The Princeton Collection

Analytic Reports Produced by the Directorate of Intelligence on the Former Soviet Union Declassified and released for a March 2001 Conference at Princeton University

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A collection of declassified analytic documents on the former Soviet Union, produced by CIA's Directorate of Intelligence (DI) during 1951-1991 and released to the National Archives, is provided below. These documents were reviewed and released for a conference at Princeton University titled "CIA's Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991," that was held on 9-10 March 2001. The conference focused on the role of intelligence in the Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that dominated international events for over 45 years, shaped the foreign polities of both nations, and deeply affected their societies. The conference was cosponsored by the Center of International Studies, Princeton University, and the Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency. The declassification of the documents was managed by CIA's Office of Information Management.

The "Princeton Collection" is a subset of the body of finished intelligence documents on the former soviet Union published by the DI during the Cold War, which is being systematically reviewed and released to the public under the Agency's voluntary declassification program. The goal of the Agency for this conference was to assemble a collection of documents large enough and sufficiently diverse to ensure that (1) most, if not all, of the major developments and analytic issues that occurred during the Cold War were represented, and (2) the tenor and substance of the DI's analysis was adequately captured.

As is true in the case of the general collection of DI analytic documents indexed elsewhere on the web site, many of the reports could not be released in full without compromising still sensitive sources and methods or harming current government-to-government relations. In such instances, whenever possible, the Summary, Conclusions, or Key Judgments of the papers were released, but the detailed supporting analysis was withheld. In no instances were documents withheld or redacted in a fashion to conceal differences between CIA's analysis and that of another US Government Agency or any other organization, or because release might somehow embarrass the Agency.

An index of the documents produced by the DI and released to the National Archives for the Princeton Conference is provided below, arrayed by year of publication. Click on a particular publication and the actual document can be viewed, either in full or redacted form.