Collection Guide
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Inventory of the Center for Civil Society International records
2009C18
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Title: Center for Civil Society International records
Dates: 1948-2008
Collection Number: 2009C18
Creator: Center for Civil Society International.
Collection Size:
117 manuscript boxes
(46.8 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Correspondence, reports, directories, lists, pamphlets, serial issues, and circulated material, relating to voluntary associations
in the former Soviet Union, exchanges and person-to-person contacts, religion, peace movements, human rights, and promotion
of democracy and citizenship. Includes many publications collected by the Center. Also includes records of the Center's predecessor
organization, the Northwest Regional Office of the World without War Council.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
English
Russian
Collection is open for research.
Access to sound recordings, video recordings, or motion picture material requires at least two weeks advance notice. Please
contact the Hoover Institution Archives for further information.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Center for Civil Society International records, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2009.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog Socrates at
http://library.stanford.edu/webcat . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in Socrates is larger than the number of boxes
listed in this finding aid.
The World Without War Council, a national American private nonprofit organization, was founded in 1958 with the primary goal
of promoting alternatives to war, and with subsidiary goals of promoting civic education, international understanding and
democratic government. Its regional office in Seattle, Washington, successively titled the World Without War Council of Greater
Seattle and the World Without War Council Northwest Regional Office, was the predecessor organization of the Center for Civil
Society International.
The Seattle office transformed itself into the Center for Civil Society International in 1992. This act reflected a realization
of the profound changes in the international situation following the fall of communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War. The new focus of the Center became promotion
of democratic values and civil reconstruction in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. It sought to act
as a clearinghouse for contacts between non-governmental organizations in the United States and elsewhere interested in providing
technical and other assistance in the new states, and grassroots non-governmental organizations in those countries.
M. Holt Ruffin became executive director of the World Without War Council of Greater Seattle in 1984 and remained as executive
director of the Center for Civil Society International. The Hoover Institution Archives acquired the records of the Center
in 2008.
Scope and Content of Collection
Records of both the Center for Civil Society International and of its predecessors, the World Without War Council of Greater
Seattle and World Without War Council Northwest Regional Office, are included. The collection is divided into two series.
The Central Organizational Files series contains filing sequences that transcend specific topics and that reflect the continuing
life of the organization throughout its temporal stages. Material within this series is arranged by physical form. Notably
it includes chronologically arranged correspondence, predominantly outgoing, and chronologically arranged internal documents
of other types, including minutes and memoranda. Governing documents, periodical reports of activities, financial records,
and some issuances of the organization and its officials may also be found here.
The Subject File series contains material grouped by topic. The main division within the Subject File is between a General
subseries of materials not dealing with specific countries on the one hand, and materials arranged alphabetically by country
on the other hand. Correspondence with, and published and unpublished issuances of, a wide range of voluntary and other non-governmental
organizations, make up the bulk of the Subject File material. The largest volume of material by geographic region concerns
the successor republics to the Soviet Union, especially Russia, Ukraine and the Central Asian states. Economic and political
reform, civic education, human rights, health and environmental issues, religion, exchange visits, and telecommunication and
person-to-person contacts are among the aspects treated. There is also a considerable volume of earlier material from the
1980s, dealing especially with Central America and the Soviet Union, and including material on peace and disarmament movements,
as well as exchange and person-to-person contacts and human rights concerns.
Arranged in two series, Central Organizational Files, and Subject files. The main division within the Subject File is between
a General subseries of materials not dealing with specific countries on the one hand, and materials arranged alphabetically
by country on the other hand.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Civil rights.
Religion.
Peace.
Democracy.
United States--Relations--Soviet Union.
Soviet Union--Relations--United States.
United States--Relations--Former Soviet republics.
Former Soviet republics--Relations--United States.
United States--Relations--Europe, Eastern.
Europe, Eastern--Relations--United States.
World without War Council.