow – 12 November 1980, Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain), alternatively spelled ''Andrei'' or ''Andrey'', was a Russian writer ...
, Yuli Daniel, Larisa Bogoraz, Andrei Sinyavsky, Pavel Litvinov
Pavel Mikhailovich Litvinov (russian: Па́вел Миха́йлович Литви́нов; born 6 July 1940) is a Russian-born U.S. physicist, writer, teacher, human rights activist and former Soviet-era dissident.
Biography
The grandson of ...
and others in the West. The Foundation was ended legally in 1998.
History
The Alexander Herzen Foundation was legally established May 19, 1969, in Amsterdam. The Dutch slavist and essayistKarel van het Reve
Karel van het Reve (19 May 1921 – 4 March 1999) was a Dutch writer, translator and literary historian, teaching and writing on Russian literature.
He was born in Amsterdam and was raised as a communist. He lost his 'faith' in his twentie ...
(1921–1999) took the initiative and was one of the trustees. The other trustees were the Dutch historian Jan Willem Bezemer (1921–2000) and the British-American politicologist Peter Reddaway
Peter Reddaway (born September 18, 1939) is a British-American political scientist, a Russia expert, known primarily for his study of its human rights and dissident movement.
Peter Reddaway graduated from Cambridge University and did graduate s ...
(1939).SeeWebsite Karel van het Reve (in Dutch).
Frank Fisher and his wife Elisabeth Fisher-Spanjer were also involved in its founding. The date of establishment of the foundation is mentioned in the obituary written by Robert van Amerongen after Van het Reve's death. The Foundation is named after Alexander Herzen, the Russian philosopher and writer who founded in 1853 an independent publishing house in Russia. Karel van het Reve was in 1967-1968 foreign correspondent in Moscow of the Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool. He considered, quite unusual at the time, collecting samizdat documents as one of his journalistic tasks. He published, among other pieces, the famous Andrei Sakharov memorandum ''Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom''. This was the overture to the Alexander Herzen Foundation. The Foundation was established to publish samizdat manuscripts in the West and to preserve the revenues for the authors of the manuscripts. The annotated texts being published in the original language was also important to counteract corrupt editions and bad translations. The foundation ended in 1998 because the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
and the strong repression of the press in Russia and Eastern Europe were over.
Published (selection)
*Andrej Amarik, ''Will the Soviet Union survive until 1984'' (1969) *Pavel Litvinov, ''The Trial of the Four. A collection of Materials on the Case of Galanskov, Ginzburg, Dobrovolsky & Lashkova'' (1972)Further reading
* Peter Reddaway, 'One of the CIA's most zealous agents', in: ''Uren met Karel van het Reve. Liber amicorum'' (1991), p. 138-144Footnotes
{{Authority control Soviet literature Organizations established in 1969 1969 establishments in the Netherlands Censorship in the Soviet Union Cold War organizations Book publishing companies of the Netherlands Organizations disestablished in 1998 1998 disestablishments in the Netherlands Defunct publishing companies of the Netherlands Netherlands–Soviet Union relations