Metadata: City Committee of Vilnius, the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP)
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. 3109
- Title:
- City Committee of Vilnius, the Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP)
- Title (official language):
- Lietuvos komunistų partijos (LKP) Vilniaus miesto komitetas
- Creator/accumulator:
- City Committee of Vilnius, the Communist Party of Lithuania
- Date(s):
- 1940/1990
- Language:
- Russian
- Lithuanian
- Extent:
- 5,386 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains the materials of the Vilnius Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania from the period of 1940-90. It reflects the activities of the party in Vilnius from the Soviet takeover of Lithuania until the disintegration of the party in the last years of the Soviet regime. The collection includes a significant amount of Jewish-related material that can be divided into four major categories: personal files of Jewish members of the party, investigations held by the party against members suspected of illicit activities, minutes of discussions held in party cells of various organisations and reports on public opinion concerning Jewish-related events including the Doctors' plot of 1953 and the Six-Day War and its aftermath.
Many of the personal files include only personal data – questionnaires, personal histories, recommendation letters and so on. Other files reflect more or less notable events: certain files include data on individuals who managed to survive during World War II (such as the case of Iosif Groisman, who survived the Nazi occupation and was drafted to the Red Army after his liberation in 1944) and several files from the 1950s reflect the process of rehabilitation of victims of the Stalinist purges.
Several files include data on party penalties (including expulsion from the party): one file mentions a member who in 1947 refused to accept an assignment as a party agitator in rural Lithuania; another file refers to a teacher who was reproached in 1959 for "conducting business activities and visiting a synagogue". Papers from 1957 mention a Jewish accountant who had allegedly hidden from the party his former membership of Ha-Shomer ha-Tsair. Several files mention cases of violence and alcoholism and many others mention allegations of theft and forgery.
Another part of the collection includes data on the functioning of various organisations in Vilnius, including data on the percentage of Jewish employees (this data reflects party politics during the antisemitic "Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign" held in the last years of Stalin's rule). In several cases, the files include complaints against the Jewish presence in various organizations, such as a 1953 complaint against the "family atmosphere" in the Ministry of Health of the Lithuanian SSR, and allegations against Jewish individuals, such as a 1957 case of the Jewish manager of a dining establishment who lost his party membership card and was suspected of violent conduct against his spouse.
The collection also includes minutes and other papers documenting the meetings of various party cells, including meetings held during the "Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign" in which accusations of "ideological failure" were raised against Jewish and non-Jewish members of the party.
Reports on public opinion in Vilnius are also part of the collection. Some of them include data on Jewish-related issues, such as the Doctors' plot (1953), the Six-Day War (1967) and the War of Attrition (1969-70) in the Middle East. These materials include reports of citizens' reactions recorded throughout the city.
- Archival history:
- After the liberation of Lithuania from Soviet occupation the archives of the Communist Party of Lithuania were integrated in 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 continued 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. After the Soviet takeover of Lithuania in 1940 the party served as the backbone of Soviet rule in the country.
- Access points: locations:
- Vilnius
- Access points: persons/families:
- Grossman, V. S.
- Finding aids:
- The collection consists of 77 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.
