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Guide to the Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State Microfilm Collection, 1903-1992: Russian State Archives
of Social and Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsialno-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI)
XX843c
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Title: Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State: Microfilm Collection, Russian State Archives of Social and Political
History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsialno-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI)
Date (inclusive): 1903-1990
Collection number: XX843c
Extent: 2772 microfilm reels340.8 linear feet
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Relates to political conditions in the Soviet Union from 1903 to 1992.
Physical location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
Russian
Collection open for research.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
[Identification of item], Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State : Microfilm Collection, [Reel no.], Hoover
Institution
Archives.
Location of Original Materials
The original documents are located in three Russian archives:
- -Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv noveishei istorii - RGANI);
- -Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsialno-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI);
- and
- -State Archives of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii - GARF).
Portions or the entirety of the microfilm collection may be found at the following institutions in addition to the Hoover
Institution: The Library of Congress, Grinnell College, Harvard University, John Hopkins University, University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, Ohio University, University of Washington, University of Melbourne Australia, Glasgow University United Kingdom,
Bavarian State University, Germany, and Hokkaido University, Japan.
The microfilms containing only the Russian language
opisi or finding aids may be found at the following institutions: University of Illinois, Indiana University, Columbia University,
and New York University.
The collection is organized by the name of the Russian archive that holds the original materials. There are three finding
aids for the collection, one for each one of the Russian Archives:
- -Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv noveishei istorii - RGANI);
- -Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsialno-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI);
- and
- -State Archives of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii - GARF).
Within Russian institutional archive, the materials are organized into two groups: (1)
fondy (record groups consisting of documents); and (2) finding aids that describe each
fondy.
Fondy are usually subdivided into
opisi (series of documents; the number of
opisi in a
fond) varies.
Scope and Content of the Microfilm Collection
This collection concerns political conditions in the Soviet Union from 1903 to 1990. The documents come from three Russian
archives. Material was selected for microfilming based on two criteria: (1) records of the highest policy-making units of
the Communist Party were the priority; and (2) record series were filmed in their entirety.
To locate material in the collection, it helps to know that archival documents in the former Soviet Union, and later in the
Russian Federation, are arranged in major record groups according to the institution that issued, to the subject, or collector.
These major groups, which sometimes include thousands of documents, are called in Russian
fond (plural
fondy). Within each
fond the documents are generally divided into smaller groups called
opisi (singular opis).
Opisi might be organized according to the internal structure of the corresponding institution; sometimes
opisi consist of documents relating to one subject. The Russian word
opis has two meanings: (1) a series of documents; and (2) a finding aid. Each
opis "series of documents" is provided with a descriptive
opis "finding aid." Each
opis "series of documents" is further organized into files called
dela (singular
delo) that contain the documents.
Out of a total of 11,818 microfilm reels, 11,349 reels contain documents and 469 contain finding aids to the
fondy available at the Hoover Institution, as well as to some
fondy available only in Russia. Each reel of microfilm contains approximately 850 pages, or frames.
The microfilm reel numbers consist of two parts separated by a period, for example 2.427. The first numerical segment identifies
the Russian archive source. Number 2 is for RGASPI. The second segment, which is sequentially numbered starting with 1, represents
a specific microfilm reel number for that Russian archive.
Scope and Content of the RGASPI Records
Materials described in this document are from the Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi
arkhiv sotsialno-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI). The collection includes materials from congresses and conferences of the
RSDRP-VKP(b)-KPSS and records of the TsK KPSS Central Committee for the years 1917-1990.
There are thirty-nine
fonds were microfilmed for the Hoover Institution at the Russian State Archives of Social and Political History. Thirty-eight
fonds consist of one (occasionally two)
opis and contain mainly documents relating to the congresses (2nd through 19th; 23rd through 28th) and conferences (5th through
16th) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (KPSS)[RSDRP, 1903-1917; RKP(b), 1918-1925; VKP(b), 1925-1952; KPSS, 1952-1990].
There are 2,069 files (on 261 reels) in these 38
fonds. All files were filmed for the Hoover Institution.
Fond 17, The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union records, 1903-1965, 1971, contains documents related
to the activities of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party
in 1989 and 1903-1917, Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1918-1925, and All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1925-1952).
The listing below has been prepared for 2,457 microfilm reels of
Fond 17, The Central Committee was the leading body of the KPSS, its political, theoretical, ideological, and organizational
center. It was elected at the party congresses or sometimes at its conferences. While in power, the Central Committee was
the main organ supervising the KPSS, the government, and the political and economic life of the Soviet Union. The main organs
of the Central Committee were plenums, Bureau of the Central Committee, Political Bureau, Organizational Bureau, and Secretariat.
Decisions mandatory for party and governmental institutions were adopted at the meetings of these organs. The Central Committee
of the KPSS also had an apparatus in which one part acted in parallel to the leading governmental structures and the other
was dealing with interior KPSS problems.
Soviet Union--History.
Soviet Union--Politics and government.
Communism--Soviet Union.
Communism.
Soviet Union.
Russia (Federation)
Kommunisticheskaia partiia Sovetskogo Soiuza.
Soviet Union.
- This glossary defines acronyms and names for all three organizations of the microfilming project: the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv noveishei istorii - RGANI), the Russian State Archives of Social and Political History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsialno-politicheskoi istorii - RGASPI), and the State Archives of the Russian Federation (Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii - GARF).
- ASSR
- Avtonomnaia Sovetskaia sotsialisticheskaia respublika (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic)
- BUND
- The General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia
- Gospolitizdat
- Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo politichesko literatury (State Publishing House for Political Literature)
- GUITK
- Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh kolonii (Main Administration of Correctional Labor Colonies)
- Gulag
- Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh lagerei (Main Administration of Correctional Labor Camps and Colonies)
- GUMZ
- Glavnoe upravlenie mest zakliucheniia (Main Administration of Places of Confinement)
- IKKI
- Ispolnitelnyi komitet Kommunisticheskogo Internatsionala (Executive Committee of the Communist International)
- IMEL
- Institut Marksa-Engelsa-Lenina (Marx-Engels- Lenin Institute)
- Komsomol
- Kommunisticheskii soiuz molodezhi (see VLKSM)
- KPSS
- Kommunisticheskaia partiia Sovetskogo Soiuza (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)
- Krymizdat
- Krymskoe izdatelstvo (Crimean Publishing House)
- Lenizdat
- Leningradskoe izdatelstvo (Leningrad Publishing House)
- Malyi Sovnarkom
- Malyi sovet narodnykh komissarov (Small Council of People's Commissars)
- MOPR
- Mezhdunarodnaia organizatsiia pomoshchi bortsam revoliutsii (International Organization for Assistance to the Fighters for Revolution)
- MVD
- Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del (Ministry of Internal Affairs)
- NKGB
- Narodnyi Commissariat gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti (People's Commissars of State Security)
- NKID
- Narodnyi kommisariat inostrannykh del (People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs)
- NKPS
- Narodnyi kommisariat putei soobshcheniia (People's Commissariat of Transportation)
- NKVD
- Narodnyi kommisariat vnutrennikh del (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs)
- OGIZ
- Obiedinennoe gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo (Joint State Publishing House)
- OGPU
- Obiedinennoe gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie (Unified State Political Administration)
- okruzhkom
- Okruzhnoi komitet [partii] (Party committee of an okrug)
- Politizdat
- Izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury (Publishing House for Political Literature)
- Profintern
- Krasnyi internatsional profsoiuzov (Red International of Trade Unions)
- PUR RVS
- Politicheskoe upravlenie revoliutsionno- voennogo soveta (Political Administration of the Revolutionary-Military Council)
- RKI
- Raboche-krestianskaia inspektsiia (Worker' and Peasants' Inspection)
- RKP(b)
- Rossiiskaia kommunisticheskaia partiia (Bolshevikov) (Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
- ROSTA
- Rossiiskoe telegrafnoe agenstvo (Russian Telegraph Agency)
- RSDRP
- Rossiiskaia Sotsial-Demokraticheskaia Rabochaiia Partiia Partiia (Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party)
- RSFSR
- Rossiiskaia Sovetskaia Federativnaia Sotsialisticheskaia Respublika (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic)
- RVSR
- Revoliutsionno-voennyi sovet respubliki (Revolutionary-Military Council of the Republic)
- SNK or Sovnarkom
- Sovet narodnykh kommisarov (Council of People's Sovnarkom Commissars)
- SSR
- Sovetskaia sotsialisticheskaia respublica (Soviet Socialist Republic; union republic)
- STO
- Sovet truda i oborony (Council for Labor and Defense)
- Tsentrosoiuz
- Tsentralnyi soiuz kooperativnykh obshchestv (Central Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies)
- TsIK
- Tsentral'nyi ispolnitel'nyi komitet (Central Executive Committee)
- TsK
- Tsentralnyi Komitet (Central Committee)
- TsKK
- Tsentralnaia kontrolnaia komissiia (Central Control Commission)
- TSU
- Tsentralnoe statisticheskoe upravlenie (Central Statistics Administration)
- VChK
- Vserossiiskaia chrezvychainaia komissiia (All- Russian Extraordinary Commission)
- VKP(b)
- Vsesoiuznaia kommunisticheskaia partiia (Bolshevikov) (All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
- VLKSM
- Vsesoiuznyi Leninskii Kommunisticheskii Soiuz molodezhi (All-Union Young Communists League)
- VSNKh
- Vysshii Sovet Narodnogo Khoziaistva (Higher Council for Economy)
- VTsIK
- Vserossiiskii tsentral'nyi ispolnitel'nyi komitet (All-Russian Central Executive Committee)
- VUChK
- Vseukrainskaia chrezvychainaia komissiia (All- Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission)
- USSR
- Union of Soviet Socialist Republics