HIST 102 - Capstone Research Project

"Witches Everywhere" - Research Notes

McCarthy, Venona, and the Soviet Archives - Five Case Studies - Richland Community College

Before You Begin

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How to Use This Form

Research all five individuals. Your job is not to prove that McCarthy was right or wrong in advance. For each case, identify what McCarthy alleged, locate relevant archival evidence, and decide whether that evidence supports, contradicts, or leaves the accusation uncertain.

Use credible primary sources, government archives, scholarly books and articles, and library databases. Starting links help you begin, but they do not replace your own source evaluation. Your campus librarian can help you locate and evaluate material.

Government RoleAgency or department, position title, and years of service.
Soviet Code NameRecord a cryptonym only when your source supports the identification. Name the source.
McCarthy's AccusationState what McCarthy specifically claimed about this individual. Distinguish his wording from later claims made by other investigators or historians.
Venona EvidenceCopy a relevant passage verbatim. Include enough identifying information for another reader to locate it: cable number if available, date, sending office, and URL. If you find no relevant Venona evidence, say so rather than guessing.
Vassiliev / Gorsky EvidenceCopy a relevant passage verbatim. Include notebook or document reference, page when available, and URL. If nothing relevant is found, record that clearly.
Evidence-Based ClassificationBased on the evidence you found, classify the case as confirmed agent, probable agent, sympathizer / association only, unclear, or not supported. Explain your reasoning briefly.
Evidence ConfidenceRate the strength of the evidence from 1 to 5. Consider source quality, directness, identification certainty, and corroboration.
Overall AssessmentDecide whether the archival evidence strongly supports, partially supports, does not support, or leaves McCarthy's specific accusation unclear.

Primary Source Starting Links

NSA Venona ProjectVassiliev Notebooks - Wilson CenterWhite Notebook No. 2 / Gorsky MemoHaynes - McCarthy Lists and VenonaMcCarthy Senate Speech - Congressional RecordFBI - Venona

Part I - Individual Research Entries

Part II - NotebookLM Briefing Doc

NotebookLM Briefing Doc

After all five case entries are complete, export this form once and upload that .txt file to a new Google NotebookLM notebook as the only source. In the Studio panel, generate a Briefing Doc.

Paste the complete Briefing Doc below exactly as NotebookLM generates it. Do not use NotebookLM to rewrite your Research Notes, thesis, or essay. If NotebookLM or the Briefing Doc feature is unavailable, contact Professor Austin instead of substituting another AI tool.

After pasting the Briefing Doc, export the form again. The second export is your final Research Notes file for Canvas.

Part III - Final Summary

Summary and Reflection

Academic Integrity and AI Use

All Research Notes must reflect your own reading, research, quotation selection, and analysis. The only permitted AI-supported element is the NotebookLM Briefing Doc described above, generated from your own exported Research Notes as the sole source.

Open the exported file and confirm that all five cases and the NotebookLM Briefing Doc are present. Submit this file together with your Essay Planner and Draft file in the single "Witches Everywhere" Canvas assignment.

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