The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online IX

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The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online 16/2003 15 Alexandre Courban, Paris A Journey into the Archives of the Communist Party of France (PCF) This article is a contribution to the history of communism. Whilst preparing a Phd in history about the French newspaper L’Humanité, the author has been given responsibility of the PCF archives of the inter-war period. Since 1997, he has been developing a database on the leadership archives. At the same time, he took an interest in all questions regarding the archives 5 . In 1993, the Communist Party of France (PCF) opened its archives from the period 1944 to 1972. The archives before World War II have been opened since the 1980s. In the early 1970’s the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of Moscow handed over some of the archives concerning the activities of the PCF before 1939 as microfilm copies. These contain most of the leadership meetings, letters and correspondence of all kind, as well as documents about the activity of the different working sections (agit-prop, work amongst peasants, work amongst women and so on). 6 We know now that the Soviets at the time handed over 865 files (not always in a complete form) out of over 2055 files existing at the Russian State Archive of Social and Political Studies (RGASPI ) 7 . A new database. The choice to index the leadership archives In January 1997, the archives department of the PCF, the Marxist library in Paris and the Institute of Contemporary History of the University of Burgundy (Dijon - UMR CNRS 5605) decided to create a database of the archives of the leadership of PCF (Secretariat and Politburo) as a whole. One of the main interests of those archives lies in the fact that they are complete, only very few documents are missing. Their formal aspects changed according to the period. Until 1935, most of the documents are typewritten minutes of the governing bodies’ meetings. From 1935 on, we find mostly short summaries of the 5 Translated in English by Albin Pontet. This article was first published in: Cahiers d’histoire, Revue d’histoire critique, n°86 (2002) [Cahiers d’histoire, 64 boulevard Blanqui, 75013 Paris, France]. This contribution is the result of a collective reflection with Pascal Carreau (responsible of the PCF archives), Catherine Bensadek (librarian), Lucie Fougeron (responsible of the posters database), Rosine Fry (University of Bourgogne), Cécile Jacquet and Tania Régin (who participated in the elaboration of the database) and Serge Wolikow (Professor of History at the University of Bourgogne, UMR CNRS 5605). I sincerely thank Albin Pontet and also Amelie and Simon Wade. 6 http://www.internatif.org/EspMarx/BMP/IML%20WORD/Annees.htm [consulted the 14/ 02/2002]. 7 Kratkij putevoditel': fondy i kollekcii, sobrannye Central'nym partijnym archivom / [Sost.: Amiantov, Ju. N. ...]; Gos. Archivnaja Sluzba Rossijskoj Federacii, Rossijksij Centr Chraneneija i Izucenija Dokumentov Novejsej Istorii, Moskva, Izd. "Blagovest", (1993), XIII + 200 pp. (Spravocno-informacionnye materialy k dokumental'nym fondam RCChIDNI. 1), p. 102. To have a complete view concerning the PCF see also. RGASPI 517/1, André Marty (517/2, 61 files); Maurice Thorez (517/3, 34 files) and documents about World War II (517/4, 16 files). http://www.iisg.nl/~abb/abb_b12.html [consulted the 14/02/2002].
The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online 16/2003 16 decisions taken at the meetings. From 1920 to 1938, the whole archives consist of microfilm copies, the original documents can only be found in Moscow at the RGASPI. From 1944 on, the user may find original documents. The archives of the Central Committee contain typewritten documents and microfilms of reports and interventions until 1953. From that date on, the archives consist of audio recordings. These archives have their own history. The different ways chosen to record the meetings are of importance. Since the typewritten minutes of the meetings were abandoned in favour of the summaries of decisions, many relevant debates and other details for the database have been lost. A study of these archives without an appropriate methodological approach could only reinforce the myth of a perfect communist organisation. The high number of decisions and directives is, at the first glimpse, presenting a kind of infallible machinery. On the other hand, the repetition of the same directives at more than one or two meetings could imply that they have still not been executed. In these cases, the archives give more information about the institution than the event. As an example, in the early 1930’s, a contribution or intervention at the Central Committee’s meetings always began with » I do agree with comrade X report...«. In the heart of indexing However, the database is a research tool which opens some perspectives. Historians and archivists have participated in the conceptual elaboration of the database initiated by the Institute of Contemporary History of the University of Burgundy. Rosine Fry has conceived the technical adaptation of a 4d computer program, the indexing is being done by some Phd students. The aim of this project is shown through the description by a multitude of indexing fields. In order to identify each meeting, we are indicating the type of governing body (Secretariat, Politburo, Central Committee) in the author’s field, followed by the date, the type of document (typewritten minutes, decisions) and the references. The main topics are also described in a specific field. This previous work allows – through a fast and clear reading – a good knowledge of the different meetings. Through the index three specific fields are created: »authors«, »thematic words« and »locations«. All geographical sites are indexed. The geographical thesaurus allows any inquiry down to the regional subdivision of each country. Through a single and specific research, it is possible to find other links to enlarge the geographical scale. For example, starting from the entries matching with the town of Marseilles the user will be able to look for any meeting concerning the departement Bouches-du-Rhône. The indexing by key words is the principal analytic contribution to the inventory. The indexing allows to interrogate with reliability the documents whose characteristics are a special terminology which has evolved in time. This thesaurus inserts a dimension which respects the linguistic evolutions. This bears a whole range of possiblities for synthetic and exhaustive researching.
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