Vol. XIII (2007), no 20 - The International Newsletter of Communist ...
Vol. XIII (2007), no 20 - The International Newsletter of Communist ...
Vol. XIII (2007), no 20 - The International Newsletter of Communist ...
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>International</strong> Newletter <strong>of</strong> <strong>Communist</strong> Studies Online <strong>XIII</strong> (<strong><strong>20</strong>07</strong>), <strong>no</strong> <strong>20</strong> 19<br />
Smaller collections by other publishers cover many more topics, from documents <strong>of</strong> the Red<br />
and White armies during the Civil War in the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA;<br />
http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/mikro/litten.htm#RGVA) to papers <strong>of</strong> the apparatus <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Central Committee <strong>of</strong> the CPSU in the 1950s and 60s in RGANI (http://www.bsbmuenchen.de/mikro/litten.htm#RGANI).<br />
In recent years, while micr<strong>of</strong>ilming in Russia has somewhat subsided, it has expanded in<br />
Poland (with selected holdings <strong>of</strong> the KARTA Center in Warsaw; 456) and especially in<br />
Ukraine. One quite interesting collection concerns the „Holodomor“ (430), the devastating<br />
famine in the early 1930s, and presents contemporary records by the Central Committee <strong>of</strong><br />
the Ukrainian CP.<br />
Yet, the internal view <strong>of</strong> these countries is <strong>no</strong>t the only perspective <strong>of</strong>fered by the BSB’s<br />
holdings. Practically all commercially filmed records <strong>of</strong> the US State Department on Eastern<br />
European countries, held in original form at the US National Archives, are also available in<br />
Munich, <strong>of</strong>ten up to 1963, in the case <strong>of</strong> the USSR even up to 1969 (http://www.bsbmuenchen.de/mikro/litten.htm#RG%<strong>20</strong>59).<br />
Moreover, the same kind <strong>of</strong> records are available<br />
for Germany and France, and to a lesser degree for Italy, Austria and Switzerland. For<br />
<strong>Communist</strong> studies those records are interesting, too: they illustrate relations between, e.g.,<br />
Germany and Czechoslovakia after the Second World War; and they contain information on<br />
Communism in, e.g., France itself.<br />
One especially <strong>no</strong>teworthy „American“ source for Communism and related ideologies in<br />
Eastern Europe (and beyond) in the first half <strong>of</strong> the <strong>20</strong>th century is the Boris I. Nicolaevsky<br />
Collection from the Hoover Institution, which has been filmed in 796 reels and is also<br />
available in Munich (269). Again, an excellent guide eases use <strong>of</strong> this collection e<strong>no</strong>rmously,<br />
for example covering the Trotsky-Sedov correspondence.<br />
Many smaller collections from US archives and libraries provide documentation for<br />
interesting studies, from the „Diplomatic Papers <strong>of</strong> David Francis Rowland, 1916-1918“ (262),<br />
the US ambassador to Russia at the time, to the „National Security Files“ <strong>of</strong> the Kennedy,<br />
Johnson and Nixon administrations on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (212, 215, 391)<br />
and, for most <strong>of</strong> the 1960s, concerning the whole world. Recent reports by American thinktanks<br />
and governmental organizations as well as graduation theses from military colleges can<br />
be found in the blandly titled „Special Studies Series: Foreign Nations“ (291), in part up to<br />
<strong>20</strong>02, again for the whole world.<br />
While much less numerous than the American filmings, some British government document<br />
collections are <strong>no</strong> less important. Especially the filmings <strong>of</strong> the Foreign Office records on<br />
Russia and the Soviet Union until 1948 (18) and again for 1960 (364; with more to come)<br />
provide a complement to both the American reporting and the Soviet internal view.<br />
As should be obvious even from this brief account, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has much<br />
to <strong>of</strong>fer to researchers <strong>of</strong> the history <strong>of</strong> Communism in Europe in the <strong>20</strong>th century, thanks<br />
also to the financial support <strong>of</strong> the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research<br />
Council). While a visit to Munich is always worthwhile, all film reels, micr<strong>of</strong>iches and guides<br />
listed in the „Verzeichnis“ are also available via inter-library loan within Germany.<br />
Dr. Freddy Litten, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. freddy.litten@bsb-muenchen.de<br />
http://litten.de