Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP)

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Latvia

Holding institution:: Special Archives of Lithuania

Holding institution (official language):: Lietuvos ypatingasis archyvas

Postal address:: Gedimino 40/1, LT-01110, Vilnius

Phone number:: +370 5 261 0004

Web address:: http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lya.html

Email:: lya@archyvai.lt

Reference number:: LYA f. 77

Title:: Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP)

Title (official language):: Lietuvos komunistų partijos (LKP) Centro komitetas

Creator/accumulator:: Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania

Date(s):: 1918/1940

Language:: Russian; Lithuanian; Yiddish

Extent:: 14,323 files

Type of material:: Textual material; Photographic images

Physical condition:: good

Scope and content:: This collection contains the materials of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania from the period of 1918-40. It reflects the activities of the Lithuanian communists in the aftermath of World War I and during the existence of the independent Lithuanian state. The materials originate not only from Lithuania and neighbouring areas, but also from the Soviet Union, where exiled members of the party took refuge. Certain materials – mostly data from personal files – originate from the post-World War II Soviet Union. The collection includes a significant amount of Jewish-related materials.

Files from the late 1910s and early 1920s include materials relating to Jewish socialist parties, mostly Bund and Poale-Tsiyon. These include correspondence with the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) on cooperation during the Soviet-Polish war and during the German occupation of the area, minutes of discussions and correspondence relating to ideological issues, including the incorporation of Bund in the communist party, and a collection of historical materials on the activities of revolutionary parties.

Several files reflect the party’s Jewish-related activities, including correspondence and other materials on the activities of the Jewish sections of the party, elections of Jewish communal institutions and newspaper publication.

Other files include data on social and political developments in Lithuania, including letters, reports and statistical accounts. Papers of the Lithuanian secret police can be also found in certain files, including correspondence, protocols of interrogations and minutes; these materials include data on Jewish political parties as well as data on the local communist and fascist organisations. Certain files include examples of antisemitic leaflets distributed by Lithuanian fascists.

A substantial part of the Jewish-related materials consists of personal files of Lithuanian communists of Jewish origin. These range from brief files including papers of low-ranking members to lengthy files of senior members of the party. In some cases the files include photographs, personal histories, correspondence with party authorities and commissions in Moscow and documents on internal investigations held by the party. Several files include data on underground activities in interwar Lithuania, materials on purges held against members of LKP in the Soviet Union (including personal histories mentioning imprisonment and exile and correspondence and documents on rehabilitations in the 1950s) and newspaper clippings with obituaries of Jewish party veterans.

Archival history:: The collection includes materials originating from Lithuania and neighbouring areas and from the Soviet Union (chiefly Moscow and Leningrad), where exiled members of the LKP took refuge. After the liberation of Lithuania from the Soviet occupation the archives of the LKP were integrated into the Special Archives of Lithuania.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) was established in 1918 in Vilnius. After a brief unification with the Communist Party of Belorussia (during the existence of the short-lived Lithuanian-Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1919) the LKP maintained its activities in the independent Republic of Lithuania. Between the 1926 nationalist coup and the Soviet takeover in 1940 it was subjected to persecution by the Lithuanian Government.

Access points: locations:: Moscow; Vilnius

Subject terms:: Antisemitism; Antisemitism--Antisemitic publications; Communism; Communism--Communist parties and organisations; Fascism; Fascism--Fascist parties and organisations; Jewish political activity; Newspaper clippings; Occupation (military); Revolutions; Socialism; Socialism--Socialist parties and organisations; Zionism; Zionism--Zionist organisations and parties

Access, restrictions:: Jewish Communists; Gulag; Antisemitism

Finding aids:: The collection consists of 45 inventories.

Yerusha Network member:: Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People

Author of the description:: A significant part of the Jewish-related materials was copied by the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem and is available there.

fullscreen: Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP)

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