ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: B 7

Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva (RGALI)

[Russian State Archive of Literature and Art]

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

Reading Room
Telephone: 159-75-13; Fax: (495) 159-74-96, 159-73-86
E-mail: zakazrgali@list.ru
Hours: MTh 9:00-20:00, TuW 9:00-17:00, F 9:00-15:00 (Summer: M-Th 9:00-17:00, F 9:00-15:00; August closed)
Head of the Reading Room: Elena Evgen'evna Chugunova (tel. 159-75-13)

Microfilm Reading Room
Address: ul. Vyborgskaia, 3, korp. 1, room 8
Telephone: 156-69-52 (only for extention of odered materials)
Hours: MTh 12:00-20:00, TuW 9:00-17:00, F 9:00-15:00 (Summer: M-Th 9:00-17:00, F 9:00-15:00; August closed)
Head of Microfilm Reading Room: Irina Alekseevna Gavrilina (tel. 156-69-52)

Previous Names

• 1954-VI.1992 - Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva SSSR (TsGALI SSSR)
  [Central State Archive of Literature and Art of the USSR]
• 1941-1954 - Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi literaturnyi arkhiv (TsGLA SSSR)
  [Central State Literary Archive]

About RGALI

As a centralized archive for documentation in the cultural sphere, RGALI was founded in 1941 under the name of TsGLA, on the basis of the collected manuscript holdings of the State Literary Museum (Goslitmuzei--GLM) and designated fonds from other museums and archives. Currently RGALI is the largest repository of institutional records and personal papers relating to the history of Russian and Soviet literature, social thought, music, theater, cinema, and the fine arts. The chronological scope of its collected documentation covers three centuries--from the eighteenth century to the present, but the main bulk of materials is from the Soviet epoch.

Holdings are divided in two general sections--the division of literature and the division of fine arts. Records of state institutions and social organizations occupy the largest and most important part of these divisions, including those of state administrative organs such as the Ministry (earlier Commissariat) of Culture and the censorship organ Glavlit among other central agencies, professional associations and unions, other non-govermental cultural organizations, scholarly and educational institutions in the realm of art, records film studios, theaters, orchestras, museums, publishing houses, newspapers, and magazines.

Approximately half of the personal papers in RGALI represent materials of literary orientation. The rest deal with other branches of art--theater, ballet, music, cinema, sculpture, architecture, and fine arts. Approximately seventy special subject- or type oriented collections of documents have been assembled from the RGALI's many miscellanseous accessions--albums, engravings, manuscripts, poetry, letters, memoirs and diaries, photographs, and folklore materials.

During the years 1988-1993 more than 100 fonds or parts of fonds in RGALI were declassified, most representing documents of institutions, organizations, and individuals in emigration or repressed during the Soviet period.

Access

All previously classified institutional fonds (such as Glavlit) and fonds of or relating to repressed or emigre writers, have now been opened for research. Access to some materials in individual personal fonds may be limited according to agreement with their creators, donors, or heirs.

N.B. During May 2004 some of the storage areas were inaccessible while undated electric wiring was underway, but by June, the renovations have been complete.

Working Conditions

Orders are limited to 10 files per day, which are normally delivered within 2-3 working days, but sometimes take up to a week.

Recent General Guides

See the new directory Kratkii mezharkhivnyi spravochnik o mestakh khraneniia dokumentov po lichnomu sostavu, Vyp. 1(2005) for personnel files of RGALI, including all of its institutional fonds, at the website "Arkhivy Rossii": http://www.rusarchives.ru/guide/lich_sostav/rgali.shtml and http://www.rusarchives.ru/guide/lich_sostav/rgali_org.shtml.

Microfilm Collections

• "Association of Workers of Revolutionary Cinematography." Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Microfilm. 14 reels. "The Russian Archives."
  See more details at: http://www.gale.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=745&titleCode=
  PSM9&type=3&id=80032.

• "MOSFILM, 1938-1945." Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Microfilm. 12 reels. "The Russian Archives."
  See more details at: http://www.gale.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=745&titleCode=
  PSM9&type=3&id=80031.

• "The Meyerhold Theatre, 1920-1938." Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Microfilm. 165 reels. "The Russian Archives."
  See more details at: http://www.gale.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=745&titleCode=
  PSM9&type=3&id=8003.

• "Jewish Theatre under Stalinism: Moscow State Jewish Theatre (GOSET)." 2005. 85 reels.
  See the description at the IDC website: http://www.idc.nl.
  This collection of archival documents from RGALI contains unique material on Jewish avant-garde art, the history of the Soviet culture and theatre, and Stalin's repressions (fond 2307, opis' 1-2 and fond 2308, opis' 1). As explained in the IDC publicity, "This material in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, English, French and other European languages not only furthers our knowledge about Yiddish theatre and Jewish culture in the Soviet Union, but also deepens and revise our understanding of the Kremlin's policy toward Jewish society and culture form 1919 till early 50's."

Sources Relating to Jews

• Eliasberg, Galina; and Veksel'man, Larisa. Obzor dokumental'nykh istochnikov po istorii evreev v fondakh Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo arkhiva literatury i iskusstva. Moscow: "Evreiskoe nasledie," 1997. [15 p.]. "Evreiskii arkhiv," vol. 8.
  ELECTRONIC VERSION: http://www.jewish-heritage.org/sea8.htm.
  Less extensive, but includes a few fonds not covered in Dok. ist. evreev (1997).

Rossica of RGALI

• Rossika RGALI. Obzor postuplenii za 1991-2002 g. Moscow: RGALI, 2002. ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION: http://www.rusarchives.ru/federal/rgali/rossika.shtml.