St Petersburg,
February 2007
Exclusive Access to Finding Aids
At this time all
files have been moved to the new building. Their repacking and shelving is
going on now. In general, researchers do not have access to the work with
these files, however BLITZ has exclusive access to finding-aids (catalogues,
inventories). The authorities affirm that the
Russian State Historic Archive will be reopened in the Autumn 2007.)
Update on the Russian State Historic Archives, RIGA. March 2006
RIGA is moving as quickly as possible to the new building.
This building was originally constructed to be a bank, but the bank
refused to be housed in it, because of cracks, which had started to appear
on the walls. It was then decided to seal up the cracks and adapt this
building for the Archive. New blocks for depositories were added very fast,
and the construction was finished this past summer. There was no safety
inspection before the archive was given the clear to begin moving in. This
building is located in a distant new-buildings district of the city, on
marsh land. A varnish-painting factory and several other enterprises, which
are not secure for the Archive, are nearby.
The files are being placed in special "compactuses" installed on rail cars.
The compactuses are containers with many rows of shelves. There is not much
breathing room in these containers. The archivists wonder if the rail cars
might become warped because of settling the building on the marsh land. In
such a case, the tightly packed files may become impossible to extract. The
doors of the depositories have been shifting due to the settling land and
need to be fasten with special wedges in case they start to warp. In
addition, since there was no expert inspection undertaken, no one has made
sure that the ceilings may hold the weight of the tremendous load of files.
So, many archivists fear future working in the depositories.
The files are being placed in special "compactuses" installed on rail cars.
The compactuses are containers with many rows of shelves. There is not much
breathing room in these containers. The archivists wonder if the rail cars
might become warped because of settling the building on the marsh land. In
such a case, the tightly packed files may become impossible to extract. The
doors of the depositories have been shifting due to the settling land and
need to be fasten with special wedges in case they start to warp. In
addition, since there was no expert inspection undertaken, no one has made
sure that the ceilings may hold the weight of the tremendous load of files.
So, many archivists fear future working in the depositories.
The move is going by several cars each day, but the number of cars will be
increased because of a shortened term of moving requested by the
authorities. Officially, the Supreme Court are to move to the buildings of
Senate and Synod from Moscow after the Archive has completely moved. The
Court just will discuss this at its meeting in the near future. We will see
if the President Administration will reconsider the decision to move the
Archive out of its building in order for the administration to use the
buildings. The mass media opposes this move because it cares about the
environment of the national property (the Archive).
St. Petersburg, March
2005
St. Petersburg,
May 2005
"Russian
State Historic Archive (RIGA) - Blitz has special access to files after
closure"
Due to fortunate circumstances and many years of working in the Russian
State Historic Archives, Blitz has been able to maintain access to files
thru internal channels. We are grateful for this opportunity and
welcome research inquiries for this archive.
St. Petersburg, March
2005
Work in the Russian State Historic
Archive will continue for some time:
As we have been informing our clients as well as those visiting our
website, the Russian State Historic Archive has been officially closed since
April 4 because of moving to other buildings. The new building is not yet
ready and storage of files has not been started. Due to our many years of
working with this archive, BLITZ has a possibility to work with documents
through
our various contacts at the archive. The terms of such a possibility is not
known exactly but we are hoping for at least several more months up to the
real move. In addition, there are many other sources convenient for
different searches, such as other Archives and Libraries. BLITZ continues
its activity as we have been and is ready to discuss the possibility of each
specific search with clients and those interested in taking on a search.
Please feel free to contact us with your inquiries.
St. Petersburg, March
2005
UPDATE ON
RUSSIAN STATE HISTORIC ARCHIVE CLOSURE ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
By Elena Tsvetkova
and Kristin Nute of Blitz Information Center (enute@igc.org)
The Russian State
Historic Archive in St. Petersburg, which holds over 7 million files, will
be closing this April because it is being moved to another building. At
this time the length of closure is unknown.
This archive has
only been open to the public since the early 1990’s. Its closure will be a
loss for private as well as commercial researchers.
At a special
meeting at the archive on Monday, February 21, 2005 Russian Archive Minister
V. Kozlov told the staff that the closure would take effect on April 4,
2005. It was previously thought that the Utilization Department could
continue to work after the closure. However, it now appears that this
department will be broken up and some of the employees will be let go.
It was reported
that the archive will start to move files once the new building is
definitely ready and the temperature-humidity system is stable. When
Minister Kozlov stated that there was already a plan to reopen the archive
next year there was a loud guffaw from the archivists attending the meeting.
Everyone hopes that
the files will be quickly and efficiently packed and moved so that access
will be restored soon after the move. However, with the much reduced
archive staff and 7 million files to move it is a big unknown as to how this
process will play out.
Many people have
petitioned the Russian Supreme Court against this move. All petitions were
denied. Sergey Kovalev, Deputy of the St. Petersburg Council, resent
several of these petitions to the International Court. There has not been
an answer yet.
Blitz will continue
to monitor this situation and will be working with the archive authorities
and with the archivists to find ways to minimize the disruptions to research
in this precious archive. For further information please contact us at
enute@igc.org or _______________.
St. Petersburg, 27 Jan 2005
UPDATE ON CLOSURE OF THE
RUSSIAN STATE
HISTORIC ARCHIVES
It has been officially announced that the Russian State Historic
Archives will be closed sometime in April.
This archive has been a valuable source of information. We are very saddened to see this closure
take place.
Blitz will continue to be resourceful and offer suggestions for
client research. Smaller libraries and
archives will also continue to provide important materials for research.
Please contact Blitz with any questions regarding
this closure.
St. Petersburg, 18 March 2004
RUSSIAN STATE
HISTORIC ARCHIVE TO CLOSE
The Russian State Historic Archive (RIGA) located in St. Petersburg is planning to close in
order to move to another building. This is the largest Russian Archive and
houses about 7 millions files with documents pertaining to the entire Russian
Empire, since Peter the Great's time up to the year
1918.
The current building of the Archive was the Ruling Senate and the Holy Synod
prior the Revolution. At this time it is being returned to the
Government. The Presidential Administration is going to occupy these two
buildings as well as the Laval
house where the Archive administration and the reading room are currently located
for purposes which have not been declared to the public.
The history of this problem is as follows:
According to a governmental decision on December 17, 2002, the buildings of
the former Senate and the Synod were passed to the Presidential
Administration as well as several other buildings located in St. Isaac
square. According to the decision of the Ministry of Economics Development,
of February 12-13, the Archive was required to select one of four buildings
to house a temporary depository and to begin moving inventory to the new
buildings as soon as possible.
The following buildings
were considered:
The former Leningrad
Party Archive;
The Russian State Navy
Archive on Serebristy boulevard;
The
Military School
of Communication;
A hospital.
Of course, the idea of
temporary storage of such a large and precious Archive provoked many public
actions of protest, publications and appearances. This decision was revoked
but then it was decided that RGIA will be moved to another building which
should be constructed especially for this purpose.
The competition of projects was not arranged. Since the President Administration
needs these buildings very urgently, it was decided to use a building already
under construction for a bank.
However, the bank refused this building because of cracks, which had
started to appear on the walls. It was then decided to adapt this building
for the Archive and to continue construction. The building remodel is going
quite fast - day and night, and it is almost completed. This building is
located in a distant, new district of the city, constructed on marsh land. A
varnish-painting factory and several other enterprises are nearby. This is not a secure location for an
Archive. There are also other
considerations. One is the relocation
of about 7
million files in an extreme hurry using unsecured transportation. The
question from a cultural standpoint, is that these documents, so precious not
only for Russia
but the entire world, should not be subject to such a serious risk. The
Russian
Archive authorities and
the Director of RGIA who were formerly against this, rather unexpectedly,
changed their opinion. Now they claim that it is very good for the
Archive because the older buildings had not been repaired for a long time. However,
according to the opinion of an UNESCO Commission, there is a unique
microclimate in RGIA, which is very favorable for the preservation of papers.
Of course repair is necessary, but there could be a possibility of
reconstructing this Archive using the inner court and a neighboring building
of a former printing house for temporary depositories. It would be possible
to undertake this work step by step.
At this time it is very difficult to publish an article or show a program on this
subject in the mass media. It is as a
restricted area for the media. To attract attention to this problem many
people have applied to the Supreme Court with statements and claims against
the decision to move the Archive to another building in such a way. The Court
refuses to examine these claims. As
many new statements of claim are submitted to the court, there are as many
refusals to examine previous claims and nothing changes.
At the same time, the new Prime Minister started activity with Ukaz from March 4 concerning transferring the buildings
housing the Archive to Federal property. So, we (in a global sense) are on
the threshold of the loss of this Archive for many years. Irreversible losses
are inevitable under such conditions. We are at a loss as to what person or
institution may be able to influence this situation.
3/18/04 Written by Elena Tsvetkova in the
Blitz Information
Center,
St. Petersburg office. Please contact Blitz for more information
about this situation or if you would like to send a letter. Blitz is also encouraging clients and
potential clients to consider research in these archives sooner than later
because of the changing situation.
Contact: Blitz, Information
Center:
Kristin
Nute, USA Coordinator.
San Rafael, California.
enute@igc.org
Elena Tsvetkova,
St. Petersburg,
Russia
blitz@peterlink.ru
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