ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: B 13

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv noveishei istorii (RGANI)

[Russian State Archive of Contemporary History]

Agency: Federal'noe arkhivnoe agentstvo Rossii (Rosarkhiv)
[Federal Archival Agency of Russia]

Address: 103132, Moscow, ul. Il'inka (formerly ul. Kuibysheva), 12, entrance 8
Telephone: (495) 606-50-30; Fax: (495) 606-23-21; 606-55-87; RdngRm: 606-38-15
E-mail: puzanova_la@gov.ru
Website: http://www.rusarchives.ru/federal/rgani/
Hours: Tu-Th 9:30-17:00 (Summer [2006]: 3 July–7 August closed)
Director: Natal'ia Georgievna Tomilina (tel. 606-50-06)
Deputy Director: Mikhail Iur'evich Prozumenshchikov (tel. 606-32-86)
Deputy Director: Vladimir Viacheslavovich Sakharov (tel. 606-27-47)
Head of Information Division: Irina Viacheslavovna Kazarina (tel. 606-45-29)
Head of the Reading Room: Liudmila Ivanovna Stepanich (tel. 606-38-15)

Previous Names

X.1991-1999 - Tsentr khraneniia sovremennoi dokumentatsii (TsKhSD)
[Center for Preservation of Contemporary Documentation]
1921-VIII.1991 - Tekushchie arkhivy TsK KPSS
[Current Archive of the CPSU Central Committee]

About RGANI

The Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI) dates from the March 1999 Rosarkhiv reform. Its predecessor immediate predecessor, the Center for Preservation of Contemporary Documentation (TsKhSD), was established in 1991 on the basis of current records from the ongoing agency archives (Tekushchie arkhivy) of structural divisions of the CPSU Central Committee, which were nationalized after the attempted August coup in 1991. RGANI accordingly retains records created by the activities of the highest central organs of the CPSU and the CP of the RSFSR, including their permanent and provisional commissions, bureaus, and the apparatus of the CPSU CC and the CC CP RSFSR. Documentation principally covers the period from 1952 to August 1991, although there are some holdings from the years 1922-1951.

The Center was opened to researchers 25 February 1992 in the building of the CPSU Central Committee (TsK KPSS) near the Kremlin in Old Square (Staraia ploshchad').

The center combines several agency archives of CC structural subdivisions, such as the CPSS CC General Department (Obshchii otdel TsK KPSS), the Committee for Party Control (Komitet partiinogo kontrolia--KPK), the CC CPSU Organizational Department (Orgotdel TsK KPSS), which included CPSU membership records; the CC Administration of Affairs (Arkhivnyi fond Upravleniia delami TsK KPSS); and the International Department (Mezhdunarodnyi otdel), among others. RGANI has recently started to acquire records of the CPSU Congresses (1955-1966) and transcripts and other documents of CC Plenums (1941-1966, 1990-1991). Of particular importance are the records of the CC Politburo (1952-1991). Among the most voluminous fonds in RGANI are the records of CPSU CC Secretariat (1952 to 1991) and the CPSU CC Apparatus (Apparat) (1952-1991). A few personal fonds have been established for individual CPSU officials and leaders. There are also some sound recordings. Especially since the end of 1994, TsKhSD has been receiving transfers of additional Central Committee and Politburo files from the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation (AP RF, C-1).

Access

A very large percentage of the files in RGANI are still classified, although the declassification procedure has been progressing. Many others are not open because they have not been processed. A number of records that were earlier available for research, including the records of the CC Secretariat (fond 4) and most files from the International Department in fond 5 are still closed as of Spring 2004. Researchers may make requests for priority declassification consideration, but the process usually involves a fee for a thematic search. Ciphered cables and other documents from all fonds are normally retained in a separate collection and have not been declassified. See Biulleten' rassekrechennykh dokumentov federal'nykh arkhivov i tsentrov khraneniia dokumentatsii (1998-2004) for an annotated list of files and some individual documents that have been declassified through 1997-2003.

Access to most of the archival internal reference system is closed.

Working Conditions

The center has a large reading room with microform readers, since researchers are normally required to use microform copies of many of the files. Access to the archive itself remains difficult because of special security for the high government building in which RGANI is located. Access to the reading room is possible only after an advance telephone appointment with the head of the reading room; a minimum of two days is often now required for foreigners to obtain admission to the building. Readers' passes are no longer provided, but names of current researchers are kept in a special list at the security check point at the building entrance. Current security measures prohibit the use of personal computers in the reading room.

Researchers complain about the slowness of the declassification process and the fact that they cannot search documents themselves and hence the need to pay thematic search fees.

Researchers are permitted to order 10 files per day. Orders are usually delivered in two days.

Recent General Descriptions

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv noveishei istorii: Putevoditel'. Vyp. 1. Compiled by M. Iu. Kiselev, N. G. Toshchakova, G. V. Zharnikova, L. V. Charskaia. Edited by N. G. Tomilina. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2004. 240 p. "Spravochno-informatsionnye materialy po dokumentam Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo arkhiva noveishei istorii (RGANI)" [Rosarkhiv; RGANI] (Lib: DLC; MH)

Afiani, Vitalii Iur'evich. "Publikatorskaia deiatel'nost' Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo arkhiva noveishei istorii (1991-2001)." Arkheograficheskii ezhegodnik za 2001, 2002, pp. 10-24. (Lib: DLC; IU; MH)
Provides a few details about the history of the archive and CPSU recordkeeping practices and proceeds to survey the documentary publications by TsKhSD/RGANI archivists since the transfer of the records to Rosarkhiv in 1991 with extensive bibliographic footnotes.

Bondareva, Tat'iana Ivanovna. "Tsentru khraneniia sovremennoi dokumentatsii 5 let." Otechestvennye arkhivy, 1997, no. 1, pp. 42-54. (Lib: DLC; IU; MH)
An interview with the director and several archivists honoring the fifth anniversary of TsKhSD. Provides considerable background concerning problems and progress in arrangement, description, and declassification.

Major Specialized Finding Aids

See the new directory Kratkii mezharkhivnyi spravochnik o mestakh khraneniia dokumentov po lichnomu sostavu, Vyp. 1 (2005) for personnel files in fonds held by RGANI in electronic version at the website “Arkhivy Rossii”: http://www.rusarchives.ru/guide/lich_sostav/rgani.shtml.

Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State: Catalogue of Finding Aids and Documents. 3d ed. [Cambridge, UK]: Chadwyck-Healey, 2002. xviii, 90 p. Introduction by Jana Howlett. [Rosarkhiv; Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace] (Lib: CSt-H; DLC; MH) (Also listed under B-1 and B-12).
1st ED.: 1995. xix, 88 p. with Supplement: January 1996. vi, 10 p.
RUSSIAN VERSION of 1st ED.: Arkhivy KPSS i sovetskogo gosudarstva: Katalog opisei i dokumentov. [Cambridge, UK], 1995. 85 p.
Electronic version: available at the ProQuest website: http://www.il.proquest.com/chadwyck/sovietguide/default.shtml.
Additional information is available electronically at the website: http://www.il.proquest.com/research/pd-product-Soviet-Comunist-Party
-and-Soviet-State-138.shtml.
The opisi only for one fond, the Committee for Party Control (fond 6, opisi 1-4) in RGANI (TsKhSD) were filmed under the Rosarkhiv-Hoover project, as listed in the published catalogue. A supplemental package is available reproducing most of the documents from fond 89, the special collection of recently declassified documents (over 3,000 documents), predominantly from the 1992 trial of the Communist Party. Included on the microfilms is a copy of all of the perechni (opisi) of the documents in that fond. For the more detailed English-language catalogue for those documents in fond 89 see below.
Contact: Updated information is available from ProQuest Information and Learning Company, the successor company to Chadwyck-Healey: http://www.proquest.co.uk. Additional information about finding aids to some of the materials is available at the Hoover Institution: http://www-Hoover.Stanford.edu; E-mail: archives@hoover.stanford.edu; phone: (650) 723-3563; fax: (650) 725-3445.

Guide to the Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State: Microfilm Collection, 1993-1996. (Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State: Microfilm Collection). Compiled by Lora Soroka. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Archives. 2000.
ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/dynaweb/ead/hoover/fond17
Provides a survey of the Hoover-Rosarkhiv microfilm collection noting the fonds in RGANI from which series of files were filmed. More detailed catalogues are in preparation, some of which are already available to researchers at the Hoover Institution.

Fond 89: Communist Party of the Soviet Union on Trial. Guide to the Microfilm Collection in the Hoover Institution Archives. Compiled by Lora Soroka. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Archives, 2001. 500 p. (Lib: DLC; MH)
RUSSIAN VERSION: Arkhivy Kremlia i Staroi ploshchadi. Dokumenty po "delu KPSS": Annotirovannyi spravochnik dokumentov, predstavlennykh v Konstitutsionnyi sud Rossiiskoi Federatsii po "delu KPSS." Compiled by I. I. Kudriavtsev. Edited by V. P. Kozlov. Novosibirsk: "Sibirskii khronograf," 1995. 325 p. [Rosarkhiv] (Lib: DLC; IU; MH) (Also listed under C-1).
EARLIER SERIAL ED.: Arkhivy Kremlia i Staroi ploshchadi. Ser. I. Spravochno-informatsionnye materialy: Spravochnik po dokumentam, predstavlennym v Konstitutsionnyi sud Rossiiskoi Federatsii po "delu KPSS." 4 issues. Moscow, 1993-1995. "Arkhivno-informatsionnyi biulleten' (Prilozhenie to Istoricheskii arkhiv)," nos. 1/2-6. (Lib: DLC; IU; MH[inc]).
An item-level inventory of the miscellaneous collection of copies of 3,615 declassified documents that were released to the Constitutional Court from files of the Presidential Archive (AP RF), the KGB, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other repositories, including RGANI (TsKhSD) itself, which now are deposited in fond 89. The Hoover Institution English-language present catalogue covers all 76 opisi in the collection. The earlier Russian-language editions cover approximately two-thirds of the documents in the collection (through opis' 52). Neither version provides archival references to the original documents, even those in TsKhSD itself. The 1995 Russian edition includes cumulative name and subject indexes from the earlier serial editions. Most of the documents themselves and the typescript opisi (perechni) are now available in a microfilm edition from ProQuest Information and Learning Company, the successor company to Chadwyck-Healey (see above); individual files and documents in some opisi were withheld from the microfilms and have still not been declassified.

Kudriavtsev, Ivan Ivanovich. "Dokumenty Sekretariata i Politbiuro TsK KPSS v TsKhSD." Otechestvennye arkhivy, 1993, no. 2, pp. 82-90. (Lib: DLC; IU; MH)
Describes and characterizes some of the declassified documents in RGANI (TsKhSD) from different fonds, including the collection of copies from the Presidential Archive and other sources resulting from the deliberations of the Constitutional Court against the CPSU (fond 89).

Microform Collections

"The Cold War and the Central Committee." Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Microfilm. "The Russian Archives."

Series 1: "Department for Relations with Foreign Communist Parties (International Department), 1953–1957." 126 reels.

Series 2: "The General Department of the Central Committee, 1953–1966." 118 reels.

Series 3: "Congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviey Union, 1955–1986." [Fond 2, opisi 1, 3, 5]. 196 reels and 701 fiche.

Series 4: "Plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU, 1941–1990." [Fond 1, opisi 2–9]. 181 reels and 656 fiche.

See more details at: http://www.gale.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?
region=9&imprint=745&titleCode=PSM9&type=3&id=173793.

"The Departmental Records of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1953-1966: USSR and the Soviet Republics." Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Microfilm, 2004. 448 reels (including Index reel). "The Russian Archives."

The collection of declassified documents from fond 5 ("Departmental Records of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union") consists of documents from different sections of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, which in the 1950s and 1960s supervised Party development work, ideology, propaganda, science, education, culture, and agriculture. See more details at: http://www.gale.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?
region=9&imprint=745&titleCode=PSM9A&type=3&id=198713.

"The Departmental Records of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1953–1966: Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic." Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Microfilm, 2004. 223 reels. "The Russian Archives."

Continued the collection of declassified documents from fond 5 (see above). See more details at: http://www.gale.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?
region=9&imprint=745&titleCode=PSM9A&type=3&id=220480.

Documentation on Foreign Relations

Otdel TsK KPSS po sviaziam s inostrannymi kompartiiami, 1953-1957: Annotirovannyi spravochnik. Compiled by E. S. Afanas'eva, V. Iu. Afiani, M. Iu. Prozumenshchikov, et al. Edited by N. G. Tomilina. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1999. 312 p. "Spravochno-informatsionnye materialy po dokumentam Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo arkhiva noveishei istorii (RGANI)." [Rosarkhiv; RGANI] (Lib: DLC; MH)
An inventory of 508 recently declassified files of the CC CPSU Division for Relations with Foreign Communist Parties, from fond 5 (Apparat TsK KPSS), opis' 28, covering primarily the years 1953-1957. The introduction explains the structure of the Division with its various sectors for different countries and international organizations and explains the types of materials encountered in the documents. Includes name and geographical indexes, and a chart indicting the chronological coverage of files for different sectors each year.

Documentation of the Division of Culture

Otdel kul'tury TsK KPSS, 1953–1966: Spravochnik: (Annotirovannye opisi). Compiled by M. Iu. Kiselev, L. I. Kireeva, N. G. Toshchakova, L. V. Charskaia. Edited by V. Iu. Afiani. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2004. 296 p. "Spravochno-informatsionnye materialy po dokumentam Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo arkhiva noveishei istorii (RGANI)." [Rosarkhiv; RGANI] (Lib: MH)

Documentation of the Division of Science

Otdel nauki TsK KPSS. 1953-1966: Spravochnik: (Annotirovannye opisi). Compiled by M. Iu. Kiselev, I. V. Kazarina, L. A. Velichanskaia, L. V. Charskaia. Edited by M. Iu. Prozumenshchikov. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2006. 400 p. "Spravochno-informatsionnye materialy po dokumentam Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo arkhiva noveishei istorii (RGANI)." [Rosarkhiv; RGANI]