History

The history collection embraces Russia’s history from its earliest beginnings to the present day, with a range of political viewpoints on these periods from Russian and Western historians.

In particular, it includes books, pamphlets and original materials covering the revolutions of 1917, the Civil War, the 1920s-30s, World War II, the Cold War, perestroika, and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Andrew Rothstein archive comprises pamphlets, books and personal notes belonging to one of the major historians of the Soviet Union.

There are over 1,000 volumes on World War II, including contemporary British accounts and Soviet wartime memoirs - from partisans to military leaders (Marshals Zhukov, Chuikov and Rokossovsky, among others).

The accompanying visual archive contains wartime art and a large collection of war photographs.

Politics

The politics collection includes Russian and Western views of Russia's foreign diplomatic relations, particularly during the Soviet period. There are also documents and materials on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), as well as the writings of Soviet leaders (Lenin, Stalin, Molotov, Khrushchev, Gromyko, and Gorbachev, among others).