The objective of the present proposal is to promote public engagement with the relationship of Switzerland to Communism in the ‘short twentieth century’. The Chair of Eastern European and Russian History at the University of Basel, Basel University Library, the Swiss Social Archives in Zürich and further partner organisations intend to achieve this aim by creating an exhibition to be shown in the autumn of 2021 in Basel University Library and accompanied by a programme of public events. The exhibition focuses on the history of Fritz Platten (1883-1942), one of the best-known and most radical Swiss Communists of his era, and on his son’s search for a complete picture of his father’s life. Its content will draw on currently ongoing research from the Chair of Eastern European and Russian History at the University of Basel, involving the applicant alongside postdocs, doctoral researchers and advanced undergraduates. True to its title, “In Search of Fritz Platten: Switzerland and Communism in the Twentieth Century”, the exhibition will take as its starting point the decades-long historical and biographical research on Fritz Platten conducted by his second son, Fritz Nicolaus Platten (1918-2004). For over fifty years, Fritz N. Platten, working towards the ultimate end of writing his father’s biography, compiled an extensive archive of documents, incorporating original and archive materials, photographs and innumerable newspaper cuttings.  Both the exhibition and the accompanying programme of events will engage a broad audience of people in dialogue at guided tours of the exhibits, talks and panel discussions.The ultimate aim of the exhibition, and of the choice of an actor-centred approach to the topic, is to promote discussion and dialogue within society on the tensions and controversies surrounding Swiss history in the Cold War era and to encourage our audiences to reflect on ‘doing history’ and on the importance of archives in sustaining collective memory in modern societies.