The oldest documents – the official records and accounts of the Helsinki journeymen tanners – extend as far back as 1785. The oldest documents relating to labour organisations date from the 1890’s and the most recent material is from the current year. The archival material occupies over 3 300 metres of shelf space. The reference library contains 14 000 titles, the audio recording collection almost 10 000 tapes and the picture collection includes 1 100 0000 photographs, 7 000 posters and 570 works of art.

The archival collections include 5000 archives of labour organisations (such as the Finnish Communist Party and its local associations from all over the country, organisations of the people’s democratic movement and trade union organisations), over 1700 archives of civil society organisations (cultural associations, theatres, house committees, educational institutions, hobby clubs, societies, peace organisations). Special collections include, among other files, the Finnish civil war 1918 and political imprisonments 1919-1944. The Collections of personal papers include papers of almost 450 activists of the labour movement, artists, writers and working class families. Memoirs and interviews, biographical material and sound recordings of over 4000 persons are also available.

1. Archives of organisations
   A. The organisations of old labour movement, before 1918
   B. The Finnish Communist Party 1918-1990 (Party’s national, district and local organisations)
   C. Organisations of the left-wing mass movement in the 1920s and 1930s
   D. Organisation of the People’s Democratic Movement (central, regional and local organisations)
   • The Democratic League for the Finnish People
   • The Democratic League of Finnish Women
   • The Democratic Youth League of Finland/The Left Youth of Finland
   • The Socialist Students’ Union
   • The Democratic Pioneers’ League of Finland
   • The Left Alliance

   E. Trade Union Organisations (incl. Trade unions of construction, transport, weaving, rubber and leather workers, etc.)
   F. Other organisations (archives of cultural, educational, environmental, peace and solidarity organisations, workers’ meeting halls, friendship societies, social movements etc.)

2. Archives of workers’ newspapers and printing houses
3. Special collections
   A. The Finnish Civil War of 1918
   B. Leaflets and periodicals produced by workers’ industrial organisations
   C. Material produced for cultural activities in workers’ organisations (songs, poems, plays etc.)
   D. Workers’ living conditions (employment references and contracts, pay slips, documents concerning working conditions, etc.)
   E. Political imprisonment in Finland in 1919-1944 (lists, reports of legal proceedings, newspaper cutting, personal documents, letters, legal and illegal material from prisons, etc.)
   F. The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 (documents of Finnish volunteers of the International Brigades, solidarity campaigns organised in Finland
   U. Alternative leaflets and periodicals in the 1960s and 1970s
4. Collections of newspaper cuttings and reproductions
5. Private papers of persons (incl. leaders and members of the left-wing labour movement, politicians, writers, artists, working men and women; collections comprise letters, diaries, manuscipts, documents related to work, political activities and hobbies of the persons concerned, newspaper cuttings, photographs, etc.)
6. Memoirs and interviews
7. Biographical collections
8. Sound recordings (records, tapes, cassettes, videos)
9. Microfilms
10. Reference Library
11. Collections of photographs
12. Posters
13. Plans
14. Exhibitions
15. Artistic holdings