A Usable Established in 1935, the International Institute of Social History is one of the world's leading research institutes on social history, holding one of the richest collections in the field. These collections and archives contain evidence of a social and economic world that affected the life and happiness of millions of people. Including material from every continent from the French Revolution to the Chinese student revolt of 1989 and the new social and protest movements of the early 2000s, the IISH collection is intensively used by researchers from all over the world. In his long and singular career, former director Jaap Collection Kloosterman has been central to the development of the IISH into a world leader in researching and collecting social and labour history. The 35 essays brought together in this volume in honour of him, A Usable give a rare insight into the history of this unique institute and the development of its collections. The contributors also offer answers to the question what it takes to devote a lifetime to collecting social Collection history, and to make these collections available for research. The essays offer a unique and multifaceted Essays in Honour of Jaap Kloosterman view on the development of social history and collecting its sources on a global scale. on Collecting Social History Edited by Aad Blok, Jan Lucassen and Huub Sanders ISBN 978 90 8964 688 0 AUP.nl A Usable Collection A Usable Collection Essays in Honour of Jaap Kloosterman on Collecting Social History Edited by Aad Blok, Jan Lucassen and Huub Sanders AmsterdAm university press 4 | A usAble collection A usAble collection | 5 Contents Preface 10 Henk Wals Social History Sources, Knowledge and Research 12 Introduction to A Usable Collection Aad Blok, Jan Lucassen and Huub Sanders How to Qualify for the Directorate of the iish? 24 Jan Lucassen pArt i – the emergence of sociAl history collections i.1 Prolegomena to a Social History of Dutch Archives 40 Eric Ketelaar i.2 The founder of the iish, as Experienced by his Daughter 56 Interview with Claire Posthumus Huub Sanders i.3 Looking for Traces of Huizinga 66 His Relation with N.W. Posthumus, Based on Unpublished Letters and a Text Huub Sanders i.4 Working for the Institute 84 Kees de Dood, N.W. Posthumus and the International Institute of Social History, 1940-1950 Alex Geelhoed i.5 The Persistent Life of The British Merchant 100 Co Seegers i.6 Harry Stevens, the British “Correspondent” of David Rjazanov’s Institute 108 On the History of Collecting at the Marx-Engels Institute (1927-1931) Irina Novichenko i.7 The Importance of Friendship 142 The Shared History of the iAv/iiAv and iish Francisca de Haan and Annette Mevis contents | 7 pArt ii – the europeAn collections of the iish: Acquisitions And cAtAlogues ii.1 A Broken Mirror 158 The Library of Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis Bert Altena ii.2 The Archives of Hendrik de Man 170 A Tragedy Wouter Steenhaut ii.3 Trying to find a Masked Man 186 An Unfinished Investigation Marien van der Heijden and Franck Veyron ii.4 La Rosa de Foc 198 Collecting Anarchist Materials Andrew H. Lee ii.5 The Key to the Library’s Collection 208 Rules and Practices Coen Marinus ii.6 From Ice Age to Global Warming 222 The Libraries of the Amsterdam iish and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (fes) Rüdiger Zimmermann ii.7 Does a History Research Institute Need its Own Archive? 234 Karl Heinz Roth ii.8 A Manuscript Found at the Institute 240 Kees Rodenburg ii.9 Did Castoriadis Suppress a Letter from Pannekoek? 252 A Note on the Debate regarding the “Organizational Question” in the 1950s Marcel van der Linden ii.10 Matriarchy and Socialism 264 French Precedents Francis Ronsin ii.11 Neo-Malthusians A Photograph 276 Jenneke Quast ii.12 Secret Suitcases 284 Dutch Communist Party Papers Margreet Schrevel ii.13 Long live the Library! 292 The Book Collections of the iish in particular the knAw Library Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk 8 | A usAble collection ii.14 The iish as a Trailblazer in Technology in the 1990s 302 Jaap Kloosterman’s Transformative Breakthroughs Henk Wals pArt iii – the iish And eAstern europe iii.1 Publications of Posrednik and Svobodnoe Slovo Publishing Houses 310 in iish’s Russian Collections Els Wagenaar iii.2 Bakunin and Bacon Cake 318 E-editing in Social History Lex Heerma van Voss iii.3 The Activities in Moscow after 1991 and Memorial 330 Francesca Gori iii.4 Rescue Efforts in Post-Soviet Moscow 342 Nanci Adler iii.5 Archival Revolution and “Intellectual Access” in Russia 352 ArcheoBiblioBase in Moscow and Amsterdam Patricia Kennedy Grimsted iii.6 Sources for Writing the History of Russia and the Soviet Union 376 National and Transnational Perspectives Gijs Kessler iii.7 The Making of Collective Memory 386 The Politics of Archive in the Soviet Azerbaijan Touraj Atabaki and Solmaz Rustamova-Towhidi pArt iv – the iisg goes globAl iv.1 The long Journey of the dhkp Archive 400 From the Turkish Prisons to the iish Zülfikar Özdoğan iv.2 The Egyptian and Sudanese Communist Collections 408 Roel Meijer iv.3 Collecting under Uncertainty 418 The Creation of the Chinese People’s Movement Archive Tony Saich contents | 9 iv.4 From Dhaka with Love 426 The Nepal Nag Papers and the Sino-Soviet Split Willem van Schendel iv.5 The Role of Archives and Archivists in the Contemporary Age 434 in Ensuring the Transmission of Collective Memory Stefano Bellucci iv.6 Gunnar Mendoza 442 A Life to Share Rossana Barragán Romano Jaap Kloosterman 454 A Tentative Bibliography Notes on the Contributors 464 Index 470 Preface Much of what I know about the iish and about collecting social history I learned from Jaap Kloosterman. This is understandable, since we teamed up for decades running the iish: first Jaap was deputy director and I head of operations, later Jaap became director, and I advanced to deputy director. We interacted daily, sometimes in very intense sessions in times of crisis, as well as on our many long drives together to the Czech Republic or Hungary to fetch collections there. Jaap and I often shared the same view about many things. Whenever we differed, our positions were very complementary. In 2006, when I left the iish to become the director of the Huygens Institute, I was suddenly on my own and without a sparring partner. That was an ad- justment for me, and my guess is that Jaap had to get used to it as well. I have returned to the iish and once again see Jaap daily. I still value his opinion. That each of us now has a different role matters little to me. We interact as we always have, even though Jaap’s office has been moved a few doors further away. He is an exceptionally valuable advisor, and I hope to continue to benefit from his input for quite a while. Jaap Kloosterman has been involved with the iish throughout his career. In 1969 he started working at the Institute in the Bakunin Department. In 1985 he became deputy director of Collections, and he was appointed director in 1993, when Eric Fischer left for a position at the Verbond van Verzekeraars. Jaap’s appointment was not taken for granted within the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (knAw). Board members of the knAw usually take the view that acclaimed scholars make the best directors of its institutes. Appointing Kloosterman – a university dropout – may have been an occupational accident within the erudite society of the Academy, but the choice was very fortunate indeed for the iish. In hindsight, after all, Jaap Kloosterman has in my view been one of the best directors the iish has had and easily holds a candle to Posthumus, Rüter, and Fischer. Eric Fischer, during his relatively brief period as direc- tor between 1984 and 1993, gave the Institute a complete overhaul, setting up a research department, acquiring the new premises at Cruquiusweg, and extending collection development beyond Europe. And it was Jaap Kloosterman’s innovative spirit that guided the iish into an unprecedent- ed heyday in the 1990s. Jaap introduced information technology in the iish very early on, revolutionized collection processing, and was aware before anyone else of the enormous impact the Internet would have. Under his ae- gis, the iish became a pioneer in many fields and became renowned as a superior international research institute. Jaap Kloosterman had a unique managerial style that is difficult to de- scribe. He did not operate according to a set protocol. “Coaching” may best prefAce | 11 capture his approach. Jaap often talks with co-workers, possibly over dinner at whatever happens to be his favourite restaurant at the time. His impres- sive knowledge of virtually all areas the Institute covers may unintentional- ly be overwhelming, but he rarely imposes his ideas, at least not noticeably. Jaap’s most distinctive trait is his ability to relativize. What many people would call “wonderful,” he will at best label “nice” or “usable,” often preced- ing such modifiers with the qualifier “fairly.” The title of this book – A Usable Collection – refers to this practice. In addition, the term “usable” is the short- est possible summary of Jaap’s chief principle in developing and cataloguing the iish collection: it should be usable for researchers. This was the basis for many of his decisions, which in many cases were years ahead of what was to become standard practice in traditional library and archival circles. Jaap Kloosterman gave his co-workers extensive latitude. Thanks to his efforts, the iish has become a setting where creativity and individual ini- tiative thrive.