The People's Archives maintained by the Social Archives Foundation is the central
archives of the Finnish left-wing labour movement and popular organisations.
Address: Vetehisenkuja 1, 00530 Helsinki Finland
Telephone: +358-9-7536972
Fax: +358-9-739619
E-mail: info@kansanarkisto.fi
Reading room open from Tuesday to Friday 9 am - 4 pm
The People's Archives was established in 1945, right after the Second World War to be the
central archives of the Communist Party of Finland (The Communist Party of Finland was
created after civil war 1918 and it was prohibited in Finland during 1918-1944). The
institution has received statutory aid since 1975.
The People's Archives collects, preserves, arranges and catalogues archives and other
material related to the social and cultural history of the left-wing labour movement,
popular organisations and the working class in Finland.
Archive collections
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 2926 metres of shelf space. The reference library contains
13 321 titles, the audio recording collection 8884 tapes and the picture collection
include 893 974 photographs, 5057 posters and 536 works of art.
The archival collections include 4617 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), 1509
archives of popular 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 400
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.
| number of archives | metres | |
| 1. Archives of organisations | ||
| A. The organisations of old labour movement, before 1918 | 100 | 4 |
| B. The Finnish Communist Party 1918-1990 (Party's national, district and local organisations) | 873 | 466 |
| C. Organisations of the left-wing mass movement in the 1920s and 1930s | 282 | 13 |
| 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 |
2462 | 768 |
| E. Trade Union Organisations (incl. Trade unions of construction, transport, weaving, rubber and leather workers, etc.) | 900 | 606 |
| F. Other organisations (archives of cultural, educational, environmental, peace and solidarity organisations, workers' meeting halls, friendship societies, social movements etc.) | 1509 | 616 |
| 2. Archives of workers' newspapers and printing houses | 103 | 156 |
| 3. Special collections | 7 | 17 |
| A. The Finnish Civil War of 1918 | 3 | |
| B. Leaflets and periodicals produced by workers' industrial organisations | 1 | |
| C. Material produced for cultural activities in workers' organisations (songs, poems, plays etc.) | 1 | |
| D. Workers' living conditions (employment references and contracts, pay slips, documents concerning working conditions, etc.) | 1 | |
| 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.) | 4 | |
| F. The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 (documents of Finnish volunteers of the International Brigades, solidarity campaigns organised in Finland | 1 | |
| U. Alternative leaflets and periodicals in the 1960s and 1970s | 6 | |
| 4. Collections of newspaper cuttings and reproductions | 13 | 92 |
| 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.) | 372 | 261 |
| 6. Memoirs and interviews | 1043 | 8 |
| 7. Biographical collections | 1866 | 24 |
| 8. Sound recordings (records, tapes, cassettes, videos) | 8884 | 66 |
| 9. Microfilms | 633 | |
| 10. Reference Library | 13 321 | 224 |
| 11. Collections of photographs | 893 974 | 180 |
| 12. Posters | 5057 | |
| 13. Plans | 1168 | |
| 14. Exhibitions | 213 | |
| 15. Artistic holdings | 536 |
Services
The Archives' collections are at the disposal of researchers and the public. The main
card index, the archive catalogues, card index of the library, catalogues of the
recordings and the picture collection are available. Most of the material is catalogued
electronically. The archival database, electronic catalogue of the library (1997-), and
the image database (1999-) can be accessed by the researchers. The archival database can
also be reached via Internet (2005-).
Private Archives Association. To Private Archives Association belong ten
archives with statutory State aid. These archives are The Archives of the Centre Party,
The Archives of the Organizations of the National Coalition Party, The Archives of
Salaried Employees, The Archives of President Urho Kekkonen, The Central Archives for
Finnish Business Records, The Finnish Labour Archives, The People's Archives, The Sports
Archives of Finland, The Swedish Central Archives and The Trade Union Archives.
A common register was published in the Web in the beginning of 2001. In the register there
is basic information of more than 28 000 records creators from ten different archives.
(Yhteisrekisteri, see: http://www.yksityisetkeskusarkistot.fi
Searching system for private central archives, only in Finnish and Swedish)
KARK- Image database (2002-) http://www.yksityisetkeskusarkistot.fi/kark/index_eng.htm
The Private Archives Association's KARK-photo archives project has resulted an image
database. In this database, there is a short description text connected to each picture,
telling briefly about the content. As well it is mentioned, when known, the name of a
photographer, the place, date and the archive. Information retrieval is possible by an
archive or by date and a full text search is possible too. User interface is very simple
and it is hoped to serve teaching, researching and everybody, who are interested in old
photographs.
PEOPLE OF A SPECIAL MOULD? INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPARATIVE COMMUNIST BIOGRAPHY
AND PROSOPOGRAPHY MANCHESTER 6TH - 8TH APRIL 2001
Conferencepapers
of the Finnish participates
Kansan Arkiston verkkonäyttely 5
Vasen silmä - Näyttely valokuvaaja Yrjö Lintusen tuotannosta
Punalippu Suomen työväenliikkeen alkutaipaleella
Veljet, toverit... Matkalla 1920-luvun Neuvostoliitossa
Villit vuodet Koiton Näyttämö 1906 - 1933
1918 Kansalaissodan kuvia
(The Finnish civil war 1918)
