Communist Party of Great Britain archive

Catalogue record

Notes

Communism was one of the defining movements of the 20th century and one unique in its international scope and political ambitions. Britain was no exception; and, from its formation as a section of the Moscow-based Communist International (Comintern) in 1920, the British communist party provided a pole of attraction for tens of thousands of activists on the British left.
For decades, the party's archives were a closed book to researchers, and the full story of its activities proved impossible to tell. With the dissolution of the party in 1991, however, the decision was taken to deposit the archives alongside those of the Labour Party in Manchester's People's History Museum. Catalogued in 1993-1994, these turned out to be one of the outstanding national collections for the political history of the British left and have since aroused considerable scholarly interest. For the period from the 1940s, records of the party's central leading bodies have been meticulously preserved and include notes taken at meetings by leading party officials. In addition there are extensive records of central departments like the industrial department, which dealt with the trade union activities which were the most visible and controversial sign of the party's influence, and the international department, which maintained links with communist parties overseas.
With a very few exceptions (e.g. the congress series CP/CENT/CONG from 1920), the institutional papers of the CPGB now held at the Labour History Archive and Study Centre (LHASC), Manchester, date from 1943, the year when the earlier archives were transferred to Moscow, up to 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Part 2 includes the institutional papers from the start of 1969, the year of the CPGB's 31st congress at which was debated the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968 by the army of the Soviet Union. It comprises: agendas, minutes and supporting papers, the papers of the two main committees, the Executive Committee and the Political Committee, together with selected regional and sub-committees including the National Cultural Committee with its subsidiary bodies (e.g. the History Group); YCL; Women's Dept; London District Committee; Industrial Dept; International Committee; Organisation Dept. Insofar as copyright and data protection legislation allows, all surviving papers are reproduced excluding personal & disciplinary files.
Selected and introduced by Kevin Morgan, University of Manchester.