Identity area
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176 PDF
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The AC/34 chronological series contains the documents of the Working Group on Trends of Soviet Policy(1) . The Working Group was set up by the Council at its 8 October 1952 meeting, and tasked with drafting a report, for the next ministerial session of the Council, on the line of Soviet foreign policy (C-R(52)24, item 5) - which had previously been considered by the Political Working Group(2). To this end national experts met and drafted the document on the basis of the information and views communicated to the International Staff Political Affairs Division by the delegations (C-R(52)24). Other reports followed for the periods April 1953 to December 1953, December 1953 to April 1954, April 1954 to November 1954 and December 1954 to April 1955. The Working Group operated from 29 October 1952 until 19 November 1956. Its work was taken over by the Political Committee(3) which was created in January 1957.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The documents in the AC/34 series comprise draft Working Group reports, and information and views that were communicated to the International Staff Political Affairs Division by the delegations from 1952 to 1956 and served as a basis for those drafts.
They concern the part played by China in Soviet policy up till 1953, the most recent events in the internal politics of the USSR (happenings after the death of Stalin, the fall of Malenkov who was replaced by Bulganin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, rise of Khrushchev, Molotov’s address to the Supreme Soviet) and in its external policy (proposal for a military alliance between Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany, continuity of Soviet foreign policy, communist statements on atomic war, thaw in Eastern Europe) and the situation in the Eastern countries (Poznan riots and political attitude of the people in the Soviet zone of Germany).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The AC/34 document series is arranged by type - document (D), notice (N), record (R), working paper (WP) - and then sometimes by year and number. There are no documents for 1954, notices for 1953, 1954 and 1956, records for 1953, 1954, 1955 and 1956 or working papers for 1952. The year is not given in the references of 1952, 1953 and 1956 documents, 1953 working papers, or any notices or records. Memoranda of 1956 can be consulted under the reference TSP.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
NATO publicly disclosed information is available for research and education purposes. Any commercial use requires the written permission of NATO. Please credit the NATO Archives should any documents be used for publication. Guidelines for the proper citation of NATO publicly disclosed information can be found on the NATO Archives website (http://www.nato.int/archives).
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
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Language and script notes
The documents of the chronological series were probably circulated in both NATO official languages (English and French). However, it seems that the documents and working papers were not all kept in the two languages.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
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Notes area
Note
(1) The title of the Working Group varies: the documents speak of a "Working Group on Trends in Soviet Foreign Policy", a "Working Group on Trends in Soviet Policy", a "Working Group on Trends and Implications of Soviet Policy" and a "Working Group on Trends of Soviet Policy".
(2) See the series under reference AC/2.
(3) See the series under reference AC/119.