"What Kind of Past Should the Future Have?" The Development of the Soviet Archival System, 1917-1931
Journal: eScholarship (California Digital Library)
Year: 2012

This study investigates how the Bolsheviks built a usable past through the preservation, creation, and use of archival material. Soon after coming to power in the Russian Revolution of October 1917, the Bolsheviks created the most centralized and far reaching archival administration in the world. As the Bolsheviks turned increasingly to history as a source of legitimacy after the civil war, they used the evidence represented in archival documents to construct a narrative that would demonstrate t