History and Activities
IISH
The International Institute of Social History started its activities aiming at 'upgrading the level of awareness and scientific researches related to economical and social history'. Since its foundation in 1935, through various means, it has been able to take significant steps towards improving the quality of studies and researches in respect of social and economic history in the international arena.
The International Institute of Social History has obtained large collections, in some cases collections belonging to individuals, of material related to social movements in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and made them available to the researchers of social movements worldwide.
Through convening congresses, meetings, exhibitions and educational facilities, this Institute brings together researchers from other research institutions and universities of the world to enable them to exchange their knowledge and experiences and to help the research on affairs of social movement.
With the help of international publishers, sometimes the outcomes of the studies of these researchers are published by its printing section.
The International Review of Social History publishes new developments in regard to social research and information on books and specialized news.
By publishing its annual report, the Institute provides detailed information about its activities in regard to collecting documents, material and articles, convening of meetings, and educational and research facilities conducted with the help of the Institute or those cooperating with the Institute.
Department of the Middle East and Central Asian
The International Institute of Social History launched its activities in the Middle East and Central Asia in 1987. In the early days, the Institute activities were limited to Turkey. However, by the early 1990s its geographic space was extended to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.
Labour Day, Istanbul, Turkey - May 1978
On Turkey, a wealth of sources at the International Institute of Social History provides context for the study of social history of Turkey, the Turkish Left, labour, and Turkish and Kurdish diaspora in Europe. This store of documents includes archives, books, pamphlets, and sound and video materials. For an extensive description see the Turkish Collections.
On Kurds and Kurdistan, the Department of the Middle East and Central Asia has collected a wide range of historical documents covering the Kurdish social and political movement as early as 1880. The archives of Lissy Schmidt, International Society of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Workers Part (PKK) are among this rich collection.
Congress of the People of East. Baku - September 1920
In the Caucasus, a considerably large collection of the Komintern - TKP (Communist International) archive's documents, related to the years 1921 - 1941 is archived, containing reports by various sectors of the Comintern and its agents in the region. Also the collection of legal and underground publications of the 'Communist Party of Turkey', 'Communist Party of Iran' and 'Revolutionary Committee of Iran' can be mentioned.
Additionally, a collection from the archived documents of the Soviet government is available which outlines the Soviet state policy towards Iran and Afghanistan, and contains new information about the lives of migrant communities living in the margins of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. These documents can be very useful in the project of tracing the adventures and work of migrant communities in the Caucasus and Central Asia who later became the subject of the Stalinist purge.
In order to provide a live story of the experiences gained from the disintegration of the Soviet government and the establishment of the newly national states in the Caucasus and the Central Asia, the Institute is working on the design of registration and recording of memories and real observations of political and social events of the years 1989 to 1991. For this purpose it has arranged interviews with previous statesmen, political activists, cultural and political scholars and witnesses among the people. This design began in Azerbaijan in the Caucasus, and will gradually cover other republics of the former Soviet Union.
Dushanbe, Tajikistan - May 1992
One of the regions which has attracted attention of the Department of the Middle East and Central Asian is Afghanistan, its experiences of more than twenty years of civil war, and the widespread migration of its citizens to neighbouring countries (mainly Iran, Pakistan, and the republics of the former Soviet Union). Until now no research has been made on the issues such as their ways of life and the difficulties the Afghan refugees faced, and what they have experienced. In addition to the collection of letters concerning these refugees oral history will also be used in this research.
Afghanistan, Kabul, 1969
The collection of documents related to the social and political history of Iran in the twentieth century has been the main objective of the International Institute of Social History. The Institute has succeeded, in cooperation with some individuals and research institutions in and outside Iran, in collecting a considerable amount of books, copies of documents, publications and declarations from political organizations which were active since the Constitutioan Revolution of 1905-1909. These publications include very extensively the work of active social and political organizations, a rich printed and audio-visual collection of archives of the Revolution of 1978-1982, the archive of the Iranian Writers Association, archive of leftist parties of Iran and the printed-audio-visual archive of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).
Next to the collection of written documents this section also follows the method of gathering oral history, which until now was mainly confined to video recording of interviews with some of the leaders of political groups in Iran.
Civic movement in protest of the outcome of the presidential election: Tehran, Iran, June 2009
See also Iran: the bloody summer of 2009
Since the policy of this Institute, next to the historical assessment of political and social movements in the countries of the region, is to follow, register and record the events and the changes in the social movement of every country, the Department of the Middle East and Central Asian has directed part of its efforts towards the latest reform movements, women's social movements and student movements in Iran. It hopes to be able to gather and maintain a collection of pictorial documents and letters regarding the latest social movement in Iran.
In addition to the collection of documents, the department of the Middle East and Central Asian has so far organized numerous conferences and workshop in Tehran, Baku, Tashkent, Tbilisi and Istanbul for studying the social history of this region. Here we can mention the conferences on 'The state and the subaltern in Iran and Turkey', 'Comintern and the East', 'Twentieth-century Iran, history from below', 'Labour History of the Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey'.
In 2009, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) awarded a grant to the application presented by Prof. Touraj Atabaki on behalf of the Department of the Middle East and Central Asia to launch a grand project on the social history of Labour in the Iranian Oil Industry. The NWO award has enabled the department of the Middle East and Central Asia to launch a grand project studying the centurial history of the Iranian oil industry (1908-2008).