Manuscript Division des Division manuscrits THE COMINTERN FONDS (COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) MG 10 K 3 Finding Aid No. 2058 / Instrument de recherche no 2058 Prepared in 1995 by George Bolotenko Préparé en 1995 par George Bolotenko of the Political Archives Section. de la section des archives politiques. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface ...................................................................... i Letter of Transmission .......................................................... iii Obligations - Restrictions .........................................................v Note to Researchers ........................................................... vii Inventory Entry ...............................................................viii Fonds 495, Opis (file list) 72 Communist International. Anglo-American Lendesekretariat. 1921-1937 ....................1 Fonds 495, Opis (file list) 98 Communist International (Comintern). Communist Party of Canada. 1921-1943 ...............3 Fonds 533, Opis 10, Part 2 Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism Attached to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Communist Youth International. 1919-1943 ......................................27 Fonds 534, Opis (file list) 7 Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Red International Of Labour Unions (Profintern). 1920-1938 .........................48 Fonds 535, Opis (file list) 2 International Peasant (Farmers') Council (Krestintern). Correspondence of the General Secretariat of the International Peasants' Council and its Sections. 1923-1931 .....................................................50 Fonds 539, Opis (file list) 3 International Red Aid. 1923-1947 .................................................52 PREFACE THE COMINTERN/CPC FONDS ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS OF THE COMINTERN AND ITS ORGANIZATIONS, AND OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA AND ITS ORGANIZATIONS. 1920-1943. The records presented in this fonds were selected for copying in February of 1995; the NA took delivery of the microfilms in July 1995. This fonds consists of records copied from the following five fonds held in the Russian Centre for the Preservation and Study of Records of Contemporaray History, located at 15 Pushkinskaia, Moscow: 1. Anglo-American Secretariat 2. Communist Party of Canada and the Comintern 3. Young Communist League of Canada and the Communist Youth International 4. Red Unions International (Profintern) 5. International Peasant Council (Krestintern) 6. the Canadian Section of the International Red Aid The total number of pages copied from these six fonds is 21,678. Almost all of this material, perhaps as much as 98%, is in English. The remaining records are in German, French and in some of several Slavic languages. There are also occasional documents in other languages, such as Finnish or Hebrew. Concerning the Communist Party of Canada fonds, Fonds 495, Opis [File List] 98, there are missing file numbers. No files are actually missing; I omitted, as I was selecting material for copying, certain files which were held duplicate material -- hence the gaps in the file enumeration. The fonds, however, has been copied in its entirety. I have retained the file titles in this fonds as they translate from the original Russian. However, the researcher should note that these titles themselves are often so generic that they provide no real insight into a given file's holdings Take File #3 of the CPC Fonds (Fonds 495, File List 98) as an example. Beyond the laconic description, the file holds the following material: 5 pages on membership by district, by ethnic groups; a 7-page section on the Agrarian Organization of Canada; A. Kent's 9-page report on the CPC; an 8-page report to the Praesidium of the Comintern on the CPC, the Workers' Party, on labour unions and on the Party Press, and commentary on the weaknesses, needs, achievements and tensions in the CPC; a 6-page report by A. Kent dealing with the financial condition of the CPC and the legal apparatus of the Workers' Party of Canada; a 3-page commentary by Frank Evans on the tasks of the Ukrainian membership of the CPC; A. Kent's 7-page report on the labour movement in Canada; as well as financial statements and minutes of various meetings. Consequently, given the generality of file titles, each file will constitute a journey of discovery for each researcher working with this material. While the NA has managed to acquired the bulk of Canadian-related left-wing files in the Comintern, much material still remains in the Centre for the Preservation and Study of Records of Contemporary History. For example, from the Anglo-American Secretariat fonds, I selected only those few titles where Canada was named. However, Canadian matters, in greater or lesser degree, can be found throughout the whole fonds, throughout the remaining 20,000 pages of the A-A Secretariat. It would be wonderful to bring this material home. There are also very critical files on Canada in the fonds of the Secretaries proper of the Comintern, in the office files of Mauilsky and Marti, for example. But this again is beyond the NA's financial ability at this time. Still, much has been acquired. It may very well serve to fill in blank spots and to resolve certain issues in the history of the left in Canada still under acerbic debate; at the same time, I hope that it leads to renewed debate, this time against a far richer tapestry of source materials which this fonds constitutes. The NA is very indebted to Mr. Miguel Figueroa and the Communist Party of Canada; whithout their assent to this project and permission to copy these records, there would have been no project and no CPC/Comintern records here at the NA. George Bolotenko, PhD MS Division 1 REEL #1 [K-269] FONDS 495, OPIS (FILE LIST) 72 COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL. ANGLO-AMERICAN LENDESEKRETARIAT. 1921-1937 File 1. Bulletins of the Anglo-American Colonial Group of the Comintern. Minutes of meetings of the Anglo-American Group. 1921 File 2. Minutes of the Anglo-American Colonial Group of the Communist International. 1922. File 3. Minutes of the meetings of the Anglo-American Colonial Group of the Communist International. 1922. File 11. Minutes of the sessions of the American-Canadian Secretariat. 1926. File 13. Projects, copies of outgoing correspondence from the American-Canadian Secretariat of the Communist International, composition [personnel of the Secretariat. 1926. File 19. VIIth Expanded Plenum of the Communist International: report on the international situation and co-report on the tasks of the Comintern. 1926. File 21. Minutes of the sessions of the American-Canadian, British, Japanese and American Secretariats. 1927. File 26. Lists of members of the Anglo-American Secretariat, copies of letters and communications of the 2 Anglo-American Secretariat. 1927. File 34. Minutes of the sessions of the Anglo-American Secretariat; on the Communist Parties of Korea, Canada... 1928. File 55. Correspondence of the Anglo-American Secretariat with the secretariats of the Comintern and the International Association for Aid to Revolutionaries, with national organizations in Canada and England, and with other addressees. 1929. File 176. Stenogram of the meetings of the Anglo-American Secretariat of the Communist International, held on 7 February 1932: The Canadian Question. 1932. REEL #2 [K-270] File 190. Stenogram of the meeting of the Anglo-American Secretariat of the Communist International, held on 23 June 1932. On the Situation in Canada. 1932. File 200. Instructions on the work of cadres, lists of documents received from Communist Parties, various plans of work and preparations for the XIIth Plenum of the Communist International. 1932. File 206. Stenogram of the meetings of the Bureau of the Anglo-American Secretariat from 4 May 1932. On the Situation of the Communist Party of Canada. 1932. File 289. Lists of members of the Communist Parties of the USA, Canada, England... 1937. 3 REEL #3 [K-271] FONDS 495, OPIS (FILE LIST) 98 COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL (COMINTERN) COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA 1921-1943 File 1a. Charter of One Big Union in Canada, accepted at Union Congress in Winnipeg 1920. 1921. File 1. Materials of representatives of Executive Committee of the Communist International in Canada, working to establish Communist Party of Canada: minority minutes of meeting, brief report on situation in country and work of party groups, letters to Executive Committee of the Communist International, etc. 1921-1922. File 2. Correspondence of Executive Committee of the Communist International with its sections, with administration of Communist Party of Canada on questions of establishing Communist Party and its work. Excerpts of bulletins of Information Section of Executive Committee of the Communist International on Canada. 1921-1922. File 3. Reports and information reports to Executive Committee of the Communist International by representatives of Communist Party of Canada attached to Executive Committee of the Communist International, and delegates of the Party at the Comintern Congress on economic and political situation in country; works, tasks, structure of Communist Party of Canada and other questions. 1922. 4 File 4. Materials of Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Canada and its sections; excerpts of minutes of meetings, political and financial reports in Executive Committee of the Communist International, bulletins, circulars to subordinate instances,