Documenting Communism: The Hoover Project to Microfilm and Publish the Soviet Archives

by Charles G. Palm, Stephen Kotkin, Condoleezza Rice (foreword)

In late 1991, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. Over the next 12 years, the Hoover Institution microfilmed and published the newly opened records of the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet State. Among the 10 million pages were records of the central organs of the Communist Party; the NKVD, which regulated the ordinary lives of the Russian people; the GULAG, the secret police department that ran the forced labor camps; and the 1992 trial of the Communist Party.

Charles Palm, who led this mission, details how he and his colleagues secured a historic agreement with the Russian Federation, then launched and successfully carried out the joint project with the Russian State Archives and their partner, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd. The success of the project hinged on managing logistics among the three partners across three continents, facing down critics in Russia and elsewhere, and navigating the unstable political terrain that prevailed in Russia during the 1990s. The Hoover Institution's decisive action during a brief window of opportunity preserved on microfilm and provided worldwide access to the records of Soviet Communism and helped bring to account one of the most consequential ideologies of the 20th century.

204 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2024

Reviews

[Bill Sleeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew a microfilming project involving librarians and archivists could be so filled with intrigue and international wheeling and dealing? A really interesting and well-written history of how the Hoover Institute came to be the source for filming the archives of the Soviet Union.

[Translator Monkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars, rounded up. A really interesting story behind the Hoover Institution's efforts to gather and make public Russian and Soviet archives to the rest of the world, originated during the immediate post-Soviet Yeltsin era. Eventual Russian discomfort and misunderstanding of the Hoover staff's motivations and intentions hampered, but did not halt, the effort. Palm provides "backstage" glimpses at the players and plagues that helped and hindered this Herculean effort.