Jakub Berman papers, 1941-1983

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Summary

Creators:
Berman, Jakub, 1901-1984
Abstract:
Memoirs, other speeches and writings, notes, correspondence, and photographs relating to the Polish communist movement and to post-World War II political conditions in Poland.
Extent:
2 manuscript boxes (0.8 Linear Feet)
Language:
Polish
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Jakub Berman papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Background

Scope and content:

Memoirs, other speeches and writings, notes, correspondence, and photographs relating to the Polish communist movement and the Polish People's Republic, post-World War II political conditions in Poland, and the Sovietization of Eastern Europe.

Biographical / historical:

Jakub Berman was born in 1901 in Warsaw into a Jewish middle-class family. He completed a degree in law at Warsaw University in 1925. Three years later he joined the Polish Communist Party (KPP). After the Nazi-Soviet attack and partition of Poland in September 1939, Berman moved to the Soviet side of Poland. Initially, he worked as a newspaper editor and later became an instructor in the Comintern school, which trained activists for Josef Stalin's new party for Polish communists, the Polish Workers' Party.

Stalin was favorably impressed with Berman's intellectual abilities and political commitment during meetings in the Kremlin in 1943. In the summer of 1944, as the Soviet armies were driving the Germans out of occupied Poland, Berman became a Politburo member, second only to Boleslaw Bierut, an ethnic Pole of peasant origin, chosen by Stalin to lead the new Polish state. Between 1944 and 1956, during which he was a member of the Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza Biuro Polityczne, Berman was one of the most powerful Polish communist politicians. Berman's responsibilities in the Politburo included oversight of the Security Office (UB), ideology, and propaganda. During his tenure at least 200,000 people were imprisoned for real or imagined political offenses, of whom some 6,000 were executed.

During the relative political "thaw" following the deaths of Stalin in 1953 and Bierut in 1956, Berman was forced to resign from the Politburo and the Central Committee. He was officially blamed for "Stalinist errors and deviations" but never prosecuted. His name is associated with the Sovietization of Poland following World War II and repressions against the opponents of the communist regime. Berman died in retirement in Warsaw in 1984.

Acquisition information:
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2008.
Physical location:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Terms of access:

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Jakub Berman papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Location of this collection:
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003, US
Contact:
(650) 723-3563
hooverarchives@stanford.edu
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