Central Archives

Central Archives

 

(also Tsentrarkhiv), the official name of the Central Archival Institution of the RSFSR. The Central Archives were established by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Jan. 30, 1922. Administratively the Central Archives were subordinate to the Presidium of the CEC. The institution was charged with directing the organization of archives pertaining to the business conducted by the governmental bodies of the RSFSR.

The Central Archives had provincial (oblast) departments, which were transformed into provincial (oblast) archival bureaus in November 1922. All of the archival materials of the RSFSR taken together constituted the Unified State Archival Repository, which was divided into five sections: political, economic, legal, historical-cultural, and naval. The statute on the organization of the Unified State Archival Repository, which was approved by the Central Archives on Feb. 3, 1925, provided for the establishment of a network of central and local state archives.

The Central Archives were abolished on Jan. 28, 1929, as a result of the establishment of the Central Archival Administration of the RSFSR. Central archives were also organized in Azerbaijan (1920), Georgia (1921), Byelorussia (1922), the Ukraine (1923), and Armenia (1924).

REFERENCE

Maksakov, V. V. Istoriia i organizatsiia arkhivnogo déla v SSSR (1917–1945). Moscow, 1969.