Methodology
Over the course of this project, many choices were made in how we handled certain aspects of metadata, translation, and titling in this project. We believe it to be important to be transparent about these decisions and the motivation behind them, and thus explain them below.
Metadata
Due to the number of different archives our oral history interviews are sourced from, there is great variation in the availability and content of metadata for each individual interview. Indeed, in some cases, even what might be considered "basic" metadata, such as the name of the interviewer, was missing. The decision was made to separate the metadata displayed on each item page into two tables: Standardised Metadata and External Archive Metadata.
Our Standardised Metadata represents the data that we wish to include for all archived interviews, if possible. Therefore, the elements within this table were chosen to specifically focus on the interview as the item, as opposed to the interviewee's story, and they were chosen with the hope of maximising the chance that the relevant information would be available for every interview. However, this was not always possible for all interviews. It was generally unclear if the missing elements in our Standardised Metadata table were simply not recorded by the external organisation, or if they were recorded but, for some reason, were not included on the host archive. Thus, we thought deliberately about what to put in place of these missing elements. Since our Standardised Metadata elements all concern the interview itself as the artefact, rather than the person or their experience, and since we are largely acquiring the data from the item's record in its external archive, the choice was made to label these missing elements as "Not provided by host collection." In doing so, we hope to remind the user that the possibility that these elements were recorded and not published remains open, and that the reason for not including them in our archive was specifically because the relevant information was not present on the host site.
The External Archive Metadata represents any additional elements that were provided specifically by the host archive for the given interview. The motivation to separate these elements from the standardised metadata above was largely twofold: 1) Due to the number of different host archives, it was very common for different archives to record different data according to their own standards and practices; and 2) We consider this "included" metadata to be part of the archived oral history interview itself, and thus something that must be marked as occurring externally. Therefore, every item has a table called "External Archive Metadata (as provided)" which, excluding those present in our standardised metadata, records the elements provided by the external archive verbatim.
Translation and Transliteration
Given that the archive deals with oral history interviews of those repressed by the Soviet Union, the majority of the interviews are conducted in a language other than English. Further, much of the metadata and other information present on the host archive for each interview was not in English. Additionally, we recognise that the main audience for this archive is primarily diaspora, in North America and abroad, who likely may not speak the languages used in many of these interviews. That being said, due to the sensitive nature of many of the topics discussed and the closely related history of language erasure as a method of repression, we made the explicit decision not to translate or transliterate any content in the archive. This includes names, titles, and any original metadata or descriptions.
We believe that, despite these interviews being hosted by external archives, the names of those interviews and the stories they tell belong squarely to the original interviewee and they respective family, as a core and often painful part of their individual history and culture. Therefore, we do not believe it is our place to translate or transliterate any portion, as doing so would necessitate decisions made without the consent or knowledge of those to whom which these interviews belong.
Interview Descriptions
In keeping within the intent of this project, we have chosen not to provide extended historical background alongside each interview. The focus remains on preserving and amplifying the voices of those who experienced these events firsthand. These testimonies are not intended to supplement other narratives but are presented as historical records in their own right, grounded in personal memory.
We have also chosen to present the interview descriptions in a detached and minimalistic manner. This approach ensures that the testimonies remain centred on the lived experiences of those who endured these events, without added context or interpretation. Each individual is referred to as a “victim” to acknowledge the harm they faced as a result of Soviet crimes. This choice does not aim to diminish their autonomy, but rather to highlight the impact of the crimes while respecting their role in telling their own story.