The Copley Archive: Russia, The USSR and Australian Communists. An Annotated Catalogue of the newspaper cuttings, pamphlets, circulars and booklets. (November 2025)

Newspaper cuttings in the Copley Archive concerning Russia and the USSR are held in Box C061, and the material concerning communist activity in Australia is held in Box C041. The source of this material, and the limitation of its suitability for quantitative analyses has been described in detail in The Copley Health Archive. An annotated Catalogue of the Newspaper Cuttings, 19/10/25.

A Listing of the Merv and Janet Copley Archive is here:
https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/118784

Digitised Selections are here:

livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/110374

The two decades 1953 to 1976, which are covered by these newspaper cuttings, were not only dominated by the ‘Cold War’, but were also a time of social instability in Russia and for instability in Australian communist organisations. 

Merv and Janet Copley were committed communists and members of many Novocastrian left wing societies and committees. Merv maintained membership of several Australian communist organisations and held a futile hope that they could be reunited. They supported International Women’s Day, lobbied for childcare and equal pay for women long before second wave feminism put it on the public agenda. Merv was instrumental in the development of air pollution legislation.

The content of these newspaper cuttings does not reflect the instability within the USSR or within the Australian communist community of the time. Whether this is due to the Copleys' selection of cuttings cannot be ascertained.

Copyright David Smith 2025