Abstract
Since the Sixties the studies of labour's collective biographies experienced a strong development in France and in other countries, and led to the production of a number of biographical dictionaries and databases. The multiplication of such initiatives evidentiates a new historiographical sensibility. The socio-biographical approach, inaugurated in France by the Maitron, contributed to going beyond the traditional labour historiography, which focused on the organisations, the ideologies and the main leaders. By giving attention to less-known militants, it permitted to reconstruct the profi le of various generations of labour militants on the basis of individual itineraries. The article offers an overview of the existing biographical dictionaries and of some current projects. It discusses also the main collective biographies regarding the communist movement that were produced after the Russian archives and those of various communist parties were opened.
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