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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: B-12

Last update of repository: 3 December 2020

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii (RGASPI)


Arkhivokhranilishche no. 2
[Archival Repository no. 2—Holdings from the former Komsomol Archive (1992–1999—TsKhDMO)]

Address: Moscow, ul. Profsoiuznaia, 82

Telephone: +7 495 718-69-85, +7 495 718-72-67

Reading room: +7 495 718-69-85

Transport: metro: Kaluzhskaia

Chief: Ol'ga Nikolaevna Golovach (tel. +7 495 718-69-85, +7 495 718-72-67)

Head of the Reading Room: Galina Mikhailovna Tokareva (tel. +7 495 718-69-85)


Holdings

The basic holdings from the former Komsomol Archive (TsKhDMO) are the records of the highest organs of the Komsomol—including its congresses and conferences, which are preserved in their entirety, except for the first four, which remain fragmentary. Starting from 1919 protocols (resolutions) have been preserved of plenums of the Bureau and Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Russian Young Communist League (Rossiiskii kommunisticheskii soiuz molodezhi—RKSM, 1918–1924), the Russian Leninist Young Communist League (RLKSM, 1924–1926), and the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (VLKSM), along with their supplementary materials.
        Documentation of the Komsomol Central Committee consists of the records of the General Division, the Division of (local) Komsomol Organizations, the Sector for Registration and Statistics, the Divisions of Propaganda and Agitation, Culture, Sports and Defense Capabilities for the Masses, and the Division for Direction of Komsomol Organizations in the Rear-Guard of the Enemy (1942–1944). Transcripts are preserved of meetings of the VLKSM (and LKSM) Central Committees of Soviet union republics, and Komsomol committees of krais (kraikomy), and oblasts (obkomy).
        A unique group of records in the archive are the fonds of zonal bureaus and sections for nationalities, which operated under the authority of VLKSM Central Committee in various regions of the country in the 1920s and 1930s. Complete fonds are preserved of the Central Asian Bureau and Far Eastern Bureau (Dal'biuro), of the Jewish Young Communist League Central Committee (TsK EKSM). The archive retains a large collection of Komsomol documents from the period of World War II, including letters from the front, which have been collected on the initiative of the archive itself from all over the country.
        Foreign relations and Komsomol actitivies in the international arena are reflected in the records of the VLKSM Delegation to the Communist Youth International (KIM, 1919–1943), the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth (1941–1956), and the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR (1950–1992). This group of materials also includes the records of preparation and participation of Soviet delegations in the First through the Seventh World Youth Festivals.
        The archive preserves the records of the Committee for Affairs of Youth Organizations of the USSR, the Central Council of All-Union Pioneer Organization (1922–1991), and the Central Bureau of the Sputnik Youth Tourist Agency (1958–). There are also records of Communist and other youth organizations, associations, and movements that functioned to the end of 1991, as well as records of existing independent all-Russian youth associations along with those of youth factions, and sections of political parties.
        Former TsKhDMO gradually developed as a repository for a wide range of documents and materials on different data media. The archive has a special fond for periodical publications, which includes the records of the VLKSM Central Committee publishing house “Molodaia Gvardiia” and the editorial records of youth and Pioneer magazines and the newspaper Komsomol'skaia pravda. However, not all the records of publishing houses and central youth periodical publications are acquired by the Center.
        The archive also holds a voluminous collection of photographs, sound recordings, microforms, and motion pictures (including videotapes), museum exhibits, and other materials, such as badges and memorial gifts.
        In 1992 TsKhDMO began to collect personal papers. The Center has already acquired documents of former secretaries of the VLKSM Central Committee and of other prominent Komsomol figures from prewar and postwar periods.
        The museum fond of the center retains memorabilia and other materials from Party and Komsomol veterans, delegates to VLKSM congresses, pioneers of cultivation in the virgin lands (pervotselinniki), and exhibits from internationalist warriors (fighting in Afghanistan). There are also documents of Komsomol participants in the clean-up operation in the aftermath of the catastrophe at the Chernobyl atomic power station.

N.B. Most documentation of the republic-level, regional (kraevye), and oblast Komsomol organizations is accessioned by local Party archives.



ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted