MIA: History: USA: Publications: NOTES relating to Young Comrade and Young Pioneer 1924 - 1930
NOTES relating to Young Comrade and Young Pioneer 1924 - 1930
Most of the scans in this archive were made from a microfilm in the collection of Tamiment Library. Five of them, of issues missing from that film, were made for us as a generous act of assistance with this project by the Wisconsin Historical Society, from original paper holdings of this periodical, in their collection.
The microfilm appears to have been ordered in 1958 by one Frances Alexander, of the "Fund for the Republic", according to an image of the invoice of the request for the film to be made, on the film itself. This same "Fund for the Republic" funded Theodore Draper's work on his classic, outstsanding "Roots of American Communism", and his subsequent (worthwhile, interesting, and informative) "American Communism and Soviet Russia".
The Fund for the Republic is what we'd call today a "think tank," sponsored several studies assessing the damage done by anticommunism and McCarthyism. For this it was roundly attacked and deemed "unAmerican." Dorothy Jones's Fund for the Republic study of HUAC's negative impact on film-making is cited by Victor Navasky in "Naming Names".
The film was made from original issues held at the time by the Library of Congress, which had been collected by the Library of Congress at the time these publications were printed and mailed out, one concludes, from the mailing labels visible on some of the issues represented on the film.
One can only speculate that this film, near certainly made as part of research by "The Fund for the Republic" for one of their funded projects, was donated to Tamiment Library later by it. Or by the researcher who ordered and received the film, perhaps.
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Shortly after I made these scans from the microfilm at Tamiment Library at NYU, I learned that the Wisconsin Historical Society had a robust holding of original issues of Young Comrade and Young Pioneer. I contacted WHS by email, and was delighted, very impressed, and most grateful when they offerred to scan their original (and in some cases fragile) paper holdings of what issues they had that I had not been able find on the microfilm. This was an excptionally kind and and considerate act by WHS, which all scholars, researchers, and members of the workers movement should be aware of.
The Wisconsin Historical Society sent us 600 dpi 24 bit color single page tiff scans of all pages of: v1n1, v1n2, v2n3, and v3n1 of Young Comrade, and of v7n3 of Young Pioneer. I converted these to single bit BW .pdf files of each as an entire issue.
Again, I am extremely impressed by the very kind and generous assistance and cooperation by those involved in providing us with this at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
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Footnote / Technical reference
Technical reference specifically for the microfilm of Young Comrade / Young Pioneer held by Tamiment Library:
CONTENTS of the Microfilm:
The film starts with ONE single issue of Imprekor (Intertnational Press Correspondence): Vol 2, No. 90, October 20, 1922 I find no special relevance in this to Young Comrade or to Young Pioneer. I did not scan it.
This is followed by Local Call Number: "HX1.I53", 3 issues of "International of YouthVol 1, Nos. 7, 8, and 9 from 1934 and 1935. Published by the Young Communist International and Young Communist League of America. This also I did not regard as relevant to my project, and I did not scan those issues.
After this on the film is the material that was relevant to my project, all of which I scanned at 600 dpi on a ScanPro 3000 in the Bobst Library microfilm room.
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Young Comrade:
Goldwater states:
November 1923 - November 1928 Volumes 1 thru 6 "Young Comrade: Monthly, issued by the Young Pioneers, the children's organization of the Young Workers League of the Workers Party (WP), and Workers (Communist) Party. It was edited first by Max Shachtman, and later by Nat Kaplan. Superceeded by Young Pioneer."
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1924: 12 issues monthly Jan - Dec
Volume 1 Numbers 3-12 and Volume 2 numbers 1 and 2. This consists of 12 issues, one each month, Jan thru Dec, of Young Comrade, in the form of what appears to be a roughly letter (or slightly smaller than letter) size page periodical. High quality microfilming / very good quality paper. Each issue is 8 pages long.
Note: Both the volume and issue numbering on the microfilm AND the entry in Goldwater suggest this film is missing the first two issues of this periodical, published in November and December of 1923, Volume 1 numbers 1 and 2. [supplied to the Riazanov Library digital archive by scans made by the Wisconsion Historical Society from their holdings of original issues of this publication.]
In December of 1924, Young Comrade informs that it is about to abandon use of high quality paper, in order to be able to continue to be sold inexpensivly.
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1925: 5 issues present
Volume 2. Numbers 4, 5, 6, 7-8, and "3". Specifically: v2n4 feb, v2n5 mar, v2n6 apr, v2n7-8 may-jun, and v2n3 (!) dec. NOTE that there is the implication the film is MISSING v2n3, January 1925.
Looking at the numbering for 1926, it appears ONLY the Jan 1926 issue may be missing... no others appear to be lost.
These are all 4 page periodicals. The combined may-june issue, v7-8, is eight pages long.
The images in 1925 get very significantly technically poorer than the microfilm images for 1924, in part due to perhaps poorer quality (more brown and faded) originals, and in part perhaps due to poorer quality filming (because it is harder to film newspaper than it is to film high quality paper and well-set type).
[scans of v2n3 jan 1925 provided to the Riazanov Library digital archive by the Wisonsin Historical Society, from original paper holdings of this periodical in their collection.]
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1926: 12 issues monthly Jan - Dec (continuation of Vol 2)
v2n9 thru v2n20, Jan thru Dec 1926. Issues are all in the same battered newspaper format as for 1925. February, March, and May issues are 8 pages. All others are 4 pages.
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1927: Volume 3 and 4. 8 issues present. Possibly 9 printed that year. (January 1927 v3n1 missing from this film) (no June 1927 issue printed ?)
The badly-rendered on microfilm newspaper format continues throughout 1927. All issues except v4n12 december are 4 pages long. v4n12 is 8 pages long.
v3n2 feb, v3n3 mar, v3n4 apr, v3n5 may, v3n6 jul, v3n7 aug-sep, v4n11 nov, v4n12 dec
[scans of v3n1 jan 1927 provided to the Riazanov Library digital archive by the Wisonsin Historical Society, from original paper holdings of this periodical in their collection.]
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1928: Volume 5. six issues v5n1 - n6
The first issue, jan-feb, is newspaper format, 4 pages long. The remaining 5 issues are roughly letter size, high quality print, and 16 pages each.
4 pg newspaper format: v5n1 jan-feb
v5n2 apr, v5n3 may, v5n4 jun, v5n5 sep, v5n6 nov all of n2 - n6 16 pg, approx letter size
[I've no way of knowing whether or not there was a v5n7 december issue. Goldwater, however, suggests there was instead a V6n1 December 1928 issue of Young Pioneer.]
Young Pioneer:
Goldwater states of this publication: "V6 - V8 1928 - Jan 1931" "It continued the numbering of Young Comrade, but was under new editorship." It reappeared in May of 1931 under the name "Pioneer", and later as "New Pioneer"
[This suggests this film is missing a v6n1 issue for what probably is December 1928. And that the film is also missing a single v8n1 January 1931 issue.]
In 1929, with Volume 6, the name of the publication changes to Young Pioneer. Its format changes too, back to high quality letter or somewhat smaller than letter size pages. 16 pages per issue.
1929: 5 issues
v6n1 feb, v6n2 apr, 65n3 jun, v6n4 jul-aug, v6n5 oct-nov
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1930: Volume 7, numbers 1,2,4,5, and 6 (total of 5 issues) v7n3 missing. End of run on this film.
4, 8, and 16 page long issues, in bigger page format than Volume 6, but still high quality pages in something roughly like letter size... either letter or slightly bigger than letter size.
v7n1 mar 4pgs, v7n2 july 4pgs, v7n4 sep-oct 8pgs, v7n5 nov 16 pgs, v7n6 dec 8pgs
[scans of v7n3 aug 1930 provided to the Riazanov Library digital archive by the Wisonsin Historical Society, from original paper holdings of this periodical in their collection.]
[Are there missing issues between v6n5 oct-nov 1929 and v7n1 mar 1930 ? I don't know. Based on Wisconsin Historical Society's holdings, it seems not.]
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MISSING ISSUES from this microfilm / my digital archive made from it:
Likely or speculated missing issues from this digital archive (from the microfilm at Tamiment Library):
Young Comrade:
1923 v1n1 November 1923 - provided by WHS scanned from their original v1n2 December 1923 - provided by WHS scanned from their original [near certainly exist and are missing from this record]
1925 v2n3 January 1925 - provided by WHS scanned from their original [Note there IS a "v2n3" DECEMBER 1925 issue, out of sequence!]
1927 v3n1 January 1927 - provided by WHS scanned from their original
v3n8 Oct 1927 OR v4n10 Oct 1927 (possible missing issue ??) (Vol 3 ends with v3n7 Aug-Sept 1927. Next issue on the film is number v4n11 November 1927)
Young Pioneer:
1928 v6n1 December 1928 (suggested by Goldwater)
1929 v6n6 (??) (and others in the period of Dec 1929 - Feb 1930 ??)
1930 v7n3 August 1930 - provided by WHS scanned from their original
1931 v8n1 January 1931 (Goldwater suggests this issue existed)
Martin H. Goodman MD
Director, Riazanov Library
Brooklyn NY October 2014
Last Updated On 29 September 2014