Research Problems Related to the Activities of the Warsaw Committee of the Communist Party of Poland, 1918–1938

Abstract

In this article, the author assesses the current state of research on the Polish communist movement. She pays special attention to the role played by Polish Workers’ Party structures such as the Party History Department, which existed and operated in the years 1946-1957 at the Polish Workers’ Party Central Committee. She explores two major problems faced by communist researchers. One is related to the availability of and access to primary sources, specifically the
archival collection from Russian archives related to this subject. Another issue is the difficulties of analysing and interpreting party-generated sources.