The Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute (, ), established in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

in 1919 as the Marx–Engels Institute (, ), was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

library and archive attached to the Communist Academy. 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 was the Central committee, highest organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Congresses. Elected by the ...

and served as a research center and publishing house for officially published works of

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

thought. From 1956 to 1991, the institute was named the Institute of Marxism–Leninism (, ; IML, ). The Marx–Engels Institute gathered unpublished manuscripts by

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

and other leading Marxist theoreticians as well as collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals related to the

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and organized labor 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 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. 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 Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

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 (RGASPI).

History

Establishment

The Marx–Engels Institute was established in 1919 by the government of Soviet Russia as a branch of the Communist Academy, 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. The first director of the facility, located in

, was David Riazanov. 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 Central Executive Committee of the USSR (), which may be abbreviated as the CEC (), was the supreme governing body of the USSR in between sessions of the All-Union Congress of Soviets from 1922 to 1938. The Central Executive Committee elec ...

). The institute assembled and maintained a

research library A research library is a library that 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 top ...

devoted to

-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

and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.First and

Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...

s, the history of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, the history of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the history of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, the history of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the history of the countries of

Southern Europe Southern Europe is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, C ...

and the history of

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

. 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 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, Георгий Валентинович Плеханов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf, a=Ru-Georgi Plekhanov-JermyRei.ogg; – 30 May 1918) was a Russian revolutionary, ...

, Karl Kautsky, Franz Mehring,

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist, politician, and member of Parliament. He is recognized as one of the most influential classical economists, alongside figures such as Thomas Malthus, Ada ...

and

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...

. 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 by 1935 – when 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

in 1923 to gather manuscripts with a view to publication of a scholarly edition of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

'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 Vangu ...

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 (Istpart). 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. ( Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Kamenev was a leading figure in the early Soviet government and served as a Deputy Premier ...

, followed by

Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov Ivan Ivanovich Skvortsov-Stepanov (; 8 March O.S. 24 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 24 February1870 – 8 October 1928) was a prominent Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and Sovie ...

and after his death in 1928 by Maximilian Saveliev.

1931 restructuring

In February 1931 as part of the Menshevik Trial 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 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 guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...

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 of the Marx–Engels Institute in November 1931, it was merged with the larger Lenin Institute to form the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute under the direction of Vladimir Adoratsky.

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 (). The name of deceased Soviet leader

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

was added in 1953, 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 () comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Khrushchev Thaw, the thaw brought about by ascension of Nik ...

following the so-called Secret Speech of

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

in 1956. At this point, the name changed to Institute of Marxism–Leninism of the CC CPSU (). 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'' (50 volumes) and the second '' Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe''. The name "Institute of Marxism–Leninism" remained unaltered for nearly 35 years until turmoil in the Soviet Union brought about a name change to Institute of the Theory and History of Socialism of the CC CPSU (). The institute formally ceased to exist in November 1991 following the

fall of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...

, 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 (RGASPI).

Directors

* Vladimir Adoratsky (1931–1939) * Mark Mitin (1939–1944) * Vladimir Kruzhkov (1944–1949) * Pyotr Pospelov (1949–1952, 1961–1967) * Gennady Obichkin (1952–1961) * Pyotr Fedoseev (1967–1973) * Anatoly Egorov (1974–1987) * Georgy L. Smirnov (1987–1991) * M. K. Gorshkov (1991, acting)

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 Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union