INTRODUCTION
This guide contains updated information about the federal archives in the Russian Federation, located mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, access to archives in Russia has been severely limited, forcing researchers outside of the country to seek alternative sources and locations in Eurasia. At this time, we are sharing a selective list of online resources, such as online search tools, digital finding aids, and published guides to federal archives. We will continue monitoring for updates from the archives and share them here.
CENTRAL STATE ARCHIVES (UNDER ROSARKHIV)“]
URL: http://www.statearchive.ru
Е-mail: sic_faa@mail.rgantd.ru
The largest federal archive in the country, which holds about 7 million files on the history of Russia in the 19th – 21st centuries. It contains documents of the highest bodies of state power and administration of the Russian Federation. It was the primary state archive for pre-Revolutionary society and the Soviet state.
Online Access to GARF Research Guides:
1. Electronic Guides and Inventories (in Russian)
2. Research Guides available as PDF files (Volumes 1 and 2 have English introductions and surveys of holdings):
a) Collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation on the History of Russia in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries (Volume 1). A comprehensive guide to the pre-revolutionary holdings of the GA RF. These pre-revolutionary holdings consist of collections assembled for a study of the revolutionary movement that preceded the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917. The archive also includes the files of those who opposed the revolutionary movement.
b) Collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation on the History of RSFSR (Volume 2). This guide represents the first comprehensive survey of holdings on the history of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic in the collections of the GARF. The guide provides information on the composition and content of the documents of the supreme state authorities, central government bodies of the RSFSR and their subordinate institutions, and records of public organizations of the RSFSR, which reflect economic, socio-political, social, and national problems of the history of the RSFSR from 1917 to 1991.
c) Collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation on the History of the USSR (Volume 3). The guide contains information about the documents of the highest bodies of state power and administration stored in the GARF, represented by the archives of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. It also contains information on the central bodies of the USSR state administration in the fields of internal affairs, justice, state control of labor, health care, physical culture and sports, tourism, public education, press, information, as well as the highest bodies of courts, prosecution, arbitration, special judicial and investigative institutions, central bodies of public organizations of the USSR: trade union, socio-political, defense and sports, mutual aid and social protection and several others. These archives reflect the history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1923 to 1991.
d) Collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation on the History of the White Movement and Emigration (Volume 4). This guide contains information about the documents of the White Guard government institutions that operated in the territory of the former Russian Empire in 1919-1922 and records of emigrant organizations for 1918-1946 stored in the GARF. The archives of the White Guard governments included in the guide are represented by their central and local institutions, while the emigrant archives are comprised of institutions and organizations that operated in the Russian Federation and consist of institutions and organizations that operated in different countries.
e) Personal Collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (1917-2000) (Volume 5). The guide contains information about documents in the personal archives of state and public figures of the USSR and RSFSR (1917-1991) and state figures of the Russian Federation (1991-2000). The guide also includes descriptions of the personal archives of Russian emigration figures and archival collections kept in the GARF. Private collections contain various types of documents: diaries, memoirs, letters, manuscripts of articles, books, photographs, drawings, and other visual materials.
f) New Additions (1994-2019) (Volume 7) This guide contains information about the documents of the supreme bodies of state power and administration of the Russian Federation, represented by the fonds of the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Russian Federation, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, and the executive authorities of the Russian Federation. In addition, the guide includes descriptions of collections of microphotocopies of documents on the history of Russia received by the GARF from foreign archives, as well as new additions for 1994-2019 (including descriptions of the fonds of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for 1950-1991, personal archives and collections, emigrant archives, and declassified archives).
3. Electronic Archive of the Collections of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
The materials of the Soviet occupation regime on the territory of Germany were opened for use only after the collapse of the USSR. Currently, the Electronic Archive of the SMAG holdings contains 266,487 descriptions with electronic images of documents.
4. Database of printed publications of the Russian Abroad 1918-1991: Bibliographic index
5. Posters in the collections of the Scientific Library of the GARF
The Scientific Library poster collection has 12,220 items. The collection includes works by Soviet artists, diverse in subject matter and style, mainly from 1918 to the early 1960s, published in Moscow and Petrograd-Leningrad and various local publishing houses.
