Gift
of
John
Kluge
Preservation
and Filming of American Records in Russian Archives
After
the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the
Soviet Union, many long-closed archives in Russia
opened for research. Most of the material in these
archives document Soviet activities, but one surprise
was the discovery of a large collection of documents
created by Americans in America about activities
in the United States. These documents were shipped
secretly to the USSR many decades ago. Also part
of the collection are documents on Americans who
worked in or emigrated to the Soviet Union in the
1920s and 1930s. Rumors of such a collection had
circulated for many years, but it was not until
January 1993 that its existence was confirmed when
a Library of Congress historian became the first
American scholar to examine them. The collection,
"Fond 515," consists of more than 400,000 pages
of the original records of the Communist Party USA
along with other American-related material. Most
of the documents are unique with no copies existing
in the United States. Communism and anticommunism
were major concerns of American politics for a large
portion of the 20th century, and these archival
documents will greatly enhance the ability of scholars
to accurately understand what happened.
