The materials in this collection constitute a semi-random sample of the pre-war archive that was transferred to the Central State Archives of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic following the liquidation of the Vilnius Jewish Museum in 1949. The collection includes records of YIVO work and activities, financial records, correspondence, and publications; documents about pogroms in Ukraine, and Red Army and Soviet activity in Vilna and Bialystok; and a significant amount of records of socialist, communist, and Zionist political parties, as well as associated newspapers and one-time publications.

The collection consists of:



1. Materials relating to the PPS (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna - Polish Socialist Party), including trial records and proclamations, 1905-1912



2. Proclamations by the Socialist-Zionist Party (SS) and the Bund, 1905 and 1934



3. Correspondence: family (1912-1938) and general (1911-1938, including a number of letters from Yiddish writers)



4. Records pertaining to the activities of various Łódź landsmanshaftn in the U.S.



5. Manuscripts, notes, printed articles, and personal documents of Gustav Eisner



6. Photographs taken in Poland, some during World War I



7. Records of the Gustave Eisner Travel Bureau, 1930s

The Marc Ratner Papers consist of materials pertaining to Marc Ratner's political activities as one of the leaders of the SERP (Sotsialisticheskaya Yevreyskaya Rabochaya Partiia, Jewish Socialist Workers' Party, Rus: Социалистическая еврейская рабочая партия) which was a left leaning Zionist revolutionary party. The collection consists of correspondence, circular letters, clippings, minutes of meetings, essays, manuscripts, political resolutions and statements. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence between party members, minutes of meetings and manuscripts.

The May Cohn Russia and Soviet Union Collection (Vilna Archives) includes materials dealing with a wide range of topics mostly pertaining to Jewish life in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union and to a smaller extent to everyday life of ordinary Russian citizens. The collection consists of official government documents such as reports, decrees and regulations, circular letters, lists, vital records, Census records, residency and emigration permits. Also included here are manuscripts, correspondence, printed materials, petitions, announcements, posters, questionnaires, and minutes of meetings. Materials collected here shed light on the way Jewish religious and civil life was administered in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.