For 1938-1953, a SHORT COURSE OF THE HISTORY OF THE CPSU (B) was published 301 times in the amount of 42,816 thousand copies. in 67 languages. the first part of this edition is devoted to the history of the text of the world famous textbook. The main theme of this collection of documents is the attitude of I.V. Stalin to the history of the party, his views on the selection of sources, on objects of study, on the role of personality in history. The object of attention of the compilers was the history of the text of the textbook, the process of writing it, authorship.