LibGuides: Cold War: A Global History: International Online Primary Sources

Non-U.S.-Focused Online and Digitized Primary Sources

Cold War International History Project
Collection of governmental documents from multiple countries during the Cold War era. Based at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., this is the premier online site for Cold War documents and analysis, mostly from Communist Bloc nations.
Wilson Center Digital Archive
The Wilson Center Digital Archive contains declassified historical materials from archives around the world—much of it in translation and including diplomatic cables, high level correspondence, meeting minutes and more. It focuses on the Cold War, North Korean history, and nuclear proliferation.
Cold War International History Project Publications
Includes the very useful Working Paper series, e-Dossier series, the CWIHP Bulletin, and Documentary Readers. These are all extremely valuable sources.
Cold War Studies at Harvard University
Resource from Harvard University providing Cold War era archival documents, publications, and other related information. Includes a Document Archive and other resources.
NATO Archives Online
NATO Archives Online facilitates the online consultation of the publicly disclosed formal documents of the NATO International Staff (IS) and International Military Staff (IMS). Inludes the Committee documents of the North Atlantic Council and its sub-committees, the Military Committee and its working groups, as well as a complete collection of NATO Publications.

Documents on British Policy Overseas
A fully searchable collection of primary source documents from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), shedding light on diplomatic history throughout the 20th C. It is based on three print series which form a record of British peacetime diplomacy since the end of the 19th C: British Documents on the Origins of the War 1898-1914, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1918-1939 and Documents on British Policy Overseas. DBPO is produced in collaboration between ProQuest and the FCO.

The National Archives: The Cabinet Papers
Archival resource for British government cabinet papers from 1915-1986.
The British Diplomatic Oral History Programme
Searchable collection of interview transcripts from the British Diplomatic Oral History Programme, established in 1995, which interviewed influential British diplomats and officials.
Margaret Thatcher Archive
Digital archive of documents related to Margaret Thatcher, a British prime minister during the Cold War. Makes available thousands of declassified documents from archives all over the world about the remarkably influential British prime minister in the Cold War’s final years.
Imperial War Museum Collections
Provides access to digitized documents and images concerning 20th century British military history, including the era of decolonization and the Cold War. Included many digitized documents and images concerning 20th century British military history, including the era of decolonization and the Cold War.
Documents on Irish Foreign Policy
Published record of documents concerning Irish foreign policy and relations. Documents date from 1919 to 1965.
Documents on Canadian External Relations
Published record of documents related to foreign policy and foreign relations of the Government of Canada. The basic published record of the foreign policy and foreign relations of the Government of Canada; provides a comprehensive, self-contained record of Canada's major foreign policy decisions and their underlying rationale.
Parallel History of Project on Cooperative Security
Not clear how active this site is, but it contains European documents on the Cold War compiled by scholars at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.
Documents on Germany, 1944-1985
Collection of documents prepared by U.S. State Department historians related to Germany from the end of World War II up to the late Cold War.
Documents on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-1985
The official record of West Germany’s foreign policy during much of the Cold War.
Germany Divided and Reunified (EuroDocs)
Historical documents dating from 1945-present. Documents collected by the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University.
Documents of the Soviet Era
Prepared by the Russian Federal Archival Agency.
Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Online
Digital collection of 705 transcripts from interviews with refugees from the USSR during the early years of the Cold War. Based on 705 interviews with emigres from the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1945 about life in the Soviet Union (in English).
Soviet History Archive
Includes documents on foreign policy, collected by the Marxist Internet Archive.
Stalin Digital Archive
Maintained by Yale University Press.
Prague Spring Archive
Documents from the University of Texas and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library concerning the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
Making the History of 1989
Primary sources are drawn from the emergence of resistance movements in the 1980s, the events of 1989, and the immediate aftermath in Eastern Europe. Compiled by George Mason University, these primary documents are “drawn from the emergence of resistance movements in the 1980s, the events of 1989, and the immediate aftermath in Eastern Europe.”
Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland
Independent research center for Swiss foreign policy studies and international relations after the establishing of the Swiss Confederation in 1848. From the Swiss Federal Archives.
Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel
Published documents of Israel's foreign policies dating back to 1947. Contains documents related to the Cold War.
Japanese Diplomatic Document Digital Collection
Prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Contains documents from 1868 to the 1960s.
United Nations Digital Library
United Nations Oral History Collection
The United Nations Oral History Collection includes interviews conducted over several years with Secretariat officials, ambassadors, and other eminent people on the establishment of the United Nations and UN involvement in various situations around the world.
World Bank Archive
Thousands of pages of historical documents from the World Bank Group.