When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Original Nicholas A. Petroff Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty archival personnel, payroll, employment and legal papers dating primarily from the 1980s into the early 1990s.
This is a substantial group of original documents relating to Petroff's employment with Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in Munich and the personnel, compensation, pension and employment-law matters surrounding his career there.
The material visible in this lot includes numerous original and period office documents, correspondence, memoranda, payroll records and supporting papers.
Subjects represented include:
- Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
- Nicholas A. Petroff personnel and employment records
- Payroll authorization and salary/compensation changes
- RFE/RL Programming Services / Broadcast Analysis Department material
- Pension and retirement-plan issues
- German employment and labor-law and mandatory-retirement questions
- Correspondence concerning U.S. citizens employed by RFE/RL in West Germany
- German Arbeitsamt / employment-office documentation
- Internal RFE/RL correspondence and memoranda
- Benefits and compensation information
- Employment-related financial records
- Period correspondence bearing signatures and annotations
- Supporting administrative and personnel papers
One particularly interesting piece visible in the lot is a June 29, 1989 memorandum sent via Federal Express to Michael R. Marchetti, Vice President & Administrator of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Washington, D.C., discussing proposed pension-plan changes and their relationship to employees covered by German law.
Another document concerns the application of German age-discrimination/employment provisions to U.S. citizens employed by RFE/RL in the Federal Republic of Germany, providing an unusual primary-source look at the employment issues faced by an American Cold War broadcasting organization operating in West Germany.
Payroll documents identify Petroff with RFE/RL's Programming Services / Broadcast Analysis Department (BAD) and document salary and employment-status changes.
The lot contains a sizable group of papers as shown in the photographs. Everything pictured is included. Papers have been kept together and are being offered as an archival group rather than separated individually.
Historical Interest
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were among the most important Western international broadcasting organizations of the Cold War, transmitting news and information to audiences behind the Iron Curtain. Original internal personnel and administrative records can provide a different perspective from publicly distributed RFE/RL publications, documenting the organization's day-to-day operations and the people who worked within it.
This group should be of particular interest to collectors and researchers of:
Cold War history • Radio Free Europe • Radio Liberty • international broadcasting • West Germany • American organizations in Munich • employment history • labor relations • media history • archival ephemera • primary-source historical documents
📚 Provenance — From the Nicholas Petroff Archive
This archive originates from the personal papers of Nicholas A. Petroff and has remained substantially intact as acquired. Included are Mr. Petroff's employment records, legal files, correspondence, personnel records, administrative documents, investigative materials, and working papers documenting his career with Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and the extensive employment discrimination proceedings that followed.
Mr. Petroff's professional background included service with the U.S. Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prior to his management positions with Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. These statements are presented solely as documented in the original materials included with this collection.
This archive dates primarily from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s and provides an unusually detailed primary-source record of the administration, personnel practices, and internal operations of one of the Cold War's most historically significant international broadcasting organizations.
This is one of many collections being offered from the larger Nicholas Petroff Archive.
Please note: References in the provenance section describe the larger archive from which this lot originated and do not necessarily mean that every type of document mentioned above is contained within this individual lot. The exact contents of this listing are those shown in the photographs.
Bonus:
As an added provenance piece, this lot includes one original Nicholas Petroff business card, shown in the final photograph.
Will ship safely as always.
