From the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI)

Created in 1991, the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI) is the archive of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the governing body of the USSR. The archive contains the highest level of decision-making documents from 1952 to the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Series 1: Department for Relations with Foreign Communist Parties (International Department), 1953-1957

The files of the International Department of the CC document Soviet foreign policy decision-making during the time of Nikita Khrushchev's consolidation of power. During this critical period, the Central Committee endured not only a turbulent struggle for leadership following the death of Stalin but faced crises in East Germany, Poland and Hungary, as well as confrontation with the West in Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe. (In 1957 the department was reorganized into two departments: the International Department and the Department for Relations with Communist and Workers' Parties of Socialist Countries). Within this collection is documentation of:

• Khrushchev's struggle with Molotov over the direction of Soviet foreign policy
• Soviet support for movements of national liberation in the post-colonial world
• Soviet relations with the Communist Parties of Eastern Bloc nations
• The Soviet Union's response to the Korean cease-fire and the decolonization of Indochina
• The initial cracks in the Iron Curtain as the USSR joined selected international organizations and permitted increased cultural, athletic, religious and political contact with the non-Communist world
• Soviet withdrawal from Austria and the decisions surrounding the Geneva summit conference of 1955
• The monitoring of foreign emigres and foreign delegations in the USSR
• The Soviet dilemma of dealing with the revisionist path of Yugoslavia
• The demands of Communist parties of the Eastern Bloc for greater diversity in the aftermath of Stalin's death

126 reels

Series 2: The General Department of the Central Committee, 1953-1966

The papers of the General Department record the political process at the highest echelons of the USSR. Nearly all matters requiring a decision by the Central Committee or Politburo/Presidium came first -- and last -- to the General Department. The Department assigned matters to appropriate CC agencies and to government ministries. And, once a decision had been made, the General Department monitored its execution. Furthermore, the department was responsible for the preparations for party congresses and plenums of the Central Committee.

The collection covers the years from Stalin's death through the Khrushchev era and into the first years of the Brezhnev regime and contains the reports, memoranda, agendas and records of deliberation involving a broad range of Soviet policy. Included are:

• Directives to the KGB And Ministry of Interior (MVD)
• Records of foreign policy decision making
• Briefing papers for the Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers
• The documentation of attempts to reform industry and agriculture
• Reports on measuring and containing internal dissent
• Documents revealing the changes in and maintainance of ideology in the party and state apparatus of the USSR and Warsaw Pact nations
• Files dealing with the process of de-Stalinization begun with Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" to the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956
• Procedures for the security classification of all incoming documents

118 reels

Series 3: Congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1955-1986
Fond 2, Opsi 1,3, 5

While not the ultimate decision making body of the Soviet state, Party Congresses were nonetheless monumental events. Carefully planned, the congresses were essential for ratifying the designs, ambitions and policies of the Soviet leadership. At the Twentieth Party Congress, for instance, held in February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev further advanced his position within the party by denouncing Stalin's crimes in a dramatic "secret speech.." Three years later, he consolidated his power with a sustained attack on the "antiparty" group which had nearly upset his leadership in 1957, and, in 1961, he intensified his campaign against Stalinism by winning approval to remove Stalin's body from the Lenin Mausoleum. Later, at the Twenty-Fourth Congress in 1971 Leonid Brezhnev would proclaim the era of "Developed Socialism" and, in 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev would launch cautiously his program of reform.

This collection contains the full records of the Party Congresses of the CPSU from 1955 through 1986. Included are the 20th through the 27th Congresses, in, respectively, 1956, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1971, 1976, 1981 and 1986.

The collection provides not only the full record of deliberations but, significantly, relevant protocols, agendas and supporting documentation. The collection is arranged chronologically with each opus containing the files for a specific party congress.

A print guide with listings to the file (delo) level is included with the film collection.

196 reels and 701 fiche

Series 4: Plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 1941-1990
Fond 1, opisi 2-9

This collection documents the plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU from the Stalin era until the demise of the Soviet Union. During each plenum a team of stenographers compiled an "uncorrected stenogram" or verbatim transcript of the proceedings. However, speakers were permitted to revise and extend their remarks. These corrected versions, called the "author's copy," were then collated into the "corrected copy." After additional editing, usually with an eye to maintaining ideological consistency, the remarks were distributed to members of the Politburo, the CPSU Secretariat and members of the Central Committee as a final "edited copy."

This publication contains nearly all versions -- from uncorrected stenogram to edited copy -- of Central Committee plenums. Of particular interest to scholars, the author's copies often contain the handwritten corrections of the participants as well as the inclusion of newly drafted remarks.

Of great significance, the collection includes files of documents that were used or distributed during the plenums. Frequently, these documents were classified as "secret" or "top secret."

The collection provides the record of debate and the highest level of documentation for both foreign and domestic policies of the Soviet Union. Included are extensive records concerning:

• The power struggles within the Kremlin
• Problems within the Warsaw Pact
• Difficulties with Yugoslavia
• The Sino-Soviet Split
• Arms Control negotiations with the West
• Intervention in Czechoslovakia, 1968
• Agricultural and Industrial production in the USSR
• Internal Dissent
• Perestroika and Glasnost

Opus 1 contains the records of the plenums of the Central Committee from 1941 to 1966. Opus 3 documents those between 1966 and 1986, and Opus 5 covers the years of Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership, 1986-1990.

A print guide with listings to the file (delo) level is included with the film collection.

181 reels and 656 fiche