Downloadable (pdf) temporary English language guide to the microfilm of Fond 515, "Files of the Communist Party of the USA in the Comintern Archives"
The CPUSA collection in the Comintern Archives (fond 515) includes 4,313 numbered files (dela). The material in the collection, largely the original headquarters records of the CPUSA shipped to Moscow many decades ago, spans the period from 1912 to 1944 with the bulk in the period from 1922 to 1936.
The files contain the original incoming mail, carbons of outgoing correspondence, reports from regional and local organizers, and internal memoranda produced by officials and offices of the national headquarters. For the first time, it is possible to document the functioning of the local party, its relationship to the international, and the importance of individual members in shaping the party's program. These materials also provide information about the ways in which ordinary people experienced communism. In addition to CPUSA records produced in America, these files contain documents created or gathered in Moscow by CPUSA representatives to the Comintern. The extensive files on the various immigrant/ethnic affiliates of the CPUSA (such as the Finnish Workers Federation) have material in both English and the language of the particular immigrant group being dealt with: Finnish, Italian, Hungarian, German, Chinese, Serbian, Croatian, Polish, Yiddish and so on.
A description and marketing information of the 326 reels of microfilm are found at:
http://www.brill.com/comintern-archives-files-communist-party-usa-cpusa
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