Previous Names

• 1941-VI.1992 - Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Voenno-Morskogo Flota SSSR (TsGAVMF SSSR)
  [Central State Archive of the Navy of the USSR]
• 1937-1941 - Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi voenno-morskoi arkhiv
  [Central State Naval Archive]
• 1934-1937 - Morskoi istoricheskii arkhiv
  [Naval History Archive]
• 1925-1934 - Leningradskoe otdelenie Tsentral'nogo istoricheskogo arkhiva Morskoi otdel
  [Leningrad Division of the Central Historical Archive Naval Division]
• 1922-1925 - Glavnyi morskoi arkhiv
  [Main Naval Archive]

About RGAVMF

The archive was established in 1724 attached to the State Admiralty Collegium for the collection and preservation of the records of the collegium, its expeditions and offices. RAVMF houses the complete records of the Russian and the Soviet Navies from the eighteenth century through 1940. These include fonds of central administrative institutions, commands of fleets and flotillas, naval educational establishments and scientific and research institutions, naval ports, shipbuilding and other navy yards, hydrographic and scientific expeditions, as well as personal papers of eminent navigators and naval commanders.

Access

All prerevolutionary fonds are now open to researchers. Although most of the documentation of the Soviet period has been declassified (through 1942), some restrictions remain.

• Mazur, Tamara Petrovna. [Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Voenno-Morskogo Flota]: Annotirovannyi reestr opisei fondov (1696-1917). Edited by M. E. Malevinskaia. St. Petersburg: "Blits," 1996. 512 p. Added title page and preface in English. [RGAVMF] (Lib: IU; MH)
  ELECTRONIC VERSION: http://www.rusarchives.ru/guide/rgavmf/index.shtml
  Provides brief annotations of 1,816 opisi for 1,260 prerevolutionary fonds from the establishment of the Russian Navy until 1917. Also available on a key-word searchable diskette (by separate purchase).

• Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Voenno-Morskogo Flota SSSR: (Dokumental'nye materialy dorevoliutsionnogo flota Rossii): Tematicheskii putevoditel'. Compiled by V. E. Nadvodskii. Edited by I. N. Solov'ev. Leningrad: TsGAVMF, 1966. 314 p.
  Microfiche ed.: Minneapolis: East View Publications, 1991.
  This guide, organized by major subjects rather than fonds, was originally issued "for service use only" (DSP), but is now accessible to researchers and available in a microfiche edition.

• Malevinskaia, Marina Evgen'evna. Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv VMF (1917-1940): Spravochnik po fondam. Edited by T. P. Mazur. 2 vols. St. Petersburg: "Blits," 1995. 416 p.; 237 p. Added English title page and preface. Vol. 2 subtitle: Spravochnik po fondam: korabli i suda (1917-1940 gg.). [RGAVMF] (Lib: DLC; IU; MH)
  An annotated, expanded, and redited version of the guide Spravochnik po fondam Sovetskogo Voenno-Morskogo Flota (1991). The first volume annotates records of the Provisional Government and Civil War period, central naval agencies, and the Baltic, Black Sea, Northern, and Pacific Fleets during the pre-World War II period, as well as personal papers. Includes a summary list of fonds by number, references to ships, and name and geographic indexes. The second volume covers records of individual ships.

• Spravochnik po fondam Sovetskogo Voenno-Morskogo Flota. Compiled by M. E. Malevinskaia and I. Iu. Efremova. 2 vols. Leningrad, 1991. vii, 547, iv p. Typescript. [Glavarkhiv; TsGAVMF] (Lib: DLC)
  Microfiche ed.: Minneapolis: East View Publications, 1991.
  Indexes include list by fond numbers, personal names (pp. 471-74), ships (pp. 475-85), place names (pp. 450-70), and subjects (key word) (pp. 404-49).

• Rossiiskii flot (1720-1917): Bibliografiia spravochnykh izdanii Morskogo vedomstva/The Russian Navy (1720-1917): Bibliographical Reference Book of Publications of the Department of the Navy. Compiled by N. G. Sergeeva. Edited by T. S. Fedorova. St. Petersburg: "Blits," 1995. 154 p. [RGAVMF] (Lib: DLC; IU; MH)
  ELECTRONIC VERSION: http://www.rusarchives.ru/guide/flot/index.shtml
  A comprehensive bibliography of prerevolutionary publications of naval agencies held in the RGAVMF library. Includes all prerevolutionary published finding aids, documentary publications, and other reference publications covering archival holdings. An appendix lists published glossaries. Subject, name, and geographic indexes.