Poalei Zion Archive
The Poalei Zion Archive, held by the Russian Centre of Conservation and Study of Records for Modern History (formerly the Central Party archive) in Moscow, is now available for the first time in convenient, fully indexed microfiche format from IDC Publishers. We offer this archive collection on microfiche together with an electronic guide in two languages. This archive material, which has been inaccessible for the last 70 years (being assigned to the category of secret documents), is now available for research.
Poalei Zion (Labour Zionism) in Russia and the USSR
Poalei Zion was one of the organizations in the worldwide Zionist movement which, unlike the others, made active use of the slogans of Socialism. The Poalei Zion groups emerged in Russia in 1890 as clandestine organizations, were legalized following the revolution of 1917, and were active in the USSR until 1928 when the NKVD (forerunner of the KGB) arrested many members of these organizations. Their basic goal was to create a Jewish national state and to move Jews from all over the world to Palestine. In order to fulfil the emigrants' political aims, the Jewish Social-Democratic (from 1923, “Communist”) Labour Party of Poalei Zion organized a vast network of Jewish Poalei-Zionist clubs, libraries, schools, trade unions, cooperatives and cultural centres, and published numerous newspapers, journals, brochures and books in the printing houses of Moscow, Petrograd, Kiev, Minsk, Odessa and Berdichev.
Hidden archive collection
The Poalei Zion documents now in the Central Party Archive were received from the Archive of Revolution and Foreign Policy in the 1930s, and from the Kiev Provincial Historical Archive in the 1940s. Part of the material came directly from the KGB Archive in Lubianka in recent years. The NKVD confiscated the documents of Poalei Zion for use as evidence in the 1920s, when many members of this organization were arrested.
For years, fond 272 "Poalei Zion organizations in the USSR (1917-1928)" was not processed and the documents were kept simply in unordered piles. Only in 1987 were the documents completely systematized in 758 files and described in three inventories (opisi). However, even then the fond did not enter scholarly circulation, since it was still assigned to the category of secret documents. Only since 1990 have researchers been able to study the documents of Poalei Zion.
Various historical materials
The Archive of Poalei Zion sheds light on various issues of social history: the emigration of the Jewish population of various countries to Palestine and the activities of various Jewish parties and organizations.
• It includes the documents of Jewish political parties and organizations such as the Jewish Social-Democratic (from 1923, 'Communist') Labour Party of Poalei Zion (Russian abbreviation: ESDRP - EKRP Poalei Zion); the Jewish Communist Party of Poalei Zion (EKP Poalei Zion); the United Jewish Socialist Labour Party; the Jewish Party of Socialist-Territorialists; the Jewish Socialist (from 1923, “Communist”) Union of Working Youth (Ugend Poalei Zion) affiliated with the first two parties listed above; the Central Jewish Club, and also of the Palestine Labour Foundation, etc.
• The archive includes works and correspondence of prominent leaders of the World Zionist movement, among them two Israeli presidents (born in Eastern Europe) Ben Gurion and Ben Zvi; B. Borokhov, the ideologist of Russian Zionism; as well as by other figures active in the Palestine movement.
• The archive contains a large collection of national and local newspapers and journals, which now have great rarity value.
• In addition to political literature, there are also works of creative artistic writing, for instance a collection of poetry by the well-known poet David Hofstein, with illustrations by Marc Chagall (1922).
• Volumes or other collections of documents located in the central state archives of the USSR; works prepared for publication in 1926-1927, including Iz istorii Evreiskoi kommunisticheskoi rabochei partii (From the History of the Jewish Communist Labour Party), and O poalei-tsionistskoi mysli za 20 let (On Poalei-Zionist Thought over 20 Years).
• Special sheets of signatures have been preserved, as have postage stamps, lottery tickets and receipt books showing specific sums received from organizations and individuals.
Most of the material (55-60%) is in Yiddish, 20-25% in Russian, and 15-20% in Hebrew. There are several documents in either German, French, Arabic, Ukrainian or Polish. The Yiddish documents have been annotated and the annotations are attached to the corresponding materials. There are no Poalei Zion documents from before 1917 in RTsKhIDNI.
RTsKhIDNI
The Russian Centre of Conservation and Study of Records for Modern History, Rossiiskii tsentr khraneniia I izucheniia dokumentov noveishei istorii, or RTsKhIDNI), founded in October 1991, is the custodian of the extensive archival collections of the former Central Party archive. From 1920 until 1991 the Central Party Archive existed as an integral part of the scholarly research centre of the Russian Communist Party, which was known as the Institute of Marxism-Leninism (Institut Marksizma-Leninizma) in Moscow.
The centre possesses the richest collection of documents and materials on the social and political history of Russia and many countries in Europe, Asia and America. It contains more than 1.6 million files, 9,300 photos and 28,000 feet of film. Here are to be found the documents of various political parties, (both social-democratic and communist), and international organizations, the correspondence of well-known political figures, and historical evidence of the French revolution of the eighteenth century, the 1848 revolutions in Europe and the First, Second and Third Internationals.
This collection includes the sections:
• Correspondence of Central Committee ESDRP with Regional Organizations
• Documents on the History of ESDRP - Periodicals and Serials published by ESDRP
• Jewish Communist Party of Poalei Zion, the United Jewish Socailist Labour Party
• Jewish Social-Democratic Labour Party ESDRP
• Sections of Central Committee of ESDRP: Military, Financial, Cultural, ...
The Poalei Zion Archive, held by the Russian Centre of Conservation and Study of Records for Modern History (formerly the Central Party archive) in Moscow, is now available for the first time in convenient, fully indexed microfiche format from IDC Publishers. We offer this archive collection on microfiche together with an electronic guide in two languages. This archive material, which has been inaccessible for the last 70 years (being assigned to the category of secret documents), is now available for research.
Poalei Zion (Labour Zionism) in Russia and the USSR
Poalei Zion was one of the organizations in the worldwide Zionist movement which, unlike the others, made active use of the slogans of Socialism. The Poalei Zion groups emerged in Russia in 1890 as clandestine organizations, were legalized following the revolution of 1917, and were active in the USSR until 1928 when the NKVD (forerunner of the KGB) arrested many members of these organizations. Their basic goal was to create a Jewish national state and to move Jews from all over the world to Palestine. In order to fulfil the emigrants' political aims, the Jewish Social-Democratic (from 1923, “Communist”) Labour Party of Poalei Zion organized a vast network of Jewish Poalei-Zionist clubs, libraries, schools, trade unions, cooperatives and cultural centres, and published numerous newspapers, journals, brochures and books in the printing houses of Moscow, Petrograd, Kiev, Minsk, Odessa and Berdichev.
Hidden archive collection
The Poalei Zion documents now in the Central Party Archive were received from the Archive of Revolution and Foreign Policy in the 1930s, and from the Kiev Provincial Historical Archive in the 1940s. Part of the material came directly from the KGB Archive in Lubianka in recent years. The NKVD confiscated the documents of Poalei Zion for use as evidence in the 1920s, when many members of this organization were arrested.
For years, fond 272 "Poalei Zion organizations in the USSR (1917-1928)" was not processed and the documents were kept simply in unordered piles. Only in 1987 were the documents completely systematized in 758 files and described in three inventories (opisi). However, even then the fond did not enter scholarly circulation, since it was still assigned to the category of secret documents. Only since 1990 have researchers been able to study the documents of Poalei Zion.
Various historical materials
The Archive of Poalei Zion sheds light on various issues of social history: the emigration of the Jewish population of various countries to Palestine and the activities of various Jewish parties and organizations.
• It includes the documents of Jewish political parties and organizations such as the Jewish Social-Democratic (from 1923, 'Communist') Labour Party of Poalei Zion (Russian abbreviation: ESDRP - EKRP Poalei Zion); the Jewish Communist Party of Poalei Zion (EKP Poalei Zion); the United Jewish Socialist Labour Party; the Jewish Party of Socialist-Territorialists; the Jewish Socialist (from 1923, “Communist”) Union of Working Youth (Ugend Poalei Zion) affiliated with the first two parties listed above; the Central Jewish Club, and also of the Palestine Labour Foundation, etc.
• The archive includes works and correspondence of prominent leaders of the World Zionist movement, among them two Israeli presidents (born in Eastern Europe) Ben Gurion and Ben Zvi; B. Borokhov, the ideologist of Russian Zionism; as well as by other figures active in the Palestine movement.
• The archive contains a large collection of national and local newspapers and journals, which now have great rarity value.
• In addition to political literature, there are also works of creative artistic writing, for instance a collection of poetry by the well-known poet David Hofstein, with illustrations by Marc Chagall (1922).
• Volumes or other collections of documents located in the central state archives of the USSR; works prepared for publication in 1926-1927, including Iz istorii Evreiskoi kommunisticheskoi rabochei partii (From the History of the Jewish Communist Labour Party), and O poalei-tsionistskoi mysli za 20 let (On Poalei-Zionist Thought over 20 Years).
• Special sheets of signatures have been preserved, as have postage stamps, lottery tickets and receipt books showing specific sums received from organizations and individuals.
Most of the material (55-60%) is in Yiddish, 20-25% in Russian, and 15-20% in Hebrew. There are several documents in either German, French, Arabic, Ukrainian or Polish. The Yiddish documents have been annotated and the annotations are attached to the corresponding materials. There are no Poalei Zion documents from before 1917 in RTsKhIDNI.
RTsKhIDNI
The Russian Centre of Conservation and Study of Records for Modern History, Rossiiskii tsentr khraneniia I izucheniia dokumentov noveishei istorii, or RTsKhIDNI), founded in October 1991, is the custodian of the extensive archival collections of the former Central Party archive. From 1920 until 1991 the Central Party Archive existed as an integral part of the scholarly research centre of the Russian Communist Party, which was known as the Institute of Marxism-Leninism (Institut Marksizma-Leninizma) in Moscow.
The centre possesses the richest collection of documents and materials on the social and political history of Russia and many countries in Europe, Asia and America. It contains more than 1.6 million files, 9,300 photos and 28,000 feet of film. Here are to be found the documents of various political parties, (both social-democratic and communist), and international organizations, the correspondence of well-known political figures, and historical evidence of the French revolution of the eighteenth century, the 1848 revolutions in Europe and the First, Second and Third Internationals.
This collection includes the sections:
• Correspondence of Central Committee ESDRP with Regional Organizations
• Documents on the History of ESDRP - Periodicals and Serials published by ESDRP
• Jewish Communist Party of Poalei Zion, the United Jewish Socailist Labour Party
• Jewish Social-Democratic Labour Party ESDRP
• Sections of Central Committee of ESDRP: Military, Financial, Cultural, ...