Conducts research and collects data on the global history of labour, workers, and labour relations

Russia and Eastern Europe - Library and Documentation

Of course the IISH library contains dissertations, monographs, and journalistic impressions of the social history of Russia and Eastern Europe. In addition to archives, publications of the social movement itself, such as periodicals and leaflets, are available for research on this subject.This material - especially from Russia - is abundant and may be retrieved through different types of searches in the IISH library catalogue.

The scope of the library collections extends considerably beyond the boundaries of social history. This is thanks to the inclusion of several specialized libraries and subject-based collections of books, leaflets, pamphlets, and periodicals, such as the following:

  • the Lavrov-Goc library was the PSR party library and contains approximately 10,000 titles, including Marx's Russian books with his personal remarks. This collection was once intended as a reference library for émigrés.
  • the library of the Bund, the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeiterbund in Lite Polyn un Rusland, a collection comprising 20,000 leaflets and pamphlets, was acquired by the Institute in 1934, before it was officially established
  • the library of the Russian social democrat Boris Sapir (1902-1989), who led a turbulent life of exile and emigration. He became the head of the IISH Eastern Europe desk in 1936 and remained affiliated with the Institute for many years after the second world war. His library comprises hundreds of titles on socialist history, humanities and the arts
  • the MNOB collection contains newspapers, newsletters, and bulletins from movements ranging from leftist extremists to the ultra right wing, the women's and environmental movements and the like, from the Gorbachev era to the present; a vast collection of documentation materials is included as well
  • the Szyszko and Solidarność collections together comprise most important documents published by the Polish free labour and opposition movements between 1970 and 1990
  • the collection of the Czech social democrat Karel Škrábek (1919-2002), whose archive has been entrusted to the IISH as well, consists of 5,000 titles on social democracy, Marxism, the Prague Spring, and other subjects