Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute, established in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
in 1919 as the Marx–Engels Institute (russian: Институт К. Маркса и Ф. Энгельса), was a
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
library and archive attached to the
Communist Academy The Communist Academy (Russian: Коммунистическая академия, transliterated ''Kommunisticheskaya akademiya'') was a higher educational establishment and research institute based in Moscow. It included scientific institutes of ...
. The institute was later attached to the governing
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,  – TsK KPSS was the executive leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, acting between sessions of Congress. According to party statutes, the committee direct ...
and served as a research center and publishing house for officially published works of
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
thought. The Marx–Engels Institute gathered unpublished manuscripts by
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
,
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
and other leading Marxist theoreticians as well as collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals related to the
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
and
organized labor A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
movements. By 1930, the facility's holdings included more than 400,000 books and journals and more than 55,000 original and photocopy documents by Marx and Engels alone, making it one of the largest holdings of socialist-related material in the world. In February 1931, director of the Marx–Engels Institute
David Riazanov David Riazanov (russian: Дави́д Ряза́нов), born David Borisovich Goldendakh (russian: Дави́д Бори́сович Гольдендах; 10 March 1870 – 21 January 1938), was a Russian revolutionary, historian, bibliographer ...
and others on the staff were purged for ideological reasons. In November of that same year, the Marx–Engels Institute was merged with the larger and less scholarly Lenin Institute (established in 1923) to form the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute and its director became
Vladimir Adoratsky Vladimir Viktorovich Adoratsky ( Russian: Владимир Викторович Адоратский; 19 August Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._7_August.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/> O.S._7_August">Old_ ...
. The institute was the coordinating authority for the systematic organization of documents released in the multi-volume editions of the ''Collected Works'' of Marx, Engels, Lenin,
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
and numerous other official publications. It was officially terminated in November 1991, with the bulk of its archival holdings now residing with a successor organization, the
Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History The Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) (russian: Российский государственный архив социально-политической истории (РГАСПИ)) is a large Russian state archive base ...
(RGASPI).


History


Establishment

The Marx–Engels Institute was established in 1919 by the government of
Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
as a branch of the
Communist Academy The Communist Academy (Russian: Коммунистическая академия, transliterated ''Kommunisticheskaya akademiya'') was a higher educational establishment and research institute based in Moscow. It included scientific institutes of ...
, intended as an academic research facility to conduct historical studies and to collect documents deemed relevant to the new socialist regime.John Barber (1981). ''Soviet Historians in Crisis, 1928–1932.'' London: Macmillan. p. 15. First director of the facility, located in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, was
David Riazanov David Riazanov (russian: Дави́д Ряза́нов), born David Borisovich Goldendakh (russian: Дави́д Бори́сович Гольдендах; 10 March 1870 – 21 January 1938), was a Russian revolutionary, historian, bibliographer ...
. On January 11, 1921, the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) adopted a resolution on the establishment of the Marx–Engels Institute, which in 1922, became an independent institution under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR (from April 1924—under Central Executive Committee of the USSR). The institute assembled and maintained a
research library A research library is a library which contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects.(Young, 1983; p. 188) A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of to ...
devoted to
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
-related theme, amassing in a little over 10 years a collection of some 400,000 books, pamphlets, and journals, 15,000 manuscripts and 175,000 photocopies of original documents held elsewhere. Among these were 55,000 manuscripts by
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and
Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...
s, the history of
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, the history of
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, the history of
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
, the history of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, the history of the countries of
Southern Europe Southern Europe is the southern regions of Europe, region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countrie ...
and the history of
international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
. Also included were sections working in philosophy, economics, political science and the history of socialism in Slavic countries. The main research orientation of the facility was towards history rather than other social sciences.Barber, ''Soviet Historians in Crisis,'' p. 16. By 1930, of the 109 employed by the Marx–Engels Institute, fully 87 were historians. While working under the watchful eyes of the
All-Union Communist Party (b) The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),; abbreviated in Russian as or also known by #Name, various other names during its history, was the founding and ruling party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU was the One-party state, sole governing ...
, the Marx–Engels Institute was not a one-party affair in its formative decade, with just 39 of its staff members also members of the Communist Party in 1930. During its first decade, the institute published an array of books by the likes of
Georgi Plekhanov Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (; rus, Гео́ргий Валенти́нович Плеха́нов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf, a=Ru-Georgi Plekhanov-JermyRei.ogg; – 30 May 1918) was a Russian revoluti ...
,
Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theorist. Kautsky was one of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in ...
,
Franz Mehring Franz Erdmann Mehring (27 February 1846 – 28 January 1919) was a German communist historian, literary critic, philosopher, and revolutionary socialist politician who was a senior member of the Spartacus League during the German Revolution of 191 ...
,
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...
,
David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British Political economy, political economist. He was one of the most influential of the Classical economics, classical economists along with Thomas Robert Malthus, Thomas Malthus, Ad ...
and
Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...
. The publication of the anticipated multi-volume works of Marx and Engels was started at this time (1927/28) in the form of two editions: An untranslated, complete edition (the first '' Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe''), which was to comprise 42 volumes (12 of which were published until 1935 – then this project was discontinued), and a first Russian edition in 28 volumes (''Sochineniya1''), the 33 bound books of which were completely published by 1947. The institute also published two regular academic journals, ''Arkhiv Karla Marksa i Friderikha Engel'sa'' (''Archive of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels'') and ''Letopis' marksizma'' (''Marxist Chronicle'').


Lenin Institute

The Lenin Institute began as an independent archival project, established by the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,  – TsK KPSS was the executive leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, acting between sessions of Congress. According to party statutes, the committee direct ...
in 1923 to gather manuscripts with a view to publication of a scholarly edition of
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
's collected works. This work was accomplished through the publication of a thick periodical called ''Leninskii sbornik'' (''Lenin Miscellany''), some 25 numbers of which were published between 1924 and 1933. The institute eventually became under the jurisdiction of the Central Committee as a department. The mission of the Lenin Institute was expanded in 1924 by the 13th Congress of the Russian Communist Party to include the "study and dissemination of
Leninism Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vanguardis ...
among the broad masses within and outside the party", namely an enlarged purview which rendered obsolete the previously existing Commission on the History of the October Revolution and the History of the Communist Party. In 1928, Istpart was dissolved and its functions fully absorbed by the Lenin Institute. The Lenin Institute was a slightly larger entity than the Marx–Engels Institute, with a staff of 158 in 1929, but it did not share the reputation for impartial scholarship enjoyed by the older research library and scholarly think tank.Barber, ''Soviet Historians in Crisis'', p. 17. The Lenin Institute was initially headed by
Lev Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev. (''né'' Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. Born in Moscow to parents who were both involved in revolutionary politics, Kamenev attended Imperial Moscow Uni ...
, followed by
Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov Ivan Ivanovich Skvortsov-Stepanov (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Скворцо́в-Степа́нов, 24 February 1870 – 8 October 1928) was a prominent Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician. Skvortsov-Stepanov was one ...
and after his death in 1928 by
Maximilian Saveliev Maximilian Alexandrovich Saveliev (Russian: Максимилиа́н Алекса́ндрович Саве́льев; February 19, 1884, Nizhny Novgorod – May 15, 1939, Moscow) was a Russian Bolshevik, Soviet academic, economist, journalist and h ...
.


1931 restructuring

In February 1931 as part of the
Menshevik Trial The Menshevik Trial was one of the early purges carried out by Stalin in which 14 economists, who were former members of the Menshevik party, were put on trial and convicted for trying to re-establish their party as the "Union Bureau of the Menshev ...
in February 1931, economist Isaak Rubin—a former employee of the Marx–Engels Institute—implicated the head of the institute David Riazanov as part of the conspiracy, with Riazanov accused of having hidden
Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions eme ...
documents in the facility.Barber, ''Soviet Historians in Crisis,'' p. 122. Although modern scholars consider the accusation in the February
show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so th ...
to have been extremely dubious, Riazanov was nevertheless arrested and sent into exile outside of Moscow. A purge of Marx–Engels Institute staff deemed to be ideologically suspicious followed. In the wake of the ideological
purges In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...
of the Marx–Engels Institute in November 1931, it was merged with the larger Lenin Institute to form the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute.


Later name changes

The Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute was subsequently renamed multiple times. In 1952, the facility's formal attachment to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was formally noted with the expanded moniker Marx-Engels–Lenin Institute of the CC CPSU (russian: Институт Маркса—Энгельса—Ленина при ЦК КПСС, links=no). The name of deceased Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
was added in 1956, with the institute formally becoming the Marx–Engels–Lenin–Stalin Institute of the CC CPSU. This remained in place until the onset of
de-Stalinization De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...
following the so-called
Secret Speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
of
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
in 1956. At this point, the name changed to Institute of Marxism–Leninism of the CC CPSU (russian: Институт марксизма-ленинизма при ЦК КПСС, links=no). During this period, beginning in the 1950s, the institute was involved in the realization of major projects such as the publication of a second Russian edition of the collected works of Marx and Engels (''Sochineniya2'' with 39 basic and 11 supplementary volumes) and the comprehensive fifth edition of ''Lenin's Collected Works'' (55 volumes). From the 1970s onwards, it also participated with foreign partners in the publication of the English-language ''
Marx/Engels Collected Works ''Marx/Engels Collected Works'' (also known as ''MECW'') is the largest existing collection of English translations of works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Its 50 volumes contain publications by Marx and Engels released during their lifetimes ...
'' (50 volumes) and the second '' Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe''. The name Institute of Marxism–Leninism remained unaltered for nearly 35 years, when turmoil in the Soviet Union brought about a name change to Institute of the Theory and History of Socialism of the CC CPSU (russian: Институт теории и истории социализма ЦК КПСС, links=no). The institute formally ceased to exist in November 1991 following the
fall of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, with the institute's library and archive transferred to a new entity called the Russian Independent Institute for Social and National Problems. The Central Party Archive of the institute was placed under the control of the Russian Ministry of Culture and eventually emerged as the
Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History The Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) (russian: Российский государственный архив социально-политической истории (РГАСПИ)) is a large Russian state archive base ...
(RGASPI).


Directors

*
Vladimir Adoratsky Vladimir Viktorovich Adoratsky ( Russian: Владимир Викторович Адоратский; 19 August Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._7_August.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/> O.S._7_August">Old_ ...
(1931–1939) * Mark Mitin (1939–1945) * Vladimir Kruzhkov (1944–1949) *
Pyotr Pospelov Pyotr Nikolayevich Pospelov (russian: Пётр Никола́евич Поспе́лов; – 22 April 1979) was a high-ranked functionary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ("Old Bolshevik", since 1916), propagandist, academician of ...
(1949–1952, 1961–1967) * Gennady Obichkin (1952–1961) *
Pyotr Fedoseev Pyotr Nikolaevich Fedoseev (Russian: Пётр Николаевич Федосеев; 22 August 1908 – 18 October 1990) was a Soviet philosopher, sociologist, politician and public figure. Biography Fedossev was born in to a peasant family. I ...
(1967–1973) * Anatoly Egorov (1974–1987) * Georgy L. Smirnov (1987–1991) * M. K. Gorshkov (1991, acting)


See also

*
Istpart The Commission on the History of the October Revolution and the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), also known as Ispart ( Russian: Истпарт), was a research institute that collected, processed, archived and published history of the Commun ...
* Institute of Marxism-Leninism (India) *
Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History The Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) (russian: Российский государственный архив социально-политической истории (РГАСПИ)) is a large Russian state archive base ...


Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute 1919 establishments in Russia 1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union Archives in Russia Archives in the Soviet Union Organizations disestablished in 1991 Research institutes established in 1919 Research libraries